UAW Loses Volkswagen Election

A little over two years ago, soon-to-be former United Auto Workers President Bob King said that “organizing foreign auto plants is a matter of life and death of the union.”

Today, King has less than a month left on the job and will leave the UAW closer to death.

According to ABC News, Volkswagen workers voted 712-626 against UAW representation at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen plant.

For decades, the UAW has tried to organize the foreign auto-makers in the South, and the Volkswagen campaign was its best shot. Volkswagen remained neutral, if not supportive, of the UAW organizing drive.

As a former General Motors labor negotiator commented, “If they can’t win this one, what can they win?”