Over 200 rally for organizing Volkswagen ahead of potentially historic election this week

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton/ Supporters gather Sunday for a photo during a rally for the upcoming Volkswagen Chattanooga union vote. The rally was sponsored by Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence and was held at the at IBEW Local 175 Hall.

Union supporters rallied Sunday ahead of what they called a potentially historic election at Volkswagen Chattanooga this week to organize a foreign automaker in the South.

​To do so, the United Auto Workers will need to overcome the union's own recent history of corruption, with one group saying the UAW spent millions of dollars last year on travel, country clubs and entertainment.

But Sunday afternoon, more than 200 people packed a union meeting room at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' office in Chattanooga in a raucous rally.

Volkswagen workers and their families, community members, clergy and others joined the effort to see an outcome in which the automaker's employees vote to select the UAW as their bargaining representative.

VW assembly worker Billy Quigg told the group that employees are proud to work at the plant and know the company is "a good influence" on Chattanooga.
Still, he said Volkswagen is making billions of dollars and "all of us in this room know why we should vote yes."

​"We can make sure issues are heard and resolved," Quigg said.

​Over 200 rally for organizing Volkswagen ahead of potentially historic election this week
He said other auto plants are unionized in the South, such as the General Motors factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee, which he termed "a shining beacon."

Michael Gilliland, organizing director of Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence, said at the rally there's a lot of momentum and more energy than in past elections, when the UAW was voted down at VW.

Gilliland, whose group helped put on the rally, said in an interview the new contracts the UAW won after strikes against the Detroit Three automakers is one reason...

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