VW labor leader seeks German-like workers council in Tennessee
10/2013

(Reuters) - Volkswagen AG’s top labor leader still wants workers at the company’s plant in Tennessee to have German-style representation, an arrangement that would require the involvement of a U.S. trade union such as the United Auto Workers.

Bernd Osterloh, head of VW’s global works council, told Reuters on Tuesday that he plans to visit workers at the plant to offer “clarification” on how a works council operates at the company.

Osterloh also said he expects to meet with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and U.S. Senator Bob Corker, who played a key role in bringing Volkswagen to Chattanooga, a city where he was once mayor. Haslam and Corker have voiced opposition to representation of VW’s Chattanooga workers by the UAW, saying it would damage the state’s ability to attract companies.

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U.S. labor law says that any labor representation model that does not include a U.S. labor union would be considered a company union and therefore prohibited.

The UAW, which has lost membership in the past three decades to automation and a cutback of jobs at General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler Group LLC, wants to organize Volkswagen workers to gain a toehold in the U.S. South, where most foreign automakers have nonunion factories.

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