UAW Accuses Volkswagen Of Violating Deal To Recognize Union At TN Plant
http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2016/06/uaw-accuses-volkswagen-violating-deal-recognize-union-tn-plant
A signed agreement shows that Volkswagen officials reneged on a pledge to recognize the United Auto Workers without another vote at the German automaker's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee, a top union official said Tuesday.
Gary Casteel, the UAW's secretary-treasurer, released the 2014 document stating that Volkswagen would recognize the UAW as the representative of its members in exchange for the union dropping a challenge to the outcome of a union election at the plant in Chattanooga.
"Volkswagen never fulfilled its commitments to recognize the union as a representative of its members," Castell said in a conference call. "The unfulfilled commitment is at the heart of the ongoing disagreement between the company and the union."
The union said the written agreement for the company to "recognize the UAW as a 'members union'" stemmed from negotiations led by Volkswagen's then-chief financial officer, Hans Dieter Poetsch, who has since been named chairman amid the company's diesel emissions cheating scandal.