VW collaborating with UAW to force union on Chattanooga plant -- By Sean Higgins, The Washington Examiner

 "UAW wants VW to accept this 'card check' as proof and forego a federally monitored secret ballot election."

United Auto Workers organizer Gary Casteel says Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn., workers want to form a union. But he’s not particularly interested in letting them put that up to a vote.

“We've determined we definitely have a majority of employees who favor this representation,” Casteel told the Tennessean last month. “But we are not seeking a vote necessarily.”

Why not, if that is what the workers want?

“We know if we go for a traditional election where the outside organizations could campaign against us, we’d probably lose,” Casteel said.

In other words, it actually isn’t clear that a majority of the workers want a union.

If the plant does unionize, it will be more because Volkwagen's management wants it, not the workers. A unique set of circumstances has given the German-based company an incentive to unionize the plant -- and Big Labor hopes that it has found a winning strategy in the union-averse South.

All that stands in the way for both are the workers themselves.

Some workers have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company is colluding with the UAW to coerce them into joining.

Charges of fraud against UAW’s organizing tactics have also been filed.

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