VW Facing Union Talks After Losing Tennessee NLRB Ruling
- Maintenance workers seen as unique group, able to unionize
- Move gives U.S. employees `voice' in global company decisions
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Volkswagen AG may soon need to negotiate wages and benefits with a UAW local in Tennessee after the National Labor Relations Board rejected the automaker’s appeal that skilled-trades workers couldn’t organize separately from others at its U.S. factory.
In a 2-to-1 vote on Wednesday, the board affirmed union representation for the maintenance workers at the automaker’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant, denying Volkswagen’s challenge that the organizing votes must include production employees. The workers that petitioned for union status are “readily identifiable as a group,” and have the right to bargain under independent union representation, the board said in its statement.