Dec. 11 (UPI) — The United Auto Workers Union announced Monday it has filed unfair labor practices complaints against Honda Motor Co. Ltd. in Indiana, Hyundai Motor Co. in Alabama and Volkswagen AG in Tennessee.
The union claimed the three automakers have engaged in illegal “union-busting” at the plants as pro-union workers attempt to organize the facilities.
“America’s autoworkers are ready,” UAW President Shawn Fain said of employees at non-union facilities, many of which are in the southern United States. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The union chief said in a Facebook Live session the companies are responding harshly to a unprecedented surge in union interest among workers following the UAW’s strikes earlier this year at the unionized “Big Three” automakers, in which it succeeded in posting gains such as a 27% base wage increase at General Motors.
Monday’s filings with the National Labor Relations Board come shortly after the union, seeking to capitalize on its momentum, launched an organizing campaign at 13 non-union automakers covering 150,000 autoworkers, which would double the union’s current membership.
The UAW said Honda workers have told them pro-union employees are being targeted and surveilled by management at the Japanese automaker’s plant in Greensburg, Ind., after “hundreds” of workers there signed union cards.
“So, now the companies are bringing out the stick,” Fain said. “Like corporations everywhere, no matter what they tell you, these companies are more than willing to break the law, if it means protecting their bottom line from the workers.
“They’ll lie, cheat, steal, intimidate. They’ll surveil people, and they’ll coerce, then out of the other side of their mouth, they’ll tell you, ‘We’re a family.'”
“Honda encourages our associates to engage and get information on this issue,” Honda spokesman Chris Abbruzzese told the Detroit News. “We have not and would not interfere with our associates’ right to engage in activity supporting or opposing the UAW.”
