Volkswagen in the USA
The US auto union UAW must remain outside in Volkswagen’s only US plant,
Dusseldorf, New YorkAfter a second attempt, the union failed again. The Chattanooga plant in Tennessee remains the only one VolkswagenFactory without trade union representation.
In the night of Saturday, the company had the result the three-day voting round announced: They voted 833 to 776 votes against the proposal to be represented by the UAW at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, US site. The turnout was 93 percent.
Unlike in Germany There is no works council in American factories. Instead, the unions take over the right of representation for employees and negotiate agreements with individual companies. But there must be the agreement of the employees that a union may actually move into a group.
Especially in the south of the United States This is by no means self-evident, many companies are there completely union-free. At VW in Chattanooga, the workforce had previously rejected in a first round of voting five years ago the representation by the UAW.
As in 2014, the election has once again been a political issue. At that time, the union had objected to the vote, as political lobby groups had created a threat and negatively influenced the election.
Republican politicians had claimed that if the UAW invaded VW in Chattanooga, investment remained and the production of new models was at risk, For years, the union had pushed for another vote, according to the UAW, VW had tried to prevent this by legal means.
Upset in Wolfsburg
The conflict over union representation rights in the USA spills out into the corporate headquarters in Wolfsburg, where it causes a stir between the company and the works council. Volkswagen had repeatedly stated in the run-up to the vote that the Group was acting neutrally. German trade union representatives disagreed with this claim that there had indeed been an election influence by the company.
Group Works Council Chairman Bernd Osterloh reacted disappointed on Saturday morning. “The election in Chattanooga took place under extremely unpleasant circumstances that do not fit in with Volkswagen and our globally active co-determination culture,” Osterloh said in a first reaction.
Interested parties had specifically made a mood against the UAW. They would have intimidated the workforce “with horror stories and fueled fears” that Volkswagen could reduce its investment if the union moves in at the Chattanooga plant.
Osterloh also attacked the factory management in the USA. “Management simply could not handle keeping Chattanooga with the necessary neutrality for a fair election. The fact that our election observer Johan Järvklo, as the responsible Secretary General, was not even allowed to set foot in the work shows only the tip of the iceberg, “he emphasized. The works council will now calmly analyze “the shortcomings” and draw conclusions from them. “Today is a bad day for the Volkswagen family and their culture.”
Järvklo had been turned away during a visit to the factory gates in Chattanooga in the middle of the week. A company spokesman said after the incident of a misunderstanding, which was later clarified.
In the run-up to the vote, the IG metal to speak, also with the charge that VW had interfered. “Volkswagen has committed itself to neutral behavior in the run-up to the election in accordance with American labor law. But: According to our information, this has often been undermined in the past. For example, anti-union leaflets were distributed in the factory, and supervisors ask that management give them a chance to solve the problems without the union, “complained Jörg Hofmann, chairman of the board IG metal and member of the VW supervisory board.
The south of the US is particularly anti-union. Especially from politics there would be signals that a trade union is not necessary. Bill Lee, Tennessee’s Republican governor, had warned VW employees at a plant visit last month to refrain from union representation.
The words from Chattanooga are different. “Our employees have spoken,” said Frank Fischer, president of VW Chattanooga, after the election. The company will continue to work closely with the state of Tennessee, the region and the city to create new jobs and drive economic development.
New damper for UAW
For the US auto workers’ union UAW, the outcome of the vote is a major blow to its efforts to gain a foothold in the southern United States. Last time she was in 2017 in one NissanMississippi failed to build union representation.
In the new car factories, which have been opened in the southern states over the last 15 years mainly by foreign car manufacturers, the union is not represented at all. Time and again, it has failed to achieve similar powers of representation as in Detroit, the classic automotive location of the United States.
In a first reaction, the UAW called for US labor law to be changed. “Otherwise it will be almost impossible for the VW employees to even build a trade union representation,” said the UAW.
The VW plant would have been the first plant of a foreign automaker in the southern United States, in which the UAW had arrived. A total of ten foreign manufacturers built factories there, attracted by low wages and few unionized employees. Also Daimler and BMW have built large factories there.
The UAW is struggling with a loss of membership throughout the United States. In the past year alone, the union lost about eight percent of its members. Recently, individual representatives of the union were involved in corruption scandals Fiat-Chrysler which gave the union a reputation loss.
In Chattanooga had been discussed in advance about the possible consequences of entry of the union. Former Mayor Ron Littlefield recalled that in the past companies had been deterred when unions were more present.
Bill Dycus, president of the AFL-CIO in Tennessee, said that the UAW and General Motors (GM) in Tennessee worked together to “preserve a factory.” This plant is one of GM’s best in the country today.
More: At the end of June VW wants to go public with Traton. This step serves as an example for the new way. Now the group announced further details of the IPO.
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