Attorneys for five Chattanooga Volkswagen workers today opposed the United Auto Workers request to delay an April 21 National Labor Relations Board hearing on the appeal of VW's union vote, saying the UAW is using "false evidence."
"That the UAW resorted to filing a false declaration that could be so easily disproved to attempt to show the existence of a grand and secret conspiracy being waged against it smacks of the desperation and paranoia increasingly gripping the union," said attorneys for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation.
Foundation attorneys filed a brief with the NLRB after the UAW earlier asked the federal agency to reverse a ruling allowing the workers to intervene in the union's challenge to the outcome of the recent unionization election at the Chattanooga plant. The UAW lost a union recognition vote by 712 to 626.
Earlier this week, the UAW said that leaked state of Tennessee documents showed what the union indicated was collusion among third-party groups and state Republican politicians to interfere with the plant vote.
One document showed that the state last year offered $300 million in incentives to VW to attract a new vehicle line to Chattanooga. The offer sheet said the incentives were contingent on VW discussions about setting up a works council at the plant being concluded to the "satisfaction" of the state.
Gov. Bill Haslam, however, said the incentives were never tied to an outcome of the UAW vote, and that the package was not used as leverage against plant workers.
See more in Friday's Times Free Press.