But on Friday, hourly workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, defied the long-standing barriers by voting overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers union (UAW). Late that night, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reported that 73 percent of the 3,600 workers at the manufacturing plant participated in the election and voted to join the UAW; this was out of a total of 84 percent of eligible workers who cast ballots. Reuters reports that the Volkswagen plant is the first in the South to unionize through an election since the 1940s.