The strike meeting reflects growing tension between the union and Volkswagen, despite its carefully cultivated image as a pro-worker company.
A three-member NLRB panel denied Volkswagen’s request for the agency to review a December 2015 election in which skilled-trades employees in Chattanooga voted overwhelmingly to designate UAW Local 42 as their representative for the purpose of collective bargaining.
While the union blamed right-wing politicians and ‘outsiders,’ it is clear, as Sam Gindin emphasizes in this Bullet, that the reasons for the defeat, and its implications are much more complex and require a broader rethinking of union strategies and politics. Though levels of unionization in Canada have not hit the lows of the U.S., the need for a profound rethinking applies as well to the Canadian trade union movement.
Five Articles on the UAW Loss in Tennesee
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