UAW seeks new vote at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant

An employee at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga works on a Passat sedan. An employee at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga works on a Passat sedan.

By Mike Pare October 24, 2015 5 min read

Employees at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant work on a Passat sedan.

The United Auto Workers on Friday sought a new election at Chattanooga’s Volkswagen assembly plant, but this time for a smaller unit of employees than in early 2014.

A filing with the National Labor Relations Board says that UAW Local 42 will seek an election on Nov. 5 and 6. The election will involve only the 164 full- and part-time maintenance, or skilled trades, employees at the plant.

Planned UAW vote

If approved by the National Labor Relations Board, VW’s 164 maintenance workers will vote Nov. 5 and 6 at the plant’s conference center to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes.

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Mike Cantrell, president of Local 42, said a key objective for the union has been moving toward collective bargaining for the purpose of reaching a multi-year contract between VW and its Chattanooga employees.

“We support our colleagues in the skilled trades as they move toward formal recognition of their unit,” he said in a statement.