Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Gear Up for a Potential Strike
Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant, which joined the United Auto Workers last year, is the first in the South to have unionized through an election since 1940. As first contract negotiations stall, the UAW is gathering pledge cards for a possible strike.
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga won their union in a landslide vote last year. But autoworkers say the German auto manufacturer is digging in its heels in contract negotiations. (Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images)
Volkswagen has dug in its heels in first contract negotiations at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where workers won a landslide victory in last year’s union drive.
“We’re still waiting for the company to agree to a proposal that simply affords us a fair share,” auto worker Steve Cochran testified before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on October 8. “We are living with health care that forces people into bankruptcy. We are living with no protection from inflation.”
In March, Volkswagen cut shifts, sowing fear and uncertainty during contract negotiations. In late September it presented its “last, best, and final offer,” and issued threats about job and benefit losses if workers authorized a strike. The union is gathering pledge cards for a potential strike.
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