A signed agreement shows that Volkswagen officials reneged on a pledge to recognize the United Auto Workers without another vote at the German automaker's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee, a top union official said Tuesday. Gary Casteel, the UAW's secretary-treasurer, released the 2014 document stating that Volkswagen would recognize the UAW as the representative of its members in exchange for the union dropping a challenge to the outcome of a union election at the plant in Chattanooga, AP reported. "Volkswagen never fulfilled its commitments to recognize the union as a representative of its members," Castell said in a conference call. "The unfulfilled commitment is at the heart of the ongoing disagreement between the company and the union." The union said the written agreement for the company to "recognize the UAW as a 'members union'" stemmed from negotiations led by Volkswagen's then-chief financial officer, Hans Dieter Poetsch, who has since been named chairman amid the company's diesel emissions cheating scandal. But Volkswagen Chattanooga spokesman Scott Wilson countered in an email that the company has "no contract with the UAW." He said the agreement is reflected in a labor policy established at the plant to formalize meetings between worker representatives and management, but stops well short of collective bargaining. That arrangement "remains an excellent way for deepening the dialogue with employee organizations," Wilson said. Casteel told reporters that plant-specific labor policy is "by no stretch" what the negotiators envisioned. "We all talked extensively about what recognition means and what would occur if we withdrew our objections to the election," he said. "The meaning was very clear to all in the room."
