CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Volkswagen labor officials in Germany renewed calls on Sunday for the company’s three-year-old plant here to establish a German-style works council even though its workers voted days earlier against unionizing. þþ“The outcome of the vote, however, does not change our goal of setting up a works council in Chattanooga,” Gunnar Kilian, secretary general of Volkswagen’s global works council, said in a statement.þþWhen the vote results were announced on Friday, officials said that workers at the factory voted 712 to 626 against joining the United Automobile Workers even though VW did not oppose unionization and seemed, in some ways, to give tacit approval for unionization as a step toward establishing a works council at the plant. A works council is a committee, common at German factories, in which white-collar and blue-collar workers elect representatives who establish policies on issues like work hours, vacations and standards for firing workers. þþ“We know from many discussions with our colleagues in Chattanooga,” Mr. Kilian said, “that there is great interest on the part of workers to establish worker representation inside the plant.”þþMany American labor experts say it would be illegal under federal law for a company to establish a works council unless workers first voted to have a union represent them. Without that, a works council might be viewed as an illegal company-dominated, company-created employee group.þþFor Volkswagen officials here and for many employees who support creating a works council, the challenge is how to legally set one up now that the workers rejected the U.A.W.þþOn Friday night, minutes after the result of the vote was announced, Frank Fischer, the chief executive of Volkswagen Chattanooga, said, “Our goal continues to be to determine the best method for establishing a works council in accordance with the requirements of U.S. labor law, to meet VW America’s production needs and serve our employees’ interests.ÿþþSome anti-U.A.W. workers said they might seek to set up some alternative union or employee group — perhaps one exclusively for the factory — to be their vehicle to help set up a works council.þþ“I don’t see any route to a works council without union representation under U.S. labor law,” said Kristin Dziczek, a labor expert at the Center for Automotive Research. “I don’t see how that happens.”þþSeveral days before the election, Mr. Fischer lauded the idea of works councils, saying they “are key to our success and productivity.” He added, “It is a business model that helped to make Volkswagen the second-largest car company in the world.”þþIf a works council is set up at the Volkswagen plant, it would be the first in the United States.þþU.A.W. officials were stunned by the defeat; they had expected to win because Volkswagen was not fighting the effort and because they said that just months before, a majority of the plant’s employees had signed cards saying they favored union representation.þþJack Nerad, executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book, called the loss “a very serious setback for the union, a setback that will resonate throughout the South.” He added, “The U.A.W.’s attempts to organize other nonunion plants in the United States are very unlikely to be greeted with as much cooperation from other manufacturers, so this could mark the end to U.A.W. hopes to gain traction in these nonunion Southern state plants.”þþThe union’s campaign was clearly hurt by the anti-union sentiment common in the South, as well as an intense campaign by anti-union workers inside the plant who argued that they did not need a union or union dues because, in their view, Volkswagen already treated and paid them well. Wages at the plant average $19.50 an hour.þþBob King, president of the U.A.W., said the union would look into its legal options — perhaps filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board — as some union officials accused Senator Bob Corker of poisoning the atmosphere and preventing a fair election before the vote.þþMr. Corker told the news media that sources at Volkswagen had assured him they would add another production line at the plant to make a new sport utility vehicle if the factory’s workers rejected the union. Privately, some union officials asserted that this might be construed as illegal intimidation or inducement to get VW workers to vote against the union.þþIn addition, State Senator Bo Watson, who represents some of Chattanooga’s suburbs, warned that the Republican-dominated legislature was not likely to approve a new incentive package for VW if the plant’s workers embraced the U.A.W. Gerald McCormick, the House majority leader, a Republican, who represents Chattanooga, also warned that such incentives were at risk.þþAfter the vote, Mr. Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga, issued a statement, saying, “I am thrilled for the employees at Volkswagen and for our community and its future.”þþHarley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said that Mr. Corker’s and Mr. Watson’s statements suggesting that the expansion of the plant and Chattanooga’s future economic well-being hinged on rejecting the U.A.W. could have swayed more than a hundred workers to vote against the union. U.A.W. officials repeatedly noted that if only 44 workers had switched their vote, the union would have won.þþChattanooga is vying with VW’s plant in Mexico to attract production of the new S.U.V., Ms. Dziczek said. þþShe said a factory must first have the fundamentals VW is looking for and then “incentives might be the icing on the cake.”þþ“If the S.U.V. is mainly for the export market, then it will be made in Mexico,” she said. “If they plan it mainly for the North American market, then the VW plant in Chattanooga has a very good chance.”þþVW’s domestic sales have sagged in the past year, partly because the Passat sedans produced in Chattanooga are viewed as not trendy enough. VW has promised a new S.U.V. to help capture more American sales.þ
Source: NY Times
