Why the VW election could be the UAW's best chance at an elusive organizing victory

Volkswagen's assembly plant in Tennessee could be the UAW's best opportunity to secure a long-sought foothold in the Southern U.S.

The union, which fell just short in two previous attempts to represent the Chattanooga plant, this week said workers there had filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking another election. Although the timing was still being determined, the vote would be the first test of the UAW's revamped organizing strategy since it began an ambitious drive in November to target 13 automakers.

UAW President Shawn Fain hopes to parlay historically rich contracts won last fall from the Detroit 3 into victories at transplant automakers and electric vehicle manufacturers that would expand membership and increase leverage in future negotiations. While Fain faces long odds in a region that historically has been dismissive of unions, VW could prove different. The UAW won 46.8 percent of a 2014 Chattanooga vote, followed by 48.2 percent five years later, even in the midst of a damning union corruption scandal.

"The low-hanging fruit is VW because they came so close last time," Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School, told Automotive News. "The UAW has had a lot of major successes since then, so the idea of picking up another 2 percent sounds pretty reasonable."

UAW supporters in Tennessee say they want to join the union for better pay and workplace safety.

"I come from a UAW family, so I've seen how having our union enables us to make life better on the job and off," Yolanda Peoples, a production team member in Chattanooga, said in a statement provided by the UAW. "We are a positive force in the plant. When we win our union, we'll be able to bargain for a safer workplace, so people can stay on the job and the company can benefit from our experience."

Volkswagen and the UAW have a complicated history.

The automaker's former assembly plant in Westmoreland County, Pa., became the first site wholly owned by a foreign automaker to be organized by the UAW when it opened in 1978. At the time, VW accepted card-check recognition, a simpler process than a plantwide vote. The plant closed 10 years later.

When the UAW tried to organize Chattanooga in 2014, management initially was accommodating, even giving organizers space inside the plant to speak with workers, according to Stephen Silvia, a professor at American University and author of "The UAW's Southern Gamble, Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Vehicle Plants."

The 2014 vote failed, 626 to 712. Silvia cited a number of factors, including powerful political opposition and the UAW's failure to engage the community in what he described as a "top-down organizing strategy."

The next year, the union won an organizing vote for a subset of about 150 skilled trades workers at the plant. But VW declined to bargain with the unit and appealed the result with the NLRB.

The UAW ultimately disclaimed the unit in favor of another plantwide election in 2019.

For that vote, Silvia in his book described VW management's position as a "no-holds-barred union-avoidance campaign." That included allowing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, to give a closed-door speech to workers.

The UAW lost, 776 to 833.

VW, in a statement this week, said it "will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision."

Volkswagen Group of America CEO Pablo Di Si, speaking on the sidelines of VW Group's annual media conference in Berlin last week, said the Chattanooga employees have the right to decide on representation. Di Si said VW engages in conversation with plant employees each month about what the automaker needs to improve. It also conducts employee surveys, he said.

"We change our policies according to the feedback of our employees," Di Si said.

Outside experts are optimistic about the UAW's chances in the upcoming election because it has an opportunity to not only learn from past organizing mistakes but to start with a pool of workers who previously have supported it.

That the union has mostly moved beyond its corruption scandal, with new leaders elected directly by its membership, also could help.

The scandal "was certainly something their opponents used to persuade people not to vote that way," Wheaton said. "They've dramatically improved their image."

One wild card will be how much opposition the union faces from local and national politicians, Silvia said in an interview.

"The question is whether the Tennessee political establishment has learned that they're most effective if they wait until there's an actual recognition election," he said. "We may see the governor return to the plant, we may see some more political activity. In fact, I would anticipate that we will."

Jack Walsworth contributed to this report.