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(CNN) – Workers at Volkswagen's only US plant narrowly defeated the United Auto Workers union to set up the Chattanooga, Tennessee plant.
The vote announced Friday night showed that only 48% of hourly workers voted in favor of union representation, a little more similar vote five years ago, but not enough to win. More than 1,600 workers voted in the elections, more than 90% of those eligible.
Voting was a vital battle in the UAW's efforts to reverse the decline of its members and its influence within the US auto industry.
A victory for the union would have been historic. Foreign manufacturers, such as VW and Toyota, owns 31 plants and produces nearly half of the cars built in the United States. None of these 31 foreign-owned factories have ever been unionized. Workers are generally paid less than those represented by the UAW.
The union accounted for more than a million people in auto badembly plants as recently as the 1980s, but today only 155,000 members remain at GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. . Factory closures, automation, the transfer of production to Mexico and the rise of foreign companies such as Volkswagen and Asian manufacturers have had adverse consequences.
The UAW desperately needs to break into a so-called transplant plant.
"It's important for the UAW to recruit one of the factories to rebuild its workforce as well as its weight," said Michelle Krebs, senior badyst at Cox Automotive.
According to the UAW, the average Volkswagen factory worker earns about $ 21 an hour, compared with $ 28 an hour in a unionized auto plant.
"We are among the highest paid employers in the region," the company said in a statement.
The VW plant in Chattanooga was one of the best opportunities for the UAW to win a vote in a transplant plant. A member of the German Union of Automobile Workers sits on the VW Board of Directors. More than 100 VW factories worldwide employ workers represented by a union – all over China and at the Chattanooga factory. But union opponents from the factory and the city have waged a fierce campaign against union representation, arguing that union representation was bad for Volkswagen and the factory workers.
Five years ago, the company was relatively neutral when voting and the union went so far as to congratulate the management for the way the vote took place. This time, the union did not praise VW, saying that the pressure on the workers by the management showed the need to change the country's labor laws.
"Our labor laws are broken," said union spokesman Brian Rothenberg. "Workers should not be subjected to threats and intimidation to obtain the right to bargain collectively.The law does not serve the workers, it is addressed to intelligent lawyers capable of manipulating the [election] process."
The company's statement said it would respect the decision of employees who rejected the union.
"Our employees have spoken," he said.
The vote comes as the UAW faces tough negotiations with General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler on a new round of labor contracts later this year.
Jobs will be a big problem. GM, for example, closes four US factories. Competitive pressures from non-union transplant plants are looming in the background.
Krebs said the gap between unionized and non-union factories is narrowing. Ten years ago, the union made concessions to help GM, Ford and Chrysler stay alive in the face of cheaper competition from foreign manufacturers. And he never fully recovered. Implanting in a transplant plant would give an advantage to the UAW.
"If all the factories were represented by the UAW, they would have more power over the automakers," said Krebs. But this has not been the case for the US auto industry since the early 1980s, when transplants began to open.
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