IndustriALL Global suspends its global agreement with German carmaker Volkswagen (in brief)

In December 2018 and in what is a first ever for IndustriALL Global Union, the international industry federation’s executive committee unanimously voted to suspend a global agreement. Referring to the German car manufacturer’s consistent refusal to accord the same rights to its workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, US, as it does in the rest of the world ‘IndustriALL Global Union is today (21 January 2019) suspending its long-standing global agreement with Volkswagen.’ The union federation has repeatedly criticized the German carmaker (c.f. article No. 10936) for turning to the US NLRB, and seeking to invalidate the Chattanooga technician workers’ vote back in December 2015 that supported maintaining the UAW trade union presence (c.f. article No. 9404). “We have good working relations with Volkswagen elsewhere in the world and suspending the GFA is unfortunate. But the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is central to us,” stated Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary.