Workers at GM-LG Battery Plant in Ohio Vote to Unionize

For the UAW, securing the right to represent the Ohio factory’s workforce, which is expected to grow to 1,300 people, positions the union to expand its membership further as auto makers prepare to open more than a dozen U.S. battery plants in coming years, labor analysts say.

Car companies collectively are investing tens of billions of dollars to build cell factories that they plan to jointly own and operate with battery manufacturers, potentially creating more than 20,000 new U.S. jobs, mostly across the South and Midwest.

The auto industry’s race to produce more electric vehicles eventually could lead to a loss of jobs within its existing factory workforce, because EVs require fewer parts and less labor to assemble than cars with internal-combustion engines, analysts say. That threat magnifies the importance of the UAW’s efforts to secure a foothold at the future battery plants, said Marick Masters, a professor of business and labor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

“This is really not an option to organize these facilities for the UAW if they want to remain a powerful bargaining entity in the industry,” he said.

The UAW has represented GM’s U.S. factory workers for decades. Because the Ultium joint venture is a separate entity, its workers aren’t included under GM’s broader labor contract with the UAW, which is scheduled to be renegotiated next year.

The UAW now will bargain on behalf of the Ultium workers in Ohio over wages, benefits, work schedules and other issues. Today, wages at the plant range from $15 to $22 per hour, which is less than the roughly $30 per hour that many UAW members make at factories owned by GM,

Ford Motor Co.

and Chrysler owner

Stellantis

NV, the three car makers with UAW-represented factory workforces.

The outcome of the Ohio vote could influence what happens at three other planned GM-LG factories as well as several more plants planned by battery companies partnered with Ford and Stellantis.

UAW President

Ray Curry

has repeatedly said that organizing the joint-venture battery plants is a top goal of the union and is critical to securing its future.

The GM-LG joint venture is developing another battery plant in Tennessee, set to open in late 2023, and a third in Michigan, scheduled to come online about a year later. The combined investment in the three factories is roughly $7 billion, with expected employment of more than 4,000 workers.

A Ford joint venture with Korea’s

SK Innovation Co.

is spending more than $11 billion to build two cell factories in Kentucky and a third in Tennessee along with an EV assembly plant. The facilities are slated to come online by 2025 and employ nearly 11,000 workers.

Stellantis and

Samsung SDI Co.

are investing $2.5 billion in an Indiana cell factory that is expected to employ 1,400 people, slated to open in 2025.  

Over the past decade, the UAW has faltered in efforts to organize plants run by foreign auto makers. Workers at a

Volkswagen AG

plant in Tennessee have twice rejected the union’s efforts to represent blue-collar employees. Similar attempts at

Nissan Motor Co.

also failed. The union hasn’t mounted significant campaigns at EV makers

Tesla Inc.

and

Rivian Automotive Inc.,

whose workforces remain nonunion.

The UAW is undergoing dramatic change itself after its first direct election last month, which replaced its traditional election by union delegates. Several reform candidates won, while a number of key races will go to a January runoff, including that for president after Mr. Curry failed to secure more than 50% of the vote.

The election is the first since a federal investigation sent several former union leaders to prison. The bribery scandal was first made public in 2017 and led to the installation of a federal monitor to oversee the union’s ethical practices.

Write to Nora Eckert at nora.eckert@wsj.com and Mike Colias at mike.colias@wsj.com