By now you’ve likely heard that, after a year of working the system, the Auto Workers finally made their way into the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee as the official representative of 162 maintenance workers. Volkswagen plans to appeal this decision to the NLRB because they believe that this carve out group shared a compelling community of interest with the balance of the plant’s 1400 employees. According to the company:
“We believe that a union of only maintenance employees fractures our workforce and does not take into account the overwhelming community of interest shared between our maintenance and production employees.”
The American Council of Employees, who share the UAW’s interest in organizing the plant, support Volkswagen’s appeal saying that the avenue the UAW took would serve to “subdivide maintenance workers with no concern for how this might negatively impact employees’ long-term interest.” For further insight from LRI’s Phil Wilson, check out this Times Free Press article where Phil addresses the question: “What does the UAW vote mean for VW and auto manufacturing across the country?”
