WASHINGTON—A federal appeals court Dec. 26 sent a case involving whether workers at Volkswagen’s
Chattanooga plant can form a “micro-union” back to the National Labor Relations Board. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia approved the NLRB’s request to reconsider the unfair-labor-practice complaint it issued against VW in April 2016 for refusing to bargain with United Auto Workers Local 42, which skilled-trades workers at the plant had voted to join in December 2015. VW has refused to recognize any union that doesn’t include all production workers at the plant. The NLRB earlier this month voted on party lines to reverse an Obama-era decision that expanded workers’ rights to form micro-unions, discrete bargaining units within a workplace—but, with former chair Philip A. Miscimarra’s term expiring Dec. 16, it is now split 2-2 between Democrats and Trump appointees. “Two years ago, the NLRB supervised a free and fair election at Volkswagen—and the skilled-trades employees voted overwhelmingly to designate UAW Local 42 as their representative for collective bargaining,” Local 42 President Steve Cochran told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Read more
