Under a new president, the United Auto Workers union is going to take a new shot at organizing workers at the U.S. plants of Asian and Japanese automakers.
UAW President Bob King said he has written the CEOs of major foreign automakers informing them of the union's plans and asking them not to interfere with attempts to organize workers, Automotive News reports.
For decades, the UAW has represented workers at General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler Group. Foreign automakers largely avoided building plants in Michigan, favoring the mid-Atlantic and South where workers aren't as amenable to joining unions. The UAW has had little luck in organizing them in the past.
Of course, that's was before the recent resurgence by the Big 3:
GM and Chrysler have seen their fortunes improve since their bankrutpcy filings last year. Both companies, plus Ford, lowered their cost structures by seeking concessions from the UAW.
If the UAW is allowed to hold a fair election and workers at transplant operations vote against unionization, the UAW will respect the decision and quietly leave, King said.
Once the campaign is announced, the UAW expects to begin actively organizing workers at the plant level, King said. Given a chance, workers want to participate in a cooperative way with management to decide how to improve their jobs, he said.
The News says one foreign maker, Toyota, says it will let its 20,000 U.S. hourly manufacturing workers at 10 plants to decide whether they want a union. But it could be hard for the UAW to make inroads. Toyota made headlines last year for paying workers to come to work last year even when some of its plants, like the San Antonio factory where the Tundra pickup is produced, had shutdown production for weeks.
