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Skilled Trades at VW’s Chattanooga Plant Vote to Join UAW

Skilled trades workers at Volkswagen AG’s factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., have voted 108 to 44 in favor of joining the United Auto Workers union.
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Skilled trades workers at Volkswagen AG’s factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., have voted 108 to 44 in favor of joining the United Auto Workers union.

The group, which accounts for less than 11% of the factory’s hourly workforce, represents the UAW’s first organizing victory among foreign-owned vehicle assembly plants in the South.

The UAW lost a close vote in February 2014 to represent all hourly workers at the VW facility. But it quickly opened Local 42 near the plant anyway and has been courting Chattanooga workers since then. The union claims it has the support of a narrow majority of the factory’s hourly employees.

VW objected to a vote only for skilled trades workers, preferring the UAW again attempt to organize all hourly employees instead. The union says that target remains its eventual goal.

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