UAW says it’s changing tactics to organize Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant

Signs from the UAW’s unsuccessful campaign in Chattanooga.

The United Auto Workers is re-thinking its tactics to organize workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant and at other foreign carmakers’ factories, but an anti-union group said the UAW hasn’t given employees a compelling reason to join.

“That’s why, even with VW’s assistance, they still lost the vote even after reportedly spending $5 million on the Chattanooga organizing drive,” said Patrick Semmens, a National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation vice president.

VW workers voted in February by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin against aligning with the UAW. The newly elected secretary-treasurer for the union told Reuters this week the union is changing its strategy to organize VW and other auto workers.

Gary Casteel, who led unionizing efforts at the Chattanooga plant, said the union will continue to have active organizing efforts at VW and at Daimler’s Mercedes plant in Alabama and a Nissan factory in Mississippi.