A U.S. Supreme Court action this week in a labor case involving Macy’s department store workers should persuade Volkswagen to drop its legal challenges to the United Auto Workers’ representation of skilled-trades workers at German automaker’s lone U.S. plant in Tennessee, union officials said Thursday.
Volkswagen is appealing National Labor Relations Board decisions that paved the way for a vote among about 160 skilled-trades workers at the plant to be represented by the UAW. The union won that election on a 108-44 vote , the UAW’s first victory at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South.
But the company has refused to bargain with the UAW while it argues in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that union representation decisions should only be made by the entire hourly workforce. Macy’s made much the same arguments in its unsuccessful appeal involving a similar labor arrangement for fragrance and cosmetics sales staffers at a Macy’s department store. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to not wade into this issue reinforces that these bargaining units are appropriate,” UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel said in a statement. “We renew our call for Volks- wagen to drop its frivolous appeal and meet employees at the bargaining table in Chattanooga.”
Volkswagen declined to comment.