Bernd Osterloh, head of Volkswagen’s central WC, has revealed the strategy and schedule he wants to follow to secure the election of a works council in the American plant of Chattanooga (Tennessee). For a long time, the IG Metall and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have been working hand in hand to carry this plan through. But the UAW is one of the Republicans’ pet peeves in the region, and they do all they can to keep the union from settling in the Republican south. To solve this problem, Osterloh decided to go meet with the Republicans, with a major trick upon his sleeve: VW is one of the biggest employers in the region and is soon supposed to decide whether to build a new model in Chattanooga or elsewhere. (Ref. 130486)
Convincing deeply antiunion Republican officials. Of the 100 plants Volkswagen has outside Germany, only one still doesn’t have a WC: the American plant of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Opened in 2011, it notably assembles the US Passat and employs 2,500 people. At the time, the local political class praised its arrival in this rather poor southern State, especially since it encouraged the arrival of subcontractors. But this “love story” ended when, under pressure from the IG Metall and UAW, ther
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