Volkswagen assembly line employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee, can't finish a Passat without passive-aggressive threats coming from all sides. Just one week after hourly employees voted against union representation by the United Auto Workers by a slim margin, Volkswagen's German labor chief Bernd Osterloh voiced his opposition to any new VW plant built in the southern U.S.
Translated from German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Osterloh said he "can imagine fairly well that another VW factory in the United States, provided that one more should still be set up there, does not necessarily have to be assigned to the South again."
Osterloh, who sits on a supervisory board that selects the company's board of directors, shares authority to approve decisions on plants. In reality, VW has no official plans for a second U.S. plant other than to expand Chattanooga's annual production by 100,000. But his statement would sit well with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who alluded her high-heeled shoes were helping the state dropkick unions in the face.
"You've heard me say many times I wear heels. It's not for a fashion statement," she told The Greenville News on Thursday. "It's because we're kicking them every day, and we'll continue to kick them."
Osterloh is no stranger himself to hothead remarks, having last month called VW's U.S. operations a "disaster" despite the company achieving record sales for the past two years. And last week, republican U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee warned before the vote that if the UAW lost, VW would reward the plant with a second model. Volkswagen denied that claim and Corker, refusing to reveal his source, irked the UAW so much that it filed an appeal Friday with the National Labor Relations Board claiming "interference" from Corker, Tennessee Governor William Haslam and five other Republican state senators. If the UAW wins the appeal, the Chattanooga election will be null and a new vote counted.
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Volkswagen's U.S. management, under Osterloh's pressure, wavered between worker choice and pro-union sentiment during the UAW's months-long campaign at the factory. Chattanooga CEO Frank Fischer said VW was "committed to neutrality" before the election and afterward said he wanted to "determine the best method for establishing a works council." That type of setup—an internal union paid for by the company that can force management into arbitration committees, among many other restrictions—isn't guaranteed under U.S. law like it is in Germany. It also isn't how the UAW, which negotiates from the outside, conducts its business with the Big Three.
Whomever wins at VW, at this heated pace we're not sure any side—pro-union or not—will be satisfied at having the last word.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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