United Auto Workers win vote at Volkswagen's Tennessee plant

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Skilled-trades workers at the Volkswagen's lone U.S. plant on Friday voted to be represented by the United Auto Workers, marking the union's first victory at a foreign-owned automaker in the South.

The workers who specialize in repairing and maintaining machinery and robots at the German automaker's factory in Chattanooga voted 108-44 to have the UAW negotiate collective bargaining agreements on their behalf.

The vote comes nearly 20 months after the union was narrowly defeated in an election involving all hourly employees at the plant. The UAW has been thwarted for decades in its attempts to represent workers outside of General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.

Volkswagen had objected to the new vote for the UAW to represent just the 162 skilled-trades workers, arguing that all 1,400 blue-collar workers should have a say over union issues.

"We believe that a union of only maintenance employees fractures our workforce and does not take into account the overwhelming community of interest shared between our maintenance and production employees," the company said in a statement.

The German automaker said it plans to appeal the ruling allowing the vote to the full National Labor Relations Board.

The American Council of Employees, a rival labor group at the Volkswagen plant, in a letter to workers before the vote criticized the move to organize the smaller group of workers. The group said the effort would serve to "subdivide maintenance workers with no concern for how this might negatively impact employees' long-term interests."

The group also criticized the union for seeking the vote amid the automaker's efforts to cope with its diesel emissions cheating scandal that contributed to a 60 percent drop in sales of the Chattanooga-made Passat in November.

"Volkswagen and our facility are in the midst of a crisis," the letter said. "We need unity now more than ever."

The UAW has argued that the emissions scandal and the effort to block the latest union vote are a departure from the company's "core principles."

"Our hope is that the company now will recommit to the values that made Volkswagen a great brand — environmental sustainability and true co-determination between management and employees," Gary Casteel, the union's secretary-treasurer said in a statement after the vote was approved.

Volkswagen also argued that the formation of the small bargaining unit goes against its hopes of creating a German-style works council at the plant to represent both hourly and salaried employees. The union disagreed, saying the move by the skilled-trades workers was just a first step.