Volkswagen reverses course on union at Chattanooga plant


              FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013, file photo, the Volkswagen logo is seen on the grill of a Volkswagen on display in Pittsburgh.  A person briefed on the matter said Wednesday, April 20, 2016, that Volkswagen has reached an agreement with the U.S. government to spend just over $1 billion to compensate owners of diesel-powered cars that cheat on emissions tests. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013, file photo, the Volkswagen logo is seen on the grill of a Volkswagen on display in Pittsburgh. A person briefed on the matter said Wednesday, April 20, 2016, that Volkswagen has reached an agreement with the U.S. government to spend just over $1 billion to compensate owners of diesel-powered cars that cheat on emissions tests. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
photo U. S. Senator Bob Corker meets with members of the Chattanooga Time Free Press editorial board Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
photo UAW secretary-treasurer Gary Casteel addresses Times Free Press staff in an editorial board meeting at the paper on Friday, Aug. 29, 2014 in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Maura Friedman/Times Free Press)

Just two years ago, Volkswagen was actively supporting the United Auto Workers in its push to organize the company's plant in Chattanooga.

But in September, the German automaker was plunged into turmoil over revelations that it had equipped almost 600,000 diesel cars sold in the United States with software to cheat on tailpipe emissions tests.

Since then, a large portion of Volkswagen's senior management has changed - and so has its approach to the union drive. Now, rather than cooperating with the UAW, Volkswagen is trying to block the union.

The change signals a retreat from Volkswagen's previous efforts to replicate in Chattanooga, a German model of labor relations, in which workers have a strong voice influencing factory operations.

The latest clash came last week when Volkswagen announced that it would go to federal court to appeal a recent victory by the UAW. Late last year, a majority of the Chattanooga plant's 160 maintenance workers voted to accept representation by the union.

The rest of the plant's 1,500 workers have not yet gone that far, but this month the National Labor Relations Board said Volkswagen must begin bargaining with the UAW on behalf of the maintenance workers, who tend to the plant's machinery and robots.

The company objects because it wants all of its hourly employees, including the production-line workers, to decide whether to accept the UAW.

"Volkswagen respects the right of all of our employees to decide the question of union representation," the automaker said in a statement. It added that it would continue efforts "to allow everyone to vote as one group on the matter."

In response to Volkswagen's plans to appeal, the UAW accused the automaker of flouting U.S. law.

Last week, the NLRB filed unfair labor practice charges against VW and UAW Secretary-Treasury Gary Casteel called VW's appeal the labor board ruling "a stall tactic that won't work.

"At a time when Volkswagen already has run afoul of the federal and state governments in the emissions-cheating scandal, we're disappointed that the company now is choosing to thumb its nose at the federal government over U.S. labor law," said Casteel, who headed the UAW organizing efforts in Chattanooga.

The linking of Volkswagen's dealings with the union to the highly embarrassing and potentially costly diesel emissions matter reflects the bitterness that now exists between the union and the employer it once viewed as a partner, said Maury Nicely, a Chattanooga lawyer who represents a group of Volkswagen workers who oppose the UAW.

"Clearly the gloves have come off," Nicely said.

In 2013, Volkswagen surprised many in U.S. corporate circles when it began aiding the UAW in its efforts to organize the plant - a stark contrast to the bitter fights at other nonunionized auto plants in the South.

To the ire of political leaders who opposed the union, the company allowed German labor representatives to campaign for the UAW inside the factory, signed a cooperation agreement with the U.S. union and chose not to object to a bid to have workers vote on representation - measures rarely seen in American industry.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the former Chattanooga mayor who helped recruit VW to Chattanooga, said at the time that Volkswagen would become a "laughingstock" if it carried through with a deal to have the United Auto Workers represent workers at its Chattanooga plant.

VW's approach then was part of a bid to re-create an important element of German labor-management relations - a works council, which is a committee of employees who negotiate factory policies with managers.

Under U.S. law, a company can have a works council only if its workers are represented by a union.

"No question, Volkswagen was supporting the UAW for that," said Gary Klotz, a labor lawyer at the Detroit office of Butzel Long.

The Chattanooga plant started producing the Passat sedan in 2011 and was seen as a key element of a bid to greatly increase sales in the U.S. market. Volkswagen is now expanding the factory to make a mid-size sport utility vehicle alongside the Passat. The SUV is expected to start rolling off the assembly line by December.

When a plantwide vote took place in February 2014, the union lost by a 712-626 vote. The union continued its effort, though, and set up a branch, Local 42, in Chattanooga to carry on the cause. It focused on winning representation of maintenance workers, among whom it had clear support.

But then came the emissions scandal in September. The chief executive at the time, Martin Winterkorn, resigned. He was replaced by Matthias Mueller, who has replaced about a dozen top executives.

By October, the UAW was planning to have Chattanooga maintenance workers vote on representation, but the company opposed the move. In December maintenance workers voted, 108-48, for the union.

Richard Hurd. a labor relations professor at Cornell University, said Volkswagen's hardball tactics on the UAW vote come as a surprise because of the strong union role on the company board in Germany, where worker representatives control half the seats.

"The union in Germany does not want the company in the United States to take a hostile position toward the UAW," Hurd said. "Maybe this is just Volkswagen trying to keep conservative politicians in the South happy."

Associated Press also contributed to this report

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