The American Council of Employees (ACE) "expressed disappointment' that the United Auto Workers is seeking a new vote at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant.
The group said it "learned that UAW is seeking to further divide employees at the Volkswagen facility in Chattanooga via an election open only to a small group of 'skilled workers' in the plant’s maintenance division."
David Reed, president of the American Council of Employees, said, “This is a time of great stress and uncertainty for VW-Chattanooga employees and the Volkswagen organization as a whole.
ACE’s members and other employees have purposefully remained quietly supportive during this period, in order to allow Volkswagen the opportunity to resolve its issues in the best interest of the employees, the Chattanooga community, and the general public.
“It is unfortunate, however, that the UAW would try to take advantage of the current situation by demanding an immediate election. This is an obvious attempt to use fear to further divide VW-Chattanooga employees, and a clear demonstration that the UAW is only interested in advancing its organizing agenda, not in serving as a true partner with Volkswagen and representing the best interests of workers at our facility.”.
Under the filing submitted by the UAW to the National Labor Relations Board on Friday, any election would be open to only about 165 maintenance division workers, which ACE said is less than eight percent of the facility’s employees.
"The fact that they are only seeking to unionize a small portion of the maintenance department is very telling," said Thomas Haney, the representative of ACE’s salaried worker group. "They don’t have enough support to organize the entire workforce, so they are trying to divide us into tiny subgroups. This is not in [VW-Chattanooga employees] best interests, and will hurt our plant."
A previous attempt to unionize workers at Volkswagen-Chattanooga in February 2014 lost by a vote of 712–626.
In recent months, ACE members said they "have been working hand-in-hand with Volkswagen management to work toward the common goal of developing a European-style works council at the Chattanooga facility."
The organization said it "will continue its work in cooperation with management to achieve employee’s primary goal of establishing a local works council."
Mr. Reed said, “If there was ever a time that Volkswagen team members needed an organization that is 100% dedicated to the success of Volkswagen in Chattanooga, this is it. Unlike the UAW, ACE is not concerned with collecting dues from new members or addressing the demands of our competitors in Detroit-- ACE is made up only of workers at VW-Chattanooga, and we are committed only to the future success of our facility.”