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Take Three: Unionization Effort at Tennessee Volkswagen Plant


Stop me if you have heard this before:  A Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee attempts to unionize, despite mounting pressure not to do so.  Sound familiar?  Well it turns out there is another attempt to unionize that same Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga...the third petition seeking to unionize over the past five years.  As a bit of background, in 2014, the United Auto Workers ("UAW") lost an election by a margin of 712 to 626 votes.  In 2015, the UAW won an election among a smaller unit of maintenance workers by a margin of 108 to 44.  However, Volkswagen appealed that election and has continued to refuse to bargain with this micro-union, claiming the entire group of production and other workers should have been included in the vote.  That matter is currently before the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB").

Last week, workers at the plant again filed another union election petition with the NLRB seeking to have the UAW represent them.  According to the petition, approximately 30% of the 1,709 production, skilled trades and other workers at the plant indicate they want to be unionized.  The petition requests an election on April 29th and 30th.  I do not need to tell readers that this is a very, very short time frame before the requested election.  This does not give Volkswagen much time to mount opposition to the unionization effort, should it actually occur later this month.

The UAW has lauded this petition as proof that the plant's workers want to be unionized.  As well, some workers have been vocal of their intention to achieve unionization with this petition, pointing out that if Volkswagen said it would bargain if production and maintenance workers voted, this third petition would put the matter to rest.

Something tells me this will become even more of a hot button issue over the next few weeks.  The next thing to look out for will be whether the union election actually occurs later this month, something that I would expect the NLRB to decide upon soon.



For an update from the NLRB filings:  https://www.nlrb.gov/case/10-RC-239234

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