The United Auto Workers union is appealing a union representation election for Chattanooga, Tennessee Volkswagen workers citing interference from Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and other groups and lawmakers in the state.
The UAW announced its appeal with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday.
The appeal argues that Corker, Tennessee Gov. William Haslam and State House Speaker Beth Harwell, among others, “conducted what appears to have been a coordinated and widely publicized coercive campaign. They worked, in concert with their staffs and others, to deprive” Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. “workers of their federally-protected right, through the Election, to support and select the UAW as their exclusive representation under Section 9(a) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”), free of coercion, intimidation, threats and interference.”
The appeal came about a week after workers at a Volkswagen factory voted against union representation.
In the lead up to the vote, outside groups, Corker and other lawmakers threatened to withhold tax incentives on a potential expansion of the Chattanooga plant if Volkswagen workers decided to join the UAW.
Read the appeal here.
