VW Asks for Fast Vote on UAW Ties
Auto Maker's Request Represents Dramatic Turn for Union Effort at Chattanooga Factory
By NEAL E. BOUDETTE
Feb. 3, 2014 1:21 p.m. ET
Volkswagen AG is going to allow employees at its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant to vote later this month on whether to unionize under an agreement it worked out with the United Auto Workers union.
In an unusual move, the auto maker petitioned the U.S. National Labor Relations Board to conduct the vote. Balloting will take place between Feb. 12 and Feb. 14. The NLRB oversees private-sector labor elections and union decertifications.
If workers vote to accept the UAW in Chattanooga, it would be a dramatic turn for the U.S. South, which has long resisted organized labor and has used its antiunion stance to attract several foreign-owned auto makers.
Several auto makers, including Nissan Motor Co. and Daimler AG 's Mercedes-Benz, have for years resisted organizing efforts by the UAW at U.S. auto plants and parts factories. The companies typically bar the UAW from campaigning inside their plants, and push for longer campaigning periods to give antiunion workers and groups more time to rally opposition.
VW, which opened the $1 billion Chattanooga plant in 2011, has for months been in talks with the UAW aimed at establishing some kind of formal representation at the 3,200-worker facility.
The move to hold an election is already raising tensions within Volkswagen Group of America. At least some executives at its U.S. headquarters in Herndon, Va., were unaware the vote was being arranged, and disagree with the move to cooperate with the UAW, people familiar with the matter said.
Under its agreement with the UAW, Volkswagen is allowing union organizers to campaign inside the plant, a step rarely taken by car makers when targeted for UAW organizing drives.
Plant-wide meetings at which UAW representatives can speak to VW employees will begin as soon as Tuesday, said Gary Casteel, a UAW official in charge of the union's activities in southern states.
The UAW has received help in its talks with Volkswagen from the powerful IG Metall union in Germany. IG Metall, which has representatives on the supervisory boards of Volkswagen, BMW AG , and Daimler, fears German auto makers will shift production to their nonunion plants in the U.S. at the expense of in Germany. Mercedes-Benz just did that recently, moving most of its production of it top-selling C-Class cars to a plant in Vance, Ala.
A group of workers opposed to the UAW asked in a letter to the plant's chief executive to be able to campaign inside the plant but its request was denied on Monday, said Maury Nicely, a labor lawyer who works with an antiunion group, which calls itself Southern Momentum.
"We're looking into whether this is legal, one of the leaders of the group, VW employee Mike Burton, said. "This is the shortest campaigning period we've ever heard of."
Mr. Burton's group on Friday began handing out leaflets explaining its view to employees as they left the plant. Last year, it collected signatures from more than 600 of the plant's hourly workers on petitions opposing UAW representation, he has said.
"It's going to be very vitriolic," said one U.S. VW executive who didn't want to be named speaking about the matter.
Volkswagen declined to comment.
Mr. Casteel said the UAW opposes letting antiunion workers campaign inside the plant. "The company has no obligation to give them access," he said, speaking Monday while driving to Chattanooga. Since UAW representation has been in discussion ever since the plant opened, workers "don't need a long time to make up their minds," Mr. Casteel added.
Volkswagen's path and the UAW's organizing campaign at the plant have drawn strong opposition from Tennessee politicians and business groups. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has said state officials fear car and parts makers would avoid new investment in the state if the UAW succeeds in organizing the Chattanooga factory.
Volkswagen's management in Germany chose to work with the UAW because the company is determined to set up a European-style "works council" at the plant that gives hourly and salaried workers a voice in the factory's rules, schedules and other workplace matters. But under U.S. labor law, it is only possible to have a works council under U.S. labor law if employees are represented by a union.
All but three Volkswagen plants around the world have works councils. Chattanooga and two plants in China don't.
In September, the UAW said it had collected signed union cards from more than half of the plant's 2,000 production workers and had held talks with the company's top management in Germany about becoming the official representative of the plant's assembly workers.The decision to conduct a union vote in Chattanooga comes at a time when VW's top management is considering using the plant to build a new sport-utility vehicle. That would increase production at the facility, which is on track to make about 150,000 cars this year, short of the full capacity level of about 250,000.
Last month, NLRB's office of general counsel rejected a complaint filed by a handful of VW workers that accused the United Auto Workers union of pressuring employees to sign the union cards and claimed the UAW had misrepresenting the meaning of signing the cards.
In the past, the UAW has had little success organizing Southern car plants. The union has managed to unionize some southern factories that make auto parts.
It has suffered setbacks, too. Last July, the UAW said a majority of workers at a parts plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala., had signed cards supporting the union. A majority later rejected the UAW in a secret-ballot vote, however, That vote came after a campaigning period of about six weeks when antiunion workers and groups worked to drum up "no" votes.
"Volkswagen Group of America and the UAW have agreed to this common path for the election," said Frank Fischer, chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga, in the statement. "That means employees can decide on representation in a secret ballot election, independently conducted by the NLRB. Volkswagen is committed to neutrality and calls upon all third parties to honor the principle of neutrality."
"Employees have the right to decide, by voting in a secret ballot election, on a matter that concerns their own interests," said Sebastian Patta, a VW vice president in Chattanooga. "Volkswagen respects this democratic right at all locations world-wide."
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