Workers inspect a top coat of paint on a Passat in the paint shop at the Chattanooga Volkswagen manufacturing plant in July 2013.View our Volkswagen/UAW special page with timeline, slideshow, local and national coverage and opinions
Three Volkswagen workers today voluntarily withdrew their federal lawsuit challenging what they said was “a backroom deal” between the United Auto Workers and Volkswagen to bring about a union shop at the Chattanooga plant.
The National Right to Work Foundation, which represented the workers, said the withdrawal was prompted by VW and UAW attorneys’ concessions in legal papers that the union cannot seek another election until sometime next year.
Mark Mix, the Foundation’s president, said the workers and the group successfully defended the result of the February vote, in which the UAW lost an organizing vote at the Chattanooga plant by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin
“Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to provide free legal assistance to VW workers if VW and the UAW enter into another organizing deal or if UAW bosses resort to unlawful tactics at the plant again,” Mix said in a statement.