Workers inspect a top coat of paint on a Passat in the paint shop at the Chattanooga Volkswagen manufacturing plant in July 2013.View our Volkswagen/UAW special page with timeline, slideshow, local and national coverage and opinions
Three Volkswagen workers today voluntarily withdrew their federal lawsuit challenging what they said was "a backroom deal" between the United Auto Workers and Volkswagen to bring about a union shop at the Chattanooga plant.
The National Right to Work Foundation, which represented the workers, said the withdrawal was prompted by VW and UAW attorneys' concessions in legal papers that the union cannot seek another election until sometime next year.
Mark Mix, the Foundation's president, said the workers and the group successfully defended the result of the February vote, in which the UAW lost an organizing vote at the Chattanooga plant by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin
"Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to provide free legal assistance to VW workers if VW and the UAW enter into another organizing deal or if UAW bosses resort to unlawful tactics at the plant again," Mix said in a statement.
Volkswagen employee Mike Jarvis said that when the suit was filed in March, the workers were worried the UAW union was "going to be forced on us."
"Now that the vote has been certified, we want to move on, work with our fellow VW team members, and focus on building our award-winning cars," he said.
The employees alleged in the suit that in a pre-election agreement, VW gave the union access to names and facilities at the Chattanooga plant in exchange for the UAW holding down costs if it won the organizing vote at the factory.
VW and the UAW denied the charges and sought a dismissal of the lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Justice said this week in a legal brief that neither Volkswagen nor the UAW violated federal law in their election agreement prior to the vote.
See more in Saturday's Times Free Press.