CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee, April 19 (Reuters) - Workers at

Volkswagen's Tennessee plant have voted to join the

United Auto Workers, the union said on Friday, calling victory

after an unofficial tally showed a majority of eligible workers

had cast ballots in favor of the union.

The seismic win, if confirmed, will make the Chattanooga

factory the first auto plant in the South to unionize via

election since the 1940s and the first foreign-owned auto plant

in the South to do so.

The union made the call after some 2,200 ballots were

counted in favor of unionizing. The plant has about 4,300

eligible voters.

The victory is a huge shot in the arm for UAW President

Shawn Fain's campaign to unionize plants owned by more than a

dozen automakers across the U.S., including Tesla. Fain

and his team have committed to spending $40 million through 2026

on the effort.

Although the UAW narrowly lost votes at the same plant in

2014 and 2019, this year's vote was preceded by surging public

support for unions and successful contract negotiations last

year with the Big Three automakers.

VW took a neutral position on the vote at its only non-union

factory globally. The UAW has previously represented VW workers

at a Pennsylvania plant that built Rabbit cars before it closed

in 1988.

For decades, the union has struck out at southern auto

plants. In addition to the two narrow losses at VW previously,

it sustained three more significant misses at southern factories

owned by Nissan ( NSANF ), the last in 2017 in Mississippi.

The broader labor movement has since gone through somewhat

of a renaissance, with a record number of workers across various

industries going on strike last year.

Last autumn U.S. President Joe Biden walked picket lines

outside Detroit, where the union scored double-digit percentage

raises as well as cost-of-living increases from General Motors ( GM )

, Ford Motor ( F ) and Stellantis ( STLA ). That sparked

a wave of hikes by non-union automakers that some analysts said

were designed to keep out unions.

A Mercedes plant in Alabama, at which a majority

of workers have signed cards indicating they support

unionization, will be the next facility to hold a UAW election,

during the week of May 13.

The UAW has also said that more than 30% of employees at a

Hyundai plant in Alabama and at a Missouri Toyota

auto parts factory have signed cards indicating they

want to join the UAW.