Posted on 03/19/2024 4:54:47 AM PDT by bert
The UAW said that auto assembly workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant will hold a vote on unionization
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced Monday that workers at Volkswagen's assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will hold a unionization vote after the UAW secured historic contracts for workers at Detroit's Big Three automakers last year.
The UAW said a supermajority of eligible Volkswagen workers signed union cards to call for the election at the Chattanooga plant. The facility is Volkswagen's only assembly plant in the U.S. and employs about 4,100 workers who make the Atlas and ID.4. The union added that it "is the only Volkswagen plant globally with no form of employee representation."
The pending unionization vote comes after UAW President Shawn Fain vowed that the union would "pull out all the stops" to organize workers at non-union automakers like Volkswagen, Tesla, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and others in the wake of securing record-setting contracts for UAW workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis.
Buoyed by that success, Fain launched a first-of-its-kind campaign to organize the entire non-union auto assembly sector in the U.S. at 13 automakers after previous efforts by the UAW to organize non-union automakers in recent years have failed, including at VW's Chattanooga plant.
In 2019, VW workers at the plant rejected union representation in an 833-776 vote. Previous votes to organize Nissan auto plants in Mississippi and Tennessee also failed by wide margins.
Ticker Security Last Change Change % VWAGY VOLKSWAGEN AG 14.725 +0.36 +2.54%
Volkswagen told FOX Business in a statement, "We respect our workers' right to a democratic process and to determine who should represent their interests. We will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision."
"The election timeline will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our working environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best paying jobs in the area," Volkswagen's statement continued.
Volkswagen said in November that it would raise the pay of its factory workers in Tennessee by 11%, joining several other foreign automakers that announced significant pay and compensation improvements following the UAW's contract with the Big Three automakers.
Ticker Security Last Change Change % F FORD MOTOR CO. 12.18 +0.12 +1.00% GM GENERAL MOTORS CO. 40.84 +0.14 +0.36% STLA STELLANTIS NV 28.48 -0.02 -0.07% TM TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. 238.66 +4.04 +1.72% TSLA TESLA INC. 173.88 +10.31 +6.31% It remains to be seen whether those pay and benefit hikes will be enough to fend off the UAW's unionization push at non-union automakers.
The union said earlier this month that over 30% of workers at a Toyota factory in Missouri are seeking to join the union and last month indicated that a majority of hourly workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama have signed union authorization cards.
So, Ford uses the UAW to kill of the VW competition.
And, in a waning Big Labor Biden administration the UAW is feeling it's rotten oats.
TN is a Right to Work State. However, workers can still vote ‘union’ and the company can’t stop them. Vote was close before.
I don’t like the VW corporation as I bought a 2010 TDI, the only vehicle I bought new. They cheated. They lied. The cost me time and money. The vehicle was designed so that only the dealer could do any maintenance. Their costs were extraordinary. Later, I talked to one of their former service writers and he told me, “We were under orders to never let a customer leave without paying one thousand dollars. So, obviously, you have to throw in some unneeded repairs if their car is new.” The car had a few thousand miles on it, and they told me the rear brakes were excessively worn and needed replacement. I bought a set of brake pads, and the old ones were only worn the thickness of a few sheets of paper. I was smoking angry.
As much as I don’t like the UAW nobody deserves them more than VW.
That’s what wrong with this country; too much manufacturing. We need to concentrate more on entertainment/sports, and government/NFP spending. Good step in the right direction.
lol
“so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy”
Yeah, I would think that would be kind of important (if you didn’t want to experience an “accident”).
Ford’s just as bad. Took the F150 in for an oil change, they “discovered” $1600 worth of work including a wheel alignment. Odd thing...the truck had brand new Pirellis and less than a month on a wheel alignment from Firestone. The Ford “free 49-point checkup” disclosed zero wear on the tires...and no written proof the wheels were out of alignment. The Ford tech said “we just assumed you needed alignment because we had no record of you having that done here”.
With Biden killing gasoline powered vehicles by regulations, VW could just close this plant a little early.
Volkswagen management welcomes unionization because it would give Volkswagen more control of Washington regulations, ie the ability to regulate Volkswagen’s competition out of existence.
The return of that sucking sound. Al, robotics Mexico China. The UAW got their big contracts and paved the way.
VW will just expand production at its Mexico plants, and eventually close its US plant.
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