Labor groups jockeying for Chattanooga VW plant workers

People are still trying to make a lot of trouble. We don't want that for Chattanooga and VW."

The head of the United Auto Workers local in Chattanooga says it wants Volkswagen to recognize the union by checking its membership cards rather than holding another employee election.

At the same time, a rival labor group has offered the German carmaker a concept for setting up a works council, which VW has at nearly all its major plants worldwide.

A year after federal regulators certified a worker election at the plant, which the UAW lost, both it and the American Council of Employees are still signing up new members and pushing to win over hearts and minds.

The Chattanooga Volkswagen plant between Tyner and Ooltewah is shown.

UAW Local 42 President Mike Cantrell, left, speaks to fellow Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga in this file photo.

Sean Moss, a 20-year resident of Chattanooga and Volkswagen employee, voices his opposition to the UAW at a meeting held at the Hampton Inn and Suites on Hamilton Place Blvd.

However, neither group is charging membership dues. Operations are financed with money from outside the plant.

Mike Cantrell, president of UAW Local 42, said it has more than 50 percent of the blue-collar workers as members and would like VW to recognize it by counting the sign-up cards.

"We hope VW will accept the cards," he said, and for the automaker to start bargaining with the UAW over issues such as pay and benefits.

Cantrell said the UAW doesn't want another election. Last year, the UAW charged that outside interference by Republican politicians, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., tainted the vote's result. The union lost by 712 to 626 votes.

"People are still trying to make a lot of trouble," Cantrell said. "We don't want that for Chattanooga and VW."

Haslam said last December that he wants all major labor decisions at the plant to be made through secret-ballot vote.

ACE President Sean Moss said it's continuing to sign up new members and, just last week, offered top plant officials a sketch for establishing a works council, a labor board that VW officials have said for years they want at the factory.

Moss termed it "a concept with broad strokes. It's a starting point. I think we've done our homework."

He said VW officials were "happy to see something in concrete. They seemed very receptive to it. We said 'We've got to take the lead.'"

Moss noted that a works council at an American auto plant has never been crafted.

"It's a process," he said. "It's new to everybody."

Works councils, which can include both blue- and white-collar employees, deal with working conditions inside the plant and not with issues such as pay and benefits.

Both UAW and ACE representatives are meeting regularly with Volkswagen officials. Each group qualified for the meetings and other rights at the plant after reaching membership levels specified in a new labor policy VW factory officials instituted late last year.

Called the Community Organization Engagement policy, it triggered certain rights depending on group membership.

Scott Wilson, the plant's head of communications, said Monday that officials won't discuss topics that may be discussed with the UAW or ACE.

"The policy has been an effective way to maintain dialog with each of the groups, and we intend to continue with the COE policy at this time," he said.

Cantrell said the VW global works council group and IG Metall, the huge European union that represents much of the automaker's workforce, wants the UAW as the representative in Chattanooga.

Earlier, the global group, UAW and IG Metall approved an agreement for Chattanooga to be a "UAW-represented facility." Cantrell this year traveled to Germany and met with works council representatives from VW facilities across the globe.

"A lot of people showed up with '42' shirts," he said. "They want Chattanooga to be on board."

The UAW membership hit at least 45 percent of the blue-collar workers under the plant policy, giving it the chance to meet bi-weekly with the factory's executive committee, for example.

ACE later qualified with at least 15 percent of the blue-collar workers, also gaining that number of white-collar employees. It gained some, but not all, of the rights under the policy.

Moss said that when ACE comes up again for recertification of its membership, something done every six months, he expects it will have reached the 30 percent level.

He said he doesn't want ACE to be a group that just talks.

"We're not stumping," Moss said, adding that ACE is focusing its message. "We're trying to build something."

While ACE continues to organize, he questioned some spending tactics by the UAW to attract employees, saying the union recently took some workers to a hockey match and is spending money on T-shirts, water bottles and color newsletters.

ACE, Moss said, has generated financial support "from the community," though he wouldn't identify any sources.

"They're wanting to support the Chattanooga community," he said. "They've asked to remain anonymous."

Cantrell said Local 42 has had support from other UAW locals, saying the union has regional offices that help the Chattanooga group.

He said the Nashville Predators hockey match drew about 400 people from different locals within an entire UAW region that includes a number of states.

After the plant election in February 2014, the UAW appealed the outcome to the National Labor Relations Board and complained about the alleged political interference.

But the UAW a year ago dropped the appeal, saying a time-consuming legal battle would hurt the Chattanooga plant's efforts to nab a big plant expansion to build a new sport utility vehicle. The National Labor Relations Board then certified the election results.

Last summer, the UAW opened Local 42, a non-dues-paying unit, to move ahead with its organizing efforts at the VW plant.

ACE later formed, calling itself an alternative to the Detroit-based union.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.