Five Volkswagen assembly workers in Tennessee won a federal OK to oppose the United Auto Workers’ challenge of a vote against organizing their plant.
The anti-union employees can defend last month's 712-626 vote at a National Labor Relations Board hearing, that regulatory agency says, Bryce G. Hoffman writes in The Detroit News.
The UAW . . . [is] arguing that workers at the VW plant were unduly influenced by “extraordinary interference” from conservative politicians and other “outside” forces.
That prompted the five workers, who had opposed UAW representation and are represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, to file a motion of their own with the NLRB seeking the right to defend the results of the vote. , , ,
The UAW did not respond to requests for comment.
The union had hoped last month’s vote in Chattanooga would provide a much-needed win in its ongoing, and so-far unsuccessful, effort to organize foreign-owned auto plants in the South.
A statement by the Virginia-based foundation explains why it backs the Tennessee workers:
"Based on Volkswagen management's actions leading up to this point, these workers are concerned that VW will not actively defend their vote to remain free from union boss control."
Earlier at Deadline Detroit:
Longshot Do-Over Try: UAW Fights To Overturn VW Factory Vote It Lost, Feb. 22
