The United Auto Workers Local 42 in Chattanooga on Monday filed charges against Volkswagen, claiming the automaker refuses to enter into collective bargaining with the unit that earlier this month voted to be represented by the union.
The charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board claimed Volkswagen Group of America is violating the National Labor Relations Act by not bargaining with skilled-trades employees at the company's Chattanooga facility.
Gary Casteel, the UAW's secretary-treasurer and director of its Transnational Department, said VW is "not only doing a disservice to its employees but now is thumbing its nose at the federal government as well."
He said the NLRB determined Volkswagen's skilled-trades employees constitute an appropriate collective bargaining unit, then supervised a fair election and promptly certified the results.
"Following this month's election, we were hopeful that the company would accept the results and recommit to the principles of social responsibility that made Volkswagen a respected global brand," Casteel said in a statement. "Instead, Volkswagen has refused to come to the bargaining table in violation of federal law."
The union said the NLRB describes collective bargaining as an effort between an employer and employees to "bargain in good faith about wages, hours, vacation time, insurance, safety practices and other subjects."
The Dec. 3-4 vote by the workers for the union was 108 to 44 in favor of the UAW. That was 71 percent of the 152 maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant who voted.
The results of the election were certified by the NLRB on Dec. 14. VW has two weeks from that date to file an appeal, which it indicated it planned to do. VW said it wanted all the plant's blue-collar workers to vote.
"We believe that a union of only maintenance employees fractures our workforce and does not take into account the overwhelming community of interest shared between our maintenance and production employees," VW plant spokesman Scott Wilson said after the election.
In February 2014, the UAW lost a vote of the larger unit by a margin of 712 to 626.
But the UAW in its filing with the NLRB said that on Monday VW though it agents "refused to recognize and bargain with the Charging Party, following the Charging Party's certification as a NLRA Section 9(a) representative and the Charging Party's request to bargain."
Casteel said VW's skilled trades employees "voted overwhelmingly to designate UAW Local 42 as their representative for the purposes of entering into collective bargaining, which is a very common practice between employees and employers."
Bill Ozier, an attorney with the Nashville law firm Bass, Berry & Sims who has represented employers in labor issues for more than 40 years, in a recent interview called it unlikely that the national labor panel controlled by Democrats will overturn the creation of the skilled-trades bargaining unit at Volkswagen.
Ozier said the only way to get the case to the courts would be to refuse to bargain with the UAW. That would draw an unfair labor practices complaint from the NLRB, which could then be challenged in federal appeals court.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.