VW divided Union for U.S. factory but workers voices a must

DETROIT, Oct 10 Reuters)-Volkswagen AG-top executives about whether and how workers at the plant of the company in Tennessee of a Trade Union should be represented, but ultimately will insist on a formal vote are divided by those employees, said a person with knowledge on this Board think.

While US leaders of the United Auto workers are hostile to VW, the eight-Member Board of Directors, who are not identified can still questions the Union to set up a German embossing-staff-Board at the location Chattanooga said.

Top executives feeling, that any decision must be approved by the workers in a secret ballot to protect reputation of VWs and relieve investors and US officials, said the source, who could identify not the VW executives.

Such a decision would be a blow to the ambitions of the UAW, organizing foreign assembly plants in the South has top priority, to strengthen its membership has shrunk since its peak in 1979 to about three quarters. UAW leaders have said that such vote would allow that anti-EU forces to scare workers into votes against the Union.

A UAW success at Chattanooga was the industrial relations landscape for Foreign automakers in the United States, opening the door to similar organizing efforts to plant that in Alabama, and possibly said those who owned by Japanese and South Korean car manufacturer, owned by Germany's old BMW in South Carolina and Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz analysts.

How plays this problem could also affect, whether and when VW plant in Tennessee to build a seven person-crossover vehicle, the source said. The two-year old plant, which builds only the Passat sedan, designed to produce more than one vehicle.

The UAW said that it supports the majority of 1,567 workers at the Tennessee plant. UAW President Bob King said the Union Reuters last month, to avoid that fear would be a disputed election, as the German automaker voluntarily the Union recognize as the plant bargaining unit.

Critics argue that such an approach would be undemocratic. An employee in the plant paint shop, Mike Burton, said that more than 600 signatures from VW gained Chattanooga hourly employees at a UAW petition.

A VW spokesman refused the last outside the company confirmation of talks with the UAW comment and that any decision would be made by the staff. VW US executives have however in the past said that the workers would have to vote on such a decision.

Gary Casteel, Director who said UAW region, which includes Tennessee, add on Thursday that talks with Volkswagen running Union continue, added that he heard every decision by the VW Board has, whether it recognizes the UAW.

DECISION SOON

Any decision by VW Board of Directors but does not seem close. Administration divided on the question of whether the US plant called a Works Council should take a German style form - also known as participation - representation where workers and employees sit together on a Board, the source said.

VW said the source Board members want to signal any support for a Union before a formal vote by the employees.

Some on the Board are open to the idea of a Works Council, that includes the UAW, while negotiating decision as all parties try other, delay, what such a Board would look like and how it would work, said the source.

U.S. labor law requires that each operating Council will be combined with a US Trade Union.

Board members, however, are also sensitive to the views of politicians and other unions vote, the source said.

Last month, Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker said it would be a mistake for VW allow the UAW to organize workers at the Tennessee plant. He called the possibility of a "job-destroying idea" and said that it would take the company "Laughing stock in the business world."

VW US management is more hostile to the UAW behind the scenes, but that doesn't matter, and the final decision lies with the management in Wolfsburg Germany, where VW is based, the source said.