CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Workers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have voted against forming a union.
A win would have offered the United Auto Workers its first fully organized, foreign-owned auto assembly plant in the traditionally anti-union South.
The vote of hourly workers began Wednesday and concluded Friday. The German automaker said in a statement Friday night that preliminary results show 833 employees voted against representation and 776 voted for it.
Gov. Bill Lee, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and other top Republicans urged a "no" vote, saying a union could cause economic harm.
In 2014, then-U.S. Sen. Bob Corker and then-Gov. Bill Haslam helped convince Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga to vote against UAW representation.
UAW officials questioned why Chattanooga should differ from Volkswagen's other major, union-represented plants worldwide, or Spring Hill's General Motors plant with 3,000 UAW-represented workers.
