The Detroit News is reporting that UAW officials and VW executives have talked about the unionization of over 1900 employees at the new VW Passat facility in Chattanooga, TN. Volkswagen’s 100K German workforce is already unionized and the UAW has invested heavily in building a global network of union activists and agitators standing by to pressure foreign automakers on their home turf. VW also previously operated a unionized plant in New Stanton, PA that closed due to poor sales. Although the union claims it has been “approached” by “several” VW workers it has also made clear there is no “formal organizing campaign” underway at VW. In other words, the union is attempting to broker a neutrality deal with the automaker before even gauging support for unionization within the targeted workforce. As is typical, the union claims only “worker intimidation” explains the chilly reception organizers received this summer in house visits to Toyota and Hyundai workers in the South. However the VW story illustrates that the worker support is irrelevant to a union determined to “leverage” its way into a vulnerable employer’s worksite. Tennessee Senator Bob Corker has reportedly told VW representatives that a union in the Chattanooga plant would be “highly detrimental.” Corker claims that his dealings with the UAW during the bailout of Chrysler and General Motors he found the UAW puts the success of the automakers “way, way, way, way” behind the needs of the union, adding “I just can’t imagine any company of their own accord being desirous of entering into a relationship with UAW.”
