This week, 164 maintenance workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga facility are voting on whether to have a union. However, unlike other American elections or union elections overseas, there will be only one option on the ballot: the UAW. The American Council of Employees, an independent employee association formed by anti-UAW employees, decided not to try to get on the ballot. Many say that the union failed to obtain support since it was seen as a company union backed by the support of anti-union lawyer Maury Nicely.
However, such elections with one union on the ballot are the norm, not the outlier in American union elections. Under Article 20 of the AFL-CIO constitution, the AFL-CIO is able to set jurisdiction rules that determine in what industries certain unions are allowed to organize and prevent a union from “raiding” another union’s jurisdiction. Instead, union leaders meet frequently in private to “carve up turf” for one particular union to be allowed to organize. Rarely are rank-and-file workers doing the organizing allowed into the room when AFL-CIO unions decide to carve up turf.
If one union attempts to unionize in another’s jurisdiction, the aggrieved union with jurisdiction can file legal charges, preventing a rival union from holding an election even if the majority of workers in the plant would prefer a different union. Some in organized labor defend the “no raid agreement,” saying that the agreements prevent unnecessary turf wars between unions and focus labor’s limited resources. Others say that it denies workers democracy in their workplace.
When union efforts began at the Volkswagen plant, Lon Gravett, who served on the founding organizing committee, said that VW workers attempted to shop around for a union that could represent them. However, Gravett says they were quickly informed by other unions that the UAW was the only union that had the jurisdiction to organize the autoworkers.
“The ‘no raid agreement,’ in a business setting, would be called an antitrust violation or a monopoly,” says anti-union consultant Rick Berman, who is pushing for federal legislation that would make them illegal.
It’s not just union busters who want to see “no raid agreements” outlawed. Some union leaders do as well.
“It’s all about money and personal power of individual labor leaders and has nothing to do with what’s good for workers,” says Sal Rosselli, president of the 11,000-member National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).
The NUHW was formed in 2009 by disgruntled SEIU members, who accused SEIU of engaging in secretive bargaining with employers without the consent of its members. The workers decided to form their own independent breakaway union because they feared SEIU leadership was forcing the union to accept unnecessary concessions from profitable hospitals.
In March, a majority of the 870 SEIU members at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., signed a petition calling for an NLRB election so they could change their union affiliation. SEIU immediately filed legal charges with the NLRB claiming that its “no raid agreement” with the AFL-CIO prevented NUHW, which is not a member of the AFL-CIO but receives funding from AFL-CIO unions, from holding the election. After months of legal challenges, NUHW was eventually forced to withdraw its petition
In Chattanooga, many rank-and-file autoworkers also have claimed that UAW’s “play nice” approach has prevented the union from gaining broader support in the plant. Workers complain that while the UAW Local 42 has established an office in Chattanooga, there is no system of shop stewards inside the plant making sure the company follows the employee handbook. Even pro-UAW supporters say UAW leadership has not been eager to raise workplace complaints in monthly meetings with VW management.
Gravett, who no longer works at the Chattanooga plant, finds himself wishing that another independent union, perhaps an independent Southern Auto Workers Union, was on the ballot to at the very least hold the UAW accountable for representing its members.
“Unions are supposed to work for workers,” he said. “But if workers can’t choose what union they want, how can workers ensure that they have a union that truly represents them?”
Mike Elk is a labor reporter, labor organizer and a member of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.