SPRING HILL, TN—Around 1,000 workers at Ultium Cells’ battery assembly plant here joined the United Auto Workers in September after a majority signed union cards.

The unionization comes more than two months after UAW members at the battery supplier’s factory in Lordstown, OH, ratified a new contract, which included wage increases of 30 percent over the next three years. 

A joint venture between General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution, Ultium Cells makes batteries for electric vehicles. The company did not interfere with employees’ effort to organize in Spring Hill, the UAW says, and has agreed to recognize the union.

The Ultium contract won in Lordstown sets a “powerful precedent” for Spring Hill and other battery manufacturing facilities, including Ford Motor Co.’s BlueOval plants in Kentucky and Tennessee, the UAW said. 

Additionally, the union touted its growing foothold in the South, citing its historic win at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, factory in April.

“The UAW members at Ultium and VW are proving that the new jobs of the South will be union jobs,” said Tim Smith, director of UAW’s Region 8. “In the battery plants and EV factories springing up from Georgia to Kentucky to Texas, workers know they deserve the same strong pay and benefits our members have won.”