{"id":135386,"date":"2019-04-11T17:01:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=135386"},"modified":"2019-04-11T17:01:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:01:07","slug":"uaw-secures-third-vote-at-vws-chattanooga-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2019\/04\/uaw-secures-third-vote-at-vws-chattanooga-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"UAW Secures Third Vote at VW’s Chattanooga Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UAW has secured its third election in five years at VW's Chattanooga plant to unionize the plant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It what seems to be almost a yearly occurrence, workers as Volkswagen AG\u2019s plant in in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have filed a petition for a union vote at the plant.<\/p>\n

A call for a vote has happened three times in five years at the facility and the UAW does represent some skilled trades at the plant. UAW Local 42 President Steven Cochran told the\u00a0Chattanooga Times Free Press\u00a0<\/a>the election petition was filed Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board due to \u201cpressure from the workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Plant News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The petition revealed at least 30% of 1,709 employees that make up the proposed election unit have turned in cards for representation. It asks for an election on April 29 and 30. Volkswagen plant officials say they \u201cremain neutral on this topic,\u201d and that the petition is being reviewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are Chattanooga workers treated differently?\u201d Cochran said in a statement. \u201cWhy are we in Chattanooga not treated like other VW employees around the world? Why in Chattanooga do we have to make suggestions, not sit down and bargain like every other VW plant?\u201d<\/p>\n

(Volkswagen building electric vehicles at Chattanooga plant. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The UAW took its first stab at organizing the plant in 2014, losing a close and highly contentious vote, 712-626. Then-UAW President Bob King claimed the process was interfered with by outside forces, particularly Tennessee Republican politicians.<\/p>\n

“To lose by such a close margin is very, very difficult,” King said at the time. “We’re also outraged by the outside interference in this election.”<\/p>\n

It was one of several attempts to organize Southeastern U.S. auto plants that have failed, most recently the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, voted against UAW representation, despite a full-court press by the UAW.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for more about VW\u2019s 10-year plan to comeback.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now the UAW is facing perhaps an even more difficult problem to overcome: corruption. The ongoing UAW-FCA training fund scandal has seen several union leaders charged with crimes that are essentially seen as taking money away from the union\u2019s rank-and-file.<\/p>\n

The result has been some angry responses from those members as national union leaders scramble to make changes to the oversight of funds and try to convince membership their actions will have the desired effect.<\/p>\n

So far, the local leadership has focused its push on what other automotive employees have that they don\u2019t: an organization designated to represent their interests while steering away from the ongoing run of negative publicity.<\/p>\n

(VW\u2019s Keogh confirms plans for new U.S. plant for electric vehicle.\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about politicians. It\u2019s not about outsiders. It\u2019s about Chattanooga workers,\u201d Cochran added. \u201cWe deserve the same rights as Spring Hill workers and every other VW worker in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the third time in the last five years, the UAW has secured a vote at Volkswagen AG’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The union already represents some skilled trades at the site, it’s now looking to add the rest of the plant. How will the recent corruption case in Detroit impact its ability to draw “yes” votes? Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":71542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,13],"tags":[],"make":[113],"post-state":[],"category_old":[302,150,123,131,299,310,132,311,125,139,148,128,288,304,141,232],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135386"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=135386"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=135386"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=135386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}