Bob Corker fighting UAW subpoenas in Chattanooga VW vote

photo U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker today joined others in challenging United Auto Workers subpoenas for a planned hearing next week over the union's appeal of a February employee vote at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant.

"Everyone understands that after a clear defeat, the UAW is trying to create a sideshow, so we have filed a motion to revoke these baseless subpoenas," said Todd Womack, Corker's chief of staff, in a statement. "Neither Sen. Corker nor his staff will attend the hearing on Monday."

The UAW had cited the Tennessee Republican's statement during the election that should workers reject the UAW, he had assurances VW would bring a second vehicle assembly line to Chattanooga.

Matt Patterson, who heads the anti-UAW Center for Worker Freedom, also said today that his group intends to file a petition to revoke the subpoenas with the National Labor Relations Board.

He said that Grover Norquist of the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, of which the center is a part, also intends to seek to revoke the UAW subpoena.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, who also was subpoenaed, said the governor didn't expect to be in Chattanooga for the hearing.

Bob King, the UAW's president, has said the NLRB's rules call for the use of subpoenas "as part of the truth-seeking exercise."

The UAW issued subpoenas for two dozen people, including top Republican political leaders in the state as well as for a variety of documents and communications.

The union has appealed the vote in which they lost a bid to organize the VW plant's workforce, citing interference by third-party groups and politicians. The appeal cited a "coordinated and widely publicized coercive campaign" by politicians and special interest groups to deprive VW workers of their right to join a union.

See more in Thursday's Times Free Press.

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