United Auto Workers files complaint vs. Volkswagen for refusing to bargain with its skilled trade workers

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is filing a complaint against Volkswagen for refusing to bargain with skilled trade workers at Volkswagen AG's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee who won the vote to join the UAW earlier this month.

According to CNBC, UAW's Local 42 filed charges against the German automaker at the National Labor Relations Board stating that on Monday a Volkswagen representative refused to bargain or recognise the union.

The UAW union recently won its first organizing vote at a  foreign-owned auto assembly plant in the South of U.S. for the first time after decades of failed attempts.

Of the 152 skilled trade workers, the vote was 108-44, or 71 percent in favor of the union in a two-day election that was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.

Out of the 1,450 hourly employees at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, the skilled trades workers who maintain the assembly machinery are only about 11 percent. However, Reuters noted that the observers said that recent victory was siginificant for the union which could serve as a precedent for their campaigns to organize other workers in foreign-owned factories in the South.

Dennis Cuneo who was an executive in automotive company and who has dealt with the UAW in the past said that "it gives the UAW a significant new tool in trying to organize the foreign automakers in the south. Symbolically, it's going to be huge."

Gary Casteel, the UAW secretary-treasurer and lead in the organizing efforts of the union, however, doesn't see the victory as of much significance in their organizing campaign efforts in the South.

"To the overall grand plan of the UAW it's probably not monumental, but to those workers, it's a big deal," said Casteel in an interview.  

But UAW regional director Ray Curry see the development differently, who, according to Chatanooga's Times Free Press, said that the win is "a historic moment for Chattanooga and the UAW in the South." Curry added that the Volkswagen workers who voted for the union have "a great message. They've got a great story. Tonight, they've got a victory." 

Karl Brauer, senior director of insights at Kelley Blue Book termed the UAW win "a pretty big deal."

Volkswagen is opposed to creating a bargaining unit on behalf of the group of factory workers assigned in repairing and maintaining machinery and robots at their Chattanooga plant. In addition, the smaller bargaining unit at the plant does not go with the company's "one team" approach.

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United Auto Workers, Volkswagen, volkswagen skilled trade workers

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