UAW attempts to unionize Volkswagen

What is it about?

Despite the absence of all of the traditional anti-union tactics, the UAW failed to organize the entire Volkswagen Chattanooga plant, because of heavy intervention by external actors, the union’s failure to develop community support, and a paragraph in the pre-election agreement that promised wage restraint. VW management’s fear of losing state subsidies and their desire to not alienate the local business and political establishment constrained its action. VW management’s adoption of an accommodating position toward unionization for the entire plant, but resistance to it for the small skilled mechanics unit, suggests that the company was willing to accept unionization only as a means to the end of creating a works council rather than out of a commitment to collective bargaining as a practice.

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Why is it important?

These efforts were a pivotal test of labor’s ability to organize in the South. The weakening of organized labor has often been cited as a cause of income inequality in the United States.

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