The United Auto Workers filed an unfair labor practice charge against Volkswagen with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the car company of making significant changes to production at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant without consulting the union.
In the Thursday filing, UAW leader Shawn Fain said VW’s decision to switch to a two-shift production system should have been decided between the company and the union.
Volkswagen asked workers at the Chattanooga plant to voluntarily leave their positions to facilitate the production shift this week, a move Mr. Fain characterized as “union busting” in disguise.
“The 4,000 autoworkers in Chattanooga deserve better,” he wrote. “America deserves better. And the UAW is going to fight like hell to deliver for Chattanooga, for Volkswagen autoworkers and for the whole working class.”
In the filing, Mr. Fain attacked Volkswagen for what he termed “anti-American” business practices.
“Instead of coming to a fair agreement for their American autoworkers in Tennessee, Volkswagen is choosing to attack American auto jobs,” he wrote. “It is no accident that they want to ram through a layoff in America in the days before expected auto tariffs take effect, as they profit from high exploitation labor in Mexico.”
VW refuted UAW’s charge.
“The union’s claims in its filings today are categorically false. Volkswagen has negotiated with them for months regarding a shift reduction in Chattanooga,” a spokesperson for Volkswagen Group of America said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting those who want to voluntarily separate with competitive benefits, including severance packages, retirement options, and education programs in partnership with the State of Tennessee. We will remain at the table, negotiating in good faith with the UAW to reach a competitive agreement that secures our future.”
The VW Chattanooga plant voted to unionize with the UAW last year, marking a significant victory for the union in its push to organize non-union shops around the country.
The German car giant makes most of its North American products in Mexico, where the average autoworker wage sits at below $4 an hour.
The filing also signaled UAW’s alignment with President Trump’s North American tariff plan. In the filing, Mr. Fain said the union notified the White House of VW’s “anti-union, anti-worker and anti-American” conduct.
Mr. Fain has emerged as an unlikely ally of the White House. After ripping Mr. Trump during last year’s campaign, the union boss now says the president’s tariffs on Mexico will strengthen U.S. auto manufacturing and repair the damage done by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class,” the UAW said in a statement last week. “There’s been a lot of talk about these tariffs ‘disrupting’ the economy. But if corporate America chooses to price-gouge the American consumer or attack the American worker because they don’t want to pay their fair share, corporate America bears the blame for that decision.”
