CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Just 87 votes at the Volkswagen
plant in Tennessee separated the United Auto Workers union from what
would have been its first successful organization of workers at a
foreign automaker in the South.
Instead of celebrating a potential
watershed moment for labor politics in the region, UAW supporters were
left crestfallen by the 712-626 vote against union representation in the
election that ended Friday night.
The result stunned many labor
experts who expected a UAW win because Volkswagen tacitly endorsed the
union and even allowed organizers into the Chattanooga factory to make
sales pitches.
The loss is a major setback for the UAW’s effort to
make inroads in the growing South, where foreign automakers have 14
assembly plants, eight built in the past decade, said Kristin Dziczek,
director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive
Research, an industry think tank in Michigan.
"If this was going to work anywhere, this is where it was going to work," she said of the
Volkswagen vote.
Organizing
a Southern plant is so crucial to the union that UAW President Bob King
told workers in a speech that the union has no long-term future without
it. The loss means the union remains largely quarantined with the
Detroit Three in the Midwest and Northeast.
Many viewed VW as the
union’s best chance to gain a crucial foothold in the South because
other automakers have not been as welcoming as Volkswagen. Labor
interests make up half of the supervisory board at VW in Germany, and
they questioned why the Chattanooga plant is the company’s only major
factory worldwide without formal worker representation.
VW wanted a
German-style "works council" in Chattanooga to give employees a say
over working conditions. The company says U.S. law won’t allow it
without an independent union.
In Chattanooga, the union faced
stern opposition from Republican politicians who warned that a UAW
victory would chase away other automakers who might come to the region.
Sen.
Bob Corker of Tennessee was the most vocal opponent, saying that he was
told that VW would soon announce plans to build a new SUV in
Chattanooga if workers rejected the union. That was later denied by a VW
executive, who said the union vote had no bearing on expansion
decisions. Other state politicians threatened to cut off state
incentives for the plant to expand if the union was approved.
After
53 percent of the workers voted against his union, King said he was
outraged at what he called "outside interference" in the election. He
wouldn’t rule out challenging the outcome with the National Labor
Relations Board.
"It’s never happened in this country before that
the U.S. senator, the governor, the leader of the House, the legislature
here, threatened the company with no incentives, threatened workers
with a loss of product," King said. "We’ll look at all our options in
the next few days."
The union could contend that Corker and other
local politicians were in collusion with VW and tried to frighten
workers into thinking the SUV would be built in Mexico if they voted for
the union, said Gary Chaison, a labor relations professor at Clark
University in Worcester, Mass.
But Chaison said it will be
difficult to tie the politicians to the company, which remained neutral
throughout the voting process.
"It’s the employer that has real power," he said.
The
loss put a spotlight on the union’s major difficulty in the South:
signing up people who have no history with organized labor and are
fearful of being the first in the area to join, Chaison said.
Dziczek
said the union may have to change its tactics in future organizing
efforts, because King’s strategy of the union and company working
together to help each other did not work.
Republican Gov. Bill
Haslam said through a spokesman that he was pleased with the vote and
"looks forward to working with the company on future growth in
Tennessee."
Corker echoed that sentiment in a release issued after the vote.
"Needless to say, I am thrilled for the employees at Volkswagen and for our community and its
future," he said.
____
Krisher reported from Detroit.
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