[NEWS] VW’s Tennessee workers vote against union representation – Loganspace AI

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Reuters) – Workers at Volkswagen AG’s assembly plant within the train of Tennessee narrowly voted in opposition to union illustration, dealing a new blow to the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) efforts to unionize a foreign automaker’s plant within the U.S. South.

The German automaker and the UAW talked about on Friday that workers on the Chattanooga plant voted 833 to 776 in opposition to union illustration, the 2d time in 5 years they accept as true with got rejected collective bargaining.

“Our workers accept as true with spoken,” Frank Fischer, president of Volkswagen Chattanooga, talked about in an announcement. “Pending certification of the outcomes… Volkswagen will respect the choice of the majority.”

Speaking to journalists in Chattanooga, UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg claimed that Volkswagen had engaged in “threats” and “intimidation” that had affected the tip outcomes of the vote.

“The firm kept taking part in tons of games and we’re no longer going to abandon the workers who supported a union,” he talked about.

Rothenberg talked about it used to be too early to repeat whether or no longer the UAW would enchantment the election outcomes, or whether or no longer the union would reinforce one other vote on the plant.

The brand new defeat comes at a pivotal time for the UAW, which has been struggling to transfer beyond a federal corruption probe and faces contentious contract talks this year with Standard Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Cars NV.

The loss moreover raises renewed questions about whether or no longer the UAW can place a toehold within the U.S. South and build of living up workers at a foreign automaker.

The union’s membership peaked at 1.5 million in 1979 and despite positive aspects this decade, it fell to below 400,000 closing year.

The UAW narrowly failed to prepare VW’s Chattanooga plant in 2014. The vote this week used to be nearer than the one 5 years ago, which used to be 712 in opposition to to 626 for unionization.

In 2017, workers at a Nissan Motor Co Ltd plant in Canton, Mississippi, voted almost two to one in opposition to union illustration.

Earlier than the vote, well-known Republican elected officials in Tennessee, collectively with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, had argued publicly in opposition to unionization on the Chattanooga plant.

Harley Shaiken, a labor expert on the College of California-Berkeley, talked about with out “heavy political tension” from those officials, the union would possibly maybe well moreover perchance accept as true with won.

“The UAW will entirely accept as true with to do away with a stare upon all over again in Chattanooga,” Shaiken talked about. “The vote used to be too shut no longer to.”