The United Auto Workers has been saying for months it has signed up well over 50 percent of Volkswagen's hourly production employees, but where is the proof?
Some months ago, the UAW presented signatures from 45 percent of VW workers, but that to date is the only verifiable threshold the union has. It also claims its Local 42 has a membership of 816 employees, but that number means nothing in the context of total hourly employees at the plant.
The union says it wants VW to recognize it as the representative of plant employees based only on what it says and on cards signed months ago. Some of those signatories, it has been reported, do not now wish to be represented by the union.
The UAW has steadfastly said it does not want another union certification election but to be recognized by the automobile manufacturer anyway.
The union famously lost a 712-626 election it felt sure it would win in February 2014. It claimed interference from local and state politicians, who merely gave their opinion that a union would not be a good thing for Chattanooga and the plant.
Why would union officials be afraid of another election if they have signed 55 percent of blue collar workers, as they say they have? The transparency would speak so much louder than bluster.
It is possible the UAW fears the fact VW has said it will continue talking with representatives of both the union and of the American Council of Employees (ACE), which has garnered a verified 15 percent of the workers in order to meet the company's Community Organization Engagement policy.
It also may be that the works council model ACE has presented, which would provide co-determination for the employees and would guarantee access to both hourly and salaried employees, is an idea in which VW sees merit.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel told the Times Free Press, not surprisingly, that "we do want to be the exclusive bargaining agent at some point." In other words, it's his belief a works council -- in which workers and managers discuss and negotiate work rules and processes at the plant -- should have no collaboration but be in the hands of one entity.
Clearly, influential officials at Volkswagen's headquarters in Germany also want the union to represent workers, but many Volkswagen Chattanooga employees, in addition to local and state officials, understand the long-range problems of strikes, work stoppages, mandatory dues and unwanted political donations that come with unions.
Although U.S. labor law calls for union representation as a necessary precondition of a works council, a truly co-determined plan -- that may have to pass muster with the U.S Department of Labor -- would be more ideal for all workers at VW.