A union election planned for later this week at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant is expected to be delayed due to a hearing over whether the 164 maintenance workers slated to vote are too small of a unit.
Attorneys for VW and the United Auto Workers argued today at a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Chattanooga that will continue into Wednesday.
VW lawyer Arthur Carter said that maintenance workers, who fix plant equipment, are part of production and shouldn't be carved out as a separate unit at the plant.
"A better term is manufacturing employees," he said.
But UAW attorney Michael Schoenfeld said NLRB law holds that maintenance workers are "an appropriate unit."
"It's a distinct group," he said.
The dispute arose Monday when VW said that it favors a full vote by all maintenance and production employees at the plant, which would push the number of potential voters to more than 1,400.
But, the UAW in February 2014 lost a vote of blue-collar workers at the plant by a margin of 712 to 626. Last month, the UAW asked the NLRB to approve another election so it could represent the maintenance, or skilled trades, employees for collective bargaining purposes.
See more in Wednesday's Times Free Press.