Workers assemble Volkswagen Passat sedans at the German automaker’s plant in Chattanooga.Volkswagen and the United Auto Workers may be closing in on a potential election at the carmaker’s Chattanooga plant, and observers said the stakes are high for not just the workforce but the union and other employers in the South.
Dr. John Raudabaugh, who teaches labor law at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Fla., said how such an election is conducted will strike at the heart of American democracy.
“It will be interesting to see if VW steps up and allows equal access” to workers by union and anti-union parties, he said.
Cornell University professor Dr. Lowell Turner, who directs The Workers Institute, said that such an election and the possibility of the set up of a German-style works council is “a chance to experiment with a new form of labor management cooperation in America.
“Given the economic problems in this country, it’s exciting that we could experiment with that in Chattanooga,” Turner said.