Volkswagen has announced it will recognize an anti-union group at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, in a development that could hinder the United Auto Workers efforts to gain a foothold as the sole bargaining unit at the plant. The new group, The American Council of Employees, which claims about 15 percent of the plant's workers among its rolls, will be able to bargain with VW separately from the UAW under Germany's "works council" system of cooperation between labor and management. UAW Local 42, which narrowly lost an election last year to become workers' exclusive bargaining unit at the plant, currently represents about 45 percent of workers, and its gains represent growing support in a traditionally anti-union region. Some observers believe, however, that the ACE is supported by Volkswagen itself, part of a strategy to prevent Local 42 from gaining recognition.
See "Anti-UAW Labor Union For Auto Workers Raises Questions At Chattanooga VW Plant", Cole Stangler, International Business Times, February 17, 2015