CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Commissioner Jeff Eversole held a press conference Wednesday, October 22nd, encouraging the UAW to bring Volkswagen’s final offer to a vote.
Although the UAW does not approve of the final offer.
Jeff Eversole is the district ten commissioner for the Hamilton County Commission.
He said, “The individuals, the team members who work here made a decision for UAW to represent them and all I’m asking is for UAW to listen to what they want.”
Commissioner Eversole believes the workers want the vote.
Angelo Robinson works in the paint department at Volkswagen.
He said, “Let us vote on this contract. If everything is not in there, you don’t get everything on the first bang anyways. In four more years what is not in there we can negotiate for that four more years later.”
Volkswagen’s final offer includes a 20 percent wage increase, a $4,000 ratification bonus, and a reduction in health care costs.
Yet workers are being told they can’t vote on it.
Robinson says, “They have bargaining committee guys come down to the floor, hey when do we get to vote on this contract. You don’t. What do you mean we don’t? The wording is not the way we want it. I have been here for 15 and a half years, I have never worried about job security until now.”
The UAW says the vote can’t happen until they work out the contract’s wording.
One contention with the contract is with Job Security.
Michael Bromley works at Volkswagen and is an UAW bargainer.
He said, “Well the job security language is definitely not adequate. They use language such as impractical, and impractical means inconvenient and that’s the plane closing language. The successorship clause says we will not curb, curtail, or shut down the plant…unless. A true successorship clause would say we commit to not closing the plant during the duration of the agreement.”
Although Volkswagen has said they finished negotiating, the UAW believes the negotiations remain open.
Bromley says, “I believe there’s more negotiating room left to be had, but they need to come to the table and we need to have hard conversations. We didn’t walk away from the table in our counter proposal. We made a lot of concessions and we believe it’s fair and we believe that we can really work this out at the table. It’s Volkswagen choosing not to come to the table and bargain with their own workforce.”
The UAW is open to escalation and had this to say when asked what escalation means.
“I think you see. We are practicing with our Strike signs. It’s just for practice but the real thing may come,” said Bromley.
Rely on News 12 to stay updated on negotiations between the UAW and Volkswagen.
