It’s official: The United Auto Workers have won the right to hold meetings at Volkswagen AG’s Chattanooga, Tenn. facility, further paving the path toward full organization.
Chattanooga Times Free Press reports UAW Local 42 reached the third and highest tier of VW’s community organization engagement policy Monday, allowing the local to hold biweekly meetings with plant officials, as well as to reserve and use on-site locations for non-work meetings with staff and employees as needed, access to the factory’s Conference Center for internal employee meetings once per month during non-work hours, and post announcements and information in designated areas.
UAW secretary-treasurer Gary Casteel said the local was ready to take advantage of its new status, beginning by establishing biweekly meetings with both HR and the Volkswagen Chattanooga Executive Committee. The third and highest tier of the policy — and the benefits entailed — is reached when an organizing body nets at least 45 percent of the factory floor’s employees.
UAW in the factory, boardroom antics, a portfolio of mind-numbing SUV’s…
Das Chevy.
Q: Precisely what problems will the UAW propose to solve for these downtrodden workers?
“Possible future employer abuses” is not the correct answer.
The story here is that the American Council of Employees, the group competing against the UAW to represent the workers, isn’t getting any of this stuff.
Yup, the camel’s nose is in the tent here. Never any doubt in my mind.
And with labor negotiations scheduled for this summer, no doubt the UAW will insist on its pound of flesh from their employers, even if it kills their employers.
Hey, YO! Shades of Vuja De. Didn’t we just go through this in 2008/2009?
Good news for Mexico
Indeed.
Guess VW’s quality won’t be going up after all.
That’s a given.
Don’t kid yourself. It wasn’t going up, anyway.
There was hope, now dashed.
Been reading TTAC for years and now’s a good time to ask a question. I’m fairly ignorant of vehicle manufacturing so please bear with me. If a vehicle part is designed to be assembled using, say, six fasteners, how does any union development affect the installation of these fasteners? Is employee morale going to be so low that the workers will misplace the parts required to assemble the vehicle properly, thus resulting in lower quality? Genuine question here, thanks!
The whole point of an assembly line is to minimize the importance of the individual worker — handcrafted goods are less consistent. And there should be a quality control process to correct mistakes made during assembly.
The union shouldn’t make a difference. It’s the engineering and parts quality that count — German engineering is fussy and VW has a history of cutting corners on the parts. (Look up Jose Ignacio Lopez if you aren’t familiar with him.)
Unionization by force! They’ve already been turned down, now they’ll force their way in.
If it ain’t by force, or threat of it, it ain’t the American Way no more…..
Please. The sky is not falling. I believe VW made a very clever decision. I noticed that within Cameron’s write up, nothing was mentioned as to what the Union had given up or promised to achieve this agreement. And frankly, it’s their cake to bake, not for you to criticize the smell.
I am still trying to figure out why VW would put Southern California mountains behind a Chattanooga sign and and think that nobody would notice.
Symbolic?
UAW in the transplant shops, Dollar going through the roof against the Yen and soon the Euro, bullying of employers to squander ever more money on shitty health care plans, which hunts against every company who has ever built a single product that a few decades later didn’t work exactly as when new…. ……. Ayn Rand couldn’t make this stuff up…. If for no other reason than it ain’t boring and long winded enough.
If the Germans didn’t regret setting up shop in the land of greed they will now.
It’s little wonder that VW can’t make cars well when they repeat mistakes like this one.
Yes, what a mistake CJ. They gave up some office space and allowed the union to pull management from its golf game two times a week for meetings. Clever fiends! Next thing you know they’ll be asking to use the bathroom and water fountains for management only and might want to sit at the counter for lunch with them in the cafeteria!
You know, you’re points would be taken more seriously if you weren’t as far in left field as the other comments are in right field.
Considering that the cars currently built there aren’t exactly selling like hotcakes the UAW might very well just drive more production to Mexico.
Since our house doesn’t do UAW, that takes the new CUV off the table for my wife (the design caught her eye for when her car is ready for retirement). Lexus RX it will be.
Like Derek said months ago…but any means necessary.
Sadly, the UAW has somehow become the poster child for Unions. Most unions are a reasonable response-think how a union would help Wal Mart workers. Maybe they could even get off public assistance. The UAW isn’t a typical union.
speedlaw, public assistance. Would you believe that the Great State of New Mexico is hounding my grand daughter to apply for welfare, food stamps, and a free cell phone because she is not employed?
She’s not officially employed but she has a place to live, food to eat and some money coming in. She can be on her dad’s and her mom’s healthcare policies until she turns 26 in three more years. What would she need to be on welfare and food stamps for?