Factory workers perform diagnostics on a Passat before it is taken through a dyanometer in the assembly section of the Chattanooga Volkswagen Plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.The National Right to Work Foundation is seeking an official inquiry into the National Labor Relations Board’s conduct in handling complaints filed last year by several Chattanooga Volkswagen plant employees related to the United Auto Workers organizing campaign.
Foundation attorneys said Wednesday they have asked the NLRB’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s conduct during its processing of the workers’ unfair labor practice charges against the UAW and VW.
The foundation cited what it said was the highly unusual release of documents about the NLRB investigation to news outlets, including the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
An NLRB probe found that the UAW and VW did not violate U.S. labor law during the union’s organizing efforts at the automaker’s Chattanooga plant last year, and it recommended the cases be dismissed.
Last week, NLRB staff in Washington, D.C., released two “advice memorandums” to members of the media in Chattanooga and Knoxville but not to the workers’ foundation staff attorneys, according to the group.