CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The polls have closed in a vote over whether a group of workers at Volkswagen's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee want to be represented by the United Auto Workers union.
The election involving 162 skilled-trades workers, who are responsible for repairing and maintaining machines and robots at the Chattanooga factory, ended Friday night. The remaining 1,200 production workers are not affected by the vote.
An election involving the entire blue-collar workforce ended up in defeat for the UAW last year. The skilled-trades workers later decided to seek their own vote.
Volkswagen objected to the move, but the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board said the group has enough of a shared "community of interest" to allow them to seek their own bargaining unit. The company plans to appeal.