UAW election
Voting dates and times:› Today: 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.› Friday: 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.› Location: VW plant conference center
UAW timeline
* May 2013 – Volkswagen AG’s board member in charge of human resources says the automaker is in talks with the UAW about setting up a works council at the company’s Chattanooga plant.* February 2014 – UAW loses vote of blue-collar workers at Chattanooga plant despite pre-election agreement with VW.* July 2014 – UAW forms non-dues-paying Local 42 in Chattanooga to continue to organize VW workers.* November 2014 – VW in Chattanooga unveils community engagement policy that sets guidelines for interactions with labor organizations. UAW and American Council of Employees both meet thresholds to enter talks with company.* October 2015 – UAW petitions National Labor Relations Board for election to represent 164 maintenance workers at the VW plant.* December 2015 – VW seeks to overturn the decision to approve the election for the smaller unit, though the vote moves ahead.
Skilled trades workers at Volkswagen will start casting ballots early today in the second United Auto Workers election at the Chattanooga assembly plant in 22 months.
This time, however, the unit the UAW is trying to organize has shrunk from nearly 1,500 hourly employees, which included production workers, to just the 164 employees who keep up and fix the plant’s sophisticated equipment.
Richard Hurd, a Cornell University professor of labor relations, said the effort to gain a foothold in the VW plant with a so-called micro-unit is a new UAW strategy though not necessarily novel to unions.