Volkswagen prepares for UAW vote, governors warn against it

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Volkswagen said it is prepared for the employee union vote to begin Wednesday morning.

In a press briefing Tuesday morning, media was not allowed to record. However, VW leaders said they are not influencing the vote. They added that they will give their employees privacy in making their decision on whether to accept the United Auto Workers (UAW) union into the plant.

Meanwhile, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has issued a statement Tuesday morning saying he is against the UAW coming into the state.

It was a joint statement between governors in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.

The governors believe the UAW are bringing misinformation and scare tactics into their states.

It explained that all UAW automakers have already announced layoffs in 2024. Gov. Lee and the other signatories believe bringing the UAW into Volkswagen will cause more harm than good.

In full, their statement reads:

“We the Governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the UAW has brought into our states. As Governors, we have a responsibility to our constituents to speak up when we see special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by.

The reality is companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunity. We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good-paying jobs to our states. These jobs have become part of the fabric of the automotive manufacturing industry.

Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy – in fact, in this year already, all of the UAW automakers have announced layoffs.

In America, we respect our workforce and we do not need to pay a third party to tell us who can pick up a box or flip a switch. No one wants to hear this, but it’s the ugly reality. We’ve seen it play out this way every single time a foreign automaker plant has been unionized; not one of those plants remains in operation. And we are seeing it in the fallout of the Detroit Three strike with those automakers rethinking investments and cutting jobs.

Putting businesses in our states in that position is the last thing we want to do. The experience in our states is when employees have a direct relationship with their employers, that makes for a more positive working environment. They can advocate for themselves and what is important to them without outside influence. The UAW has come in making big promises to our constituents that they can’t deliver on. And we have serious reservations that the UAW leadership can represent our values.

They proudly call themselves democratic socialists and seem more focused on helping President Biden get reelected than on the autoworker jobs being cut at plants they already represent. We want to keep good paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector here. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers.”

Voting begins Wednesday morning and will conclude on Friday evening.

This is the UAW’s third attempt at unionizing Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant.