A worker cleans a Volkswagen logo.A Volkswagen employee trying to stop the United Auto Workers from gaining a foothold at the company's Chattanooga assembly plant said today he turned over to management anti-union petitions with the names of 563 hourly workers.
"There are no duplicates," said plant worker Mike Burton. "I made sure it was a scrubbed list. They're now in the hands of management."
The "no2uaw" website says that all the signatures are dated from Sept. 9th through Oct. 4th. Most petitions were submitted during the last 6 work days at evening shift change.
Burton said the petitions will continue to be collected from team members. He said 21 more were garnered on Friday.
Last month, the UAW said it had collected a majority of the names of production and skilled maintenance workers on cards it has handed out seeking authorization to represent the employees.
Since that time, the UAW has said it wants VW to recognize the union using card check, rather than a secret-ballot vote. VW plant officials have said the company has entered into talks with the UAW to check the possibility of implementing a works council labor board at the plant.
See more in Saturday's Times Free Press.