By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – The United Auto Workers union said Monday it filed unfair labor practice charges against Honda Motor, Hyundai Motor and Volkswagen citing aggressive anti-union campaigns to deter workers from organizing.
The UAW said last month it was launching a first-of-its-kind push to publicly organize the entire nonunion auto sector in the U.S. after winning new record contracts with the Detroit Three automakers.
Last week, the UAW said more than 1,000 factory workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant have signed union authorization cards, or more than 30% of workers.
The UAW filed charges over actions by Honda in Indiana, Hyundai in Alabama, and Volkswagen in Tennessee.
A Honda worker said management illegally told workers to remove union stickers from hats, the UAW said. Hyundai illegally polled employees about their support for the UAW and confiscated union materials and barred their distribution in non-work areas, the union charged.
Honda and Hyundai did not immediately comment.
The UAW said VW threatened and coerced employees “from exercising rights to engage in protected activity by prohibiting employees from discussing unionization during working time and restricting employees from distributing union materials.”
Volkswagen said on Monday it “respects our workers’ right to determine who should represent their interests in the workplace… We take claims like this very seriously and will investigate accordingly.”
The Detroit-based UAW said last month workers at 13 nonunion automakers were announcing simultaneous campaigns across the country to join the union, including at Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai, Rivian, Nissan, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
The UAW’s deals with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis included an immediate 11% pay hike and 25% increase in base wages through 2028, cuts the time needed to reach top pay to three years from eight years. Many foreign automakers have recently boosted pay and benefits in response.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
