German union chides Volkswagen over new labor policy

IG Metall supports UAW; ACE asks for fairness

photo The Chattanooga Volkswagen plant.

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A powerful German union reacted swiftly to a new labor policy issued by Volkswagen in Chattanooga, sharply urging the carmaker to recognize the United Auto Workers and criticizing VW for working with other groups.

But the head of a worker group positioning itself as an alternative to the UAW said American law and culture give people a choice.

"In February there was an election. The UAW was clearly defeated," said VW worker Sean Moss, president of the American Council of Employees. "We're trying to address a need for a works council in the best way we see fit and represent ourselves."

German union IG Metall in a statement Friday called on VW to "show its true colors" in officially recognizing the UAW as its bargaining partner.

"IG Metall will not accept if Volkswagen treats the UAW just as one as those groups who have acted in the past resolutely against the union," said IG Metall President Detlef Wetzel in a statement on the union's website. "There must not be any cooperation between Volkswagen and anti-union groups or yellow unions."

A yellow union is a labor group that has no affiliation with any type of national trade union, but operates strictly within one company.

Moss said that ACE, while it opposes the UAW, isn't anti-union.

"Absolutely not," he said. "If anything we're pro-Chattanooga employees. That's all we're trying to be."

VW officials have said they want a works council labor board in Chattanooga, such as it has in nearly all its factories worldwide. The panel of workers deals with day-to-day issues including work schedules, training and safety.

VW spokesman Scott Wilson wouldn't directly address IG Metall's statement, saying the company is standing on the policy it unwrapped Wednesday.

"We didn't name any groups," he said. "We're looking forward to how that policy develops."

The policy sets guidelines for interactions with labor organizations whose membership includes a significant percentage of VW employees. It has three levels of company engagement relative to the number of VW employees represented -- 15 percent, 30 percent, or 45 percent. An external auditor will verify the percentage of a group's employee membership to determine what level of engagement has been reached.

The policy doesn't set out a path toward a collective bargaining agreement for the UAW or ACE, although that could come later if VW workers decide to seek representation to negotiate a contract.

Both the UAW and ACE endorsed the policy.

Gary Casteel, the UAW's secretary-treasurer, said the union will start working with VW so the automaker can verify the UAW's membership level in Chattanooga and it can begin engaging the automaker inside the plant.

"When that verification has been completed, we will take advantage of the company's offer to establish regular meetings with Volkswagen human resources and the Volkswagen Chattanooga executive committee," he said.

Casteel said a majority of workers are members of UAW Local 42, which the union set up this summer as a non-dues-paying unit. He said that in the first meeting with VW, the union will remind the automaker of a mutual commitment made last spring that VW would recognize the UAW as the representative of its members.

Also, Casteel said, the union will present a September letter of intent in which the VW Global Works Council expressed a desire for the plant to be "a UAW-represented facility."

Lowell Turner, who directs The Worker Institute at Cornell University, said VW's policy is "a positive development for constructive labor-management relations at Chattanooga and for the union."

He said such a policy isn't unprecedented, but "really rare."

"It's usually all or nothing," Turner said. "This intermediate thing is very constructive. I hope it sets a model for other companies."

He added that he doesn't expect ACE to succeed.

"The UAW represents workers in the auto industry," Turner said.

But Chattanooga labor attorney Maury Nicely, who's working with ACE, said he's not surprised IG Metall is backing the UAW.

"It's one union supporting another," he said.

Nicely said ACE is asking for a level playing field.

ACE has sent letters to Christian Koch, VW-Chattanooga's president, and to company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, asking that the representation cards that are counted from the two labor groups be signed and dated after Wednesday.

The UAW lost the February election, 712 to 626, though it later complained of interference by Republican politicians.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.

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