Workers at a Toyota factory in Missouri are publicly campaigning to join the United Auto Workers.

The UAW announced Wednesday that more than 30% of workers at a plant that makes cylinder heads for Toyota engines in Troy, Mo., had signed union authorization cards.

What You Need To Know

  • 30% of workers at a Toyota factory in Missouri have signed union authorization cards, the UAW said Wednesday

  • The factory in Troy, Mo., makes cylinder heads for Toyota engines

  • It is the fourth non-union auto plant to join a growing movement of autoworkers seeking to replicate the UAW's record contracts with the Big Three Detroit automakers

  • Workers at Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Hyundai plants have also launched public campaigns to join the UAW

“Seeing the new contracts with the Big Three, that’s when I realized we needed a union,” Toyota worker Charles Lashley said in a video announcement about the unionization milestone. “It was incredible that UAW members could bargain for those benefits and that pay. I don’t see why we should be paid differently.”

Another worker at the Toyota plant in Missouri, Jessica Clay, said they do not have paid sick time, while others raised safety issues and called attention to wages that are below what UAW members with the Big Three are paid.

The Toyota factory is the fourth non-union plant to join a growing movement of autoworkers who are attempting to replicate the record contracts the UAW won from the Big Three Detroit automakers last year, including 25% wage bumps. Following those contract negotiations, Toyota increased factory worker pay 9%.

“Toyota has no way to verify or determine the accuracy of the statements made by the UAW,” a Toyota spokesperson told Spectrum News. “We do not believe a third party at our manufacturing facilities would enhance the results, stability or team member experience that we have achieved together. We are confident that with all of the facts, our team members would not choose union representation.”

The UAW announcement comes less than two weeks after a majority of workers at the largest Mercedes-Benz factory in the U.S. in Vance, Ala., announced they had signed cards to join the union.

In early February, more than 10,000 workers at a non-union Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., signed union cards indicating they plan to join the autoworkers union. Workers at a Hyundai factory in Montgomery, Ala., are also organizing, the UAW said.