Auto Workers in The South: A Union Turnaround?
2013/09/21 — Majority of workers at Tenn. Volkswagen plant have chosen UAW representation.
The United Auto Workers might be able to achieve in Tennessee what it hasn’t accomplished at Canton’s Nissan plant or any other foreign-owned automobile manufacturing plant in the South — representation of workers.
But the effect the establishment of direct union representation or a “works council” at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga could have on ongoing efforts to organize the Canton plant remains to be seen.
“I’m not the type to say, ‘Never say never.’ But we (still) don’t really know what the will of the workers (in Tennessee) is,” said Edmunds.com analyst Bill Visnic. “With other (Southern) plants that the UAW has tried to organize, we know what the will of the workers has been — ‘We don’t want a union.’ ”
But that could significantly change amid reports that a majority of workers at the Volkswagen plant have signed union cards to have the UAW represent them in a works council at that plant. Works councils are a traditional part of the German automaker’s company structure and are found at its plants outside the U.S.
While groups like the UAW typically collectively bargain wages and benefits for their members, works councils generally concern themselves with more localized, plant-by-plant issues, such as working conditions and safety measures. The union, which has been trying for more than a year to organize the Canton plant, has acknowledged meeting with Volkswagen and its Global Works Council in Germany last month.
It’s not clear whether the UAW will seek recognition in Tennessee merely through the signed cards or try for a formal vote at the plant. But the establishment of at least a works council there could ripple into and perhaps galvanize the UAW’s effort in Mississippi, says Joe Atkins, a journalism professor at the University of Mississippi who has written extensively about organized labor in the South and supports a union vote in Canton.
“It’s pretty significant news, that you might have a large assembly plant having even some semblance of union representation,” he said. “I can’t read the mind of (UAW president) Bob King, but he seems to like the idea. And if the idea works in Chattanooga, he might think it could work in Canton, Mississippi.”
Facing dwindling membership and waning influence, over the years and a quickly narrowing gap between what starting union and nonunion workers earn at automotive assembly plants, the UAW has made organizing a Southern auto plant a top priority, and has focused largely on Nissan plants in Canton and Smyrna, Tenn.
The right-to-work South has not been kind to unionization efforts, at least not at its automotive plants. There’s never been a vote in Canton, and a Madison supplier to the plant voted not to organize in 2008. Workers in Smyrna shot down unionization about a decade ago.
The effort to unionize in Canton comes as that decade-old plant has grown by about 2,000 employees and three additional vehicle brands since 2011. The Murano crossover will be built there starting next year, and a supplier park to be built next to the plant is expected to create another 800 jobs.
Gary Casteel, a UAW regional director for the South, wasn’t available last week for comment but recently told The Associated Press that a works council could constitute “a totally new form of representation” for domestic automotive workers. Few details about how the council would work have been released, and Atkins says differences between U.S. and German labor laws also could shape how such a panel could function domestically.
The kinds of issues works councils typically tackle mirror the concerns of pro-union Nissan workers in Canton. Those who want the chance to vote on unionization locally generally cite on-the-job injuries and general working conditions more than wages and benefits as issues a union can help address at the plant.
Another sticking point for those workers is Nissan’s use of temporary workers in Canton. Pro-union workers have said the percentage of the plant’s 5,000-plus employees that are temporary is as high as 40 percent, although the automaker won’t say specifically how many temporary or contract workers are based at the plant.
Volkswagen’s Global Works Council and company management in 2012 crafted and adopted a charter acknowledging that “the moderate use of temporary work is a necessary flexibility tool” but suggested merely 5 percent of the company’s overall work force as a guideline, and Volkswagen officials at the time said temporary workers “will not be misused as a tool for cost reduction.”
A number of Canton workers, meanwhile, have said a union is unnecessary and that workers and management communicate clearly and directly with each other.
In an email, Nissan spokesman Justin Saia wouldn’t comment on the potential Volkswagen ramifications in Canton but said, “Our history reflects that we respect the right of our employees to decide who should represent them. However, our experience is that our employees value the direct relationship they have with Nissan, which is based on transparency and mutual respect.”
Visnic says Japanese automakers like Nissan and Toyota, which operates a plant in Blue Springs, don’t feature works councils but do have a history of generally good relationships with workers, including at unionized Nissan plants outside the U.S. He says it’s in an automaker’s interest to address workers’ concerns and foster a positive relationship with them.
“It’s not good business to have crappy working conditions. You want to have healthy workers. You want to have ergonomically correct workstations. It’s good for efficiency.”
But Atkins counters the unionization effort locally has picked up steam over the years because “disappointment has arisen after 10 years — workers not prospering like they thought they would.”
If the works council is established in Tennessee, though, it doesn’t necessarily mean the momentum to unionize Southern plants like Nissan Canton has shifted squarely to organized labor, says Blake Wilson, who leads the Mississippi Economic Council, the state’s chamber of commerce.
“With this kind of thing, every state is different. Companies are different. These are very much decisions made locally,” he said.
Source: Clarion Ledger online
A majority of workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., have signed cards to have the UAW represent them in a works council at that plant. / File photo/AP
