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The Associated Press CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) – Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted Friday night against forming a union across the plant, putting thus failing the efforts of the United Auto Workers to gain a foothold on the foreign facilities of the South.
The workers' vote at the hour began Wednesday and ended Friday. Preliminary results show that 833 employees voted against the representation and 776 voted, said the German automaker in a statement. VW said that about 93% of the approximately 1,700 eligible employees voted.
"Our employees have spoken," said Frank Fischer, president and CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga, in the company's press release.
He added that the results were awaiting certification by the National Labor Relations Board and a legal review. Fischer said the company was eager to "continue its close cooperation with Tennessee's elected officials and business leaders."
Volkswagen has a union representation in all its other major factories in the world.
A victory in Chattanooga would have given United Auto Workers its first fully organized and foreign-controlled badembly plant in the traditionally anti-union South. UAW officials have asked why Chattanooga should be different from other Volkswagen plants around the world, or from the Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, to General Motors, which has 3,000 UAW-represented workers .
The director of the UAW organization, Tracy Romero, said she was proud of the pro-union constituents of the factory.
"The company has waged a brutal campaign of fear and misinformation," Romero said in a statement, adding that the builder had tried to dissuade workers from losing the plant and suffering other consequences.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, US Senator Marsha Blackburn and other top Republicans called for a "no" vote, saying a union could cause economic harm. Blackburn said the unionization attempts would hurt workers, adding, "We do not need Detroit union leaders to tell Tennessee what is best for our workers."
In April, Lee sparked shouts of joy when he said at a meeting in camera to VW employees that he was convinced that "when I have a direct relationship with you, the worker, and you work for me, the environment better, "according to a record obtained by Labor Notes, a pro-union publication.
In 2014, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga voted 712-626 against unionization through the Detroit-based UAW, taking into account the opinion of US Senator Bob Corker and then Governor Bill Haslam. as well as other GOP officials who called for a "no".
During this election, Corker waited until the vote actually started at the factory in his hometown, guaranteeing that the company would announce within two weeks of rejection by the union that it would build a new SUV of medium size in its only US factory, instead of sending the job to Mexico.
Volkswagen has announced that a new SUV will be produced in Chattanooga five months after the vote, essentially confirming Corker's forecasts, but in a different timeframe.
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