UAW Embraces German Works Council Model

The United Auto Workers union has said it wants to adopt the German works council labor system, which emphasizes employee participation in a company's operations, at Volkswagen AG's assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

But UAW President Bob King also plans to propose the less adversarial system to Nissan Motor Co. and other foreign carmakers that have been hostile to the union's efforts to organize their U.S. plants, Automotive News reports.

King tells the newspaper the UAW also is open to creating works councils at Detroit Three factories, if workers there want them.

In Germany, national unions negotiate with industrial employers to set wages. Workers at each plant elect their own works council to make decisions about benefits, hours and working conditions. Hourly employees also have half the seats on corporate boards.

King says VW workers in Chattanooga are leading the organization drive there. UAW organizers have not been allowed inside the plant. But he tells AN that the German carmaker has been "extremely honorable" in remaining neutral so that employees can decide without intimidation something he alleges that Nissan has refused to do.

Germany's IG Metall union is working closely with the UAW in Tennessee. If the VW facility is unionized, other German companies with American plants might follow suit, according to Horst Mund, head of IG Metall's international program.