Workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, TN, assembly plant on Dec. 18 delivered a letter to plant management demanding the company end its union-busting and intimidation, as workers organize to join the United Auto Workers (UAW).
They were joined by UAW President Shawn Fain and members of Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence (CALEB), a community and faith coalition advocating for economic justice in Chattanooga.
“These workers at your plant are our neighbors, congregants, family and friends, and we applaud them for having the courage to demand better for themselves and our community,” the letter read. “However, we are deeply concerned by the stories Chattanooga workers have shared with us regarding Volkswagen’s efforts to stop them---in some cases illegally---from exercising their rights.”
One week earlier, on Dec. 11, Volkswagen workers filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the company for illegally intimidating, interfering with and spying on pro-union workers.
On Dec. 18, workers filed another federal labor charge against the company for unlawful policies concerning social media, dress code and flyering that have a chilling effect on workers’ rights to speak publicly about working conditions and the need to unionize.
Volkswagen’s illegal actions come on the heels of the UAW announcing that well over 1,000 workers, making up more than 30% of the Chattanooga plant, have signed union cards as part of a national movement of non-union autoworkers organizing to join the UAW in the wake of the union’s record contract victories at Ford, GM and Stellantis.
