Workers at Tennessee Volkswagen factory ask for vote on representation by United Auto Workers union

By TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer

DETROIT (AP) — Volkswagen’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is likely to be the first test of the United Auto Workers’ effort to organize nonunion automobile plants across the nation. The union said workers at the factory filed paperwork Monday with the National Labor Relations Board seeking a union representation election. They are the first to ask for a vote in the union’s campaign, which was announced last fall after the UAW won strong contracts with Detroit automakers. The UAW said a supermajority of the VW plant’s roughly 4,000 production workers had signed cards supporting union representation. A union can seek an election run by the NLRB once a majority of workers sign on. Volkswagen said it respected the right of workers to determine who should represent them.