From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

- March 19, 2014 -

Supply Chain News: It's not Over Until It's Over, as NLRB Reviewing Circumstances of Failed Union Vote at Volkswagen Factory in Tennessee

Situation getting More Complicated, but Order for New Vote, if it Comes, Likely Months Off

SCDigest Editorial Staff

Labor groups were dismayed last month when workers at the new assembly plant of German automaker Volkswagen in Chattanooga voted again at forming a union there, despite Volkswagen's apparent support of the move. That left the United Auto Workers union reeling after the defeat, where a victory was seen as key to its "Southern strategy" of organizing the plants of foreign automakers on US soil, none of which is unionized currently (see Volkswagen Plant in Chattanooga Votes Against UAW).

SCDigest Says: If the UAW were to also lose a new election in Chattanooga, it might actually set back its Southern strategy even further than would a plan to regroup and find another target at some future point. What Do You Say? Click Here to Send Us Your Comments Click Here to See Reader Feedback

But maybe it's not over in Chattanooga yet.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) says it will review a complaint from the UAW claiming that interference by Republican lawmakers and others prompted workers there to reject union representation. The UAW is asking the NLRB to order a new vote.

The UAW has filed an election objection with the NLRB alleging that Republican politicians conducted "a coordinated and widely-publicized coercive campaign" to deprive "workers of their federally-protected right" to "support and select the UAW as their exclusive representative." The union says intimidation by third parties should void the results based on the constitutionally shaky doctrine known as "laboratory conditions."

In this case, the UAW is focusing on the actions and words of politicians. Specifically, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker at one point claimed that he was "assured" that Chattanooga would be rewarded with a second production line if workers rejected the union.

The Senator's "threat was made using United States Government resources," the union complains to the NLRB, and "we believe that Senator Corker used government travel funds specifically to fly to Chattanooga to make his threat in the most open and notorious manner."

However, Volkswagen immediately disavowed Corker's claim. UAW regional director Gary Casteel also assured Chattanooga workers prior to the election that Volkswagen officials "specifically said that this vote will have no bearing on the decision of where to place the new product."

Of course, this NLRB, the majority of which are Democrats, has been especially aggressive in supporting labor's views, perhaps most notably its move to sue Boeing in 2011 alleging the aerospace giant illegal moved production for thew new 787 jet from the Seattle area to a non-union plant in South Carolina. That almost kept the new factory from opening up, but became a moot point not long after when Boeing and it union workers reached an agreement that dropped the new factory as an issue.

Many observers thought that NRLB move was an abuse of its historic role in managing union votes and arbitrating labor issues.

So, while the authority of the NLRB to order a new vote at Volkswagen under these circumstances seems tenuous at best, that doesn't mean such a move won't be made.

(Manufacturing Article Continued Below)