UAW Local 737

Seventy years of union power in Nashville — born at the Ford glass plant in 1956, today an amalgamated local representing workers at Carlex Glass, Carlite, Voith, and Fisk University.

Led by President Dineen Brown

region8.uaw.org 6207 Centennial Blvd., Nashville, TN 37209

1956

Founded — the year the plant opened

70+

Self-directed work groups negotiated

70 yrs

Of continuous union glass in Nashville

Region 8

UAW's Southern region

The Glass That Built Nashville

In July 1955, Ford announced a $10 million glass plant on Centennial Boulevard in Nashville's Cockrill Bend. When the plant became fully operational in 1956, its workers organized as UAW Local 737 — the Nashville Glass Local — and they have made the automotive glass shipping to assembly plants across the country ever since.

The plant's ownership has changed four times — Ford spun its parts operations into Visteon in 2000, the glass business passed to Zeledyne in 2008, and it became Carlex Glass of America in 2011 — but the union never left. Machine operators, pipefitters, welders, and skilled trades members of Local 737 have carried the contract through every owner.

Local 737 runs deep in UAW Region 8 history: Gary Casteel, who rose to Region 8 Director and UAW Secretary-Treasurer, started as a pipefitter-welder at this plant and served on Local 737 bargaining teams through the 1990s. And today the local is part of a growing UAW wave across Tennessee following the historic Volkswagen Chattanooga victory.

The Local That Let Workers Run the Work

What makes 737 a national model.

70+ Self-Directed Work Groups

Under then-President Benny Overton, Local 737 negotiated to hand day-to-day operational decisions to empowered teams of the workers themselves.

Democracy Past the Plant Gate

Scheduling, quality, and workflow decisions made by the people who do the work — inside a union contract that protects them.

Workers Who See the Whole Fight

When members run the work, they understand what it takes to fight the company — the meetings, the documentation, the long haul. Education in action.

The Bridge to Ownership

The work-group model became President Overton's blueprint for the co-op movement: if workers can run the work, workers can own the business.

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UAW Local 737

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Kevin Bradshaw