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UAW Falls 87 Votes Short Of Major Victory In South

Just 87 votes at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee separated the United Auto Workers union from what would have been its first successful organization of workers at a foreign automaker in the South. Instead of celebrating a potential watershed moment for labor politics in the region, UAW supporters were left crestfallen by the 712-626 vote against union representation in the election that ended Friday night. The result stunned many labor experts who expected a UAW win because Volkswagen tacitly endorsed the union and even allowed organizers into the Chattanooga factory to make sales pitches. The loss is a major setback for the UAW's effort to make inroads in the growing South, where foreign automakers have 14 assembly plants, eight built in the past decade, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Michigan. "If this was going to work anywhere, this is where it was going to work," she said of the Volkswagen vote. Organizing a Southern plant is so crucial to the union that UAW President Bob King told workers in a speech that the union has no long-term future without it. The loss means the union remains largely quarantined with the Detroit Three in the Midwest and Northeast. Many viewed VW as the union's best chance to gain a crucial foothold in the South because other automakers have not been as welcoming as Volkswagen. Labor interests make up half of the supervisory board at VW in Germany, and they questioned why the Chattanooga plant is the company's only major factory worldwide without formal worker representation. VW wanted a German-style "works council" in Chattanooga to give employees a say over working conditions. The company says U.S. law won't allow it without an independent union. In Chattanooga, the union faced stern opposition from Republican politicians who warned that a UAW victory would chase away other automakers who might come to the region. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee was the most vocal opponent, saying that he was told that VW would soon announce plans to build a new SUV in Chattanooga if workers rejected the union. That was later denied by a VW executive, who said the union vote had no bearing on expansion decisions. Other state politicians threatened to cut off state incentives for the plant to expand if the union was approved.

VW consumer site finally gets configurator tool back

The traditional vehicle configurator is back on the Volkswagen US consumer website, and it works very well. The company now lets visitors create a virtual model to their own specs and then search for a match among dealer inventories, as is the norm from most automakers. Last summer, Volkswagen tried to break the mold with its thoroughly redesigned consumer website in the US. It sported a slick design but made the highly controversial change of removing the configurator. Instead, visitors were narrowing their selection from a searchable database of models already at dealers. While the streamlined approach immediately told users if their desired car was available, the system also largely hid the prices for options and packages. The newly tweaked design retains the previous tablet-oriented layout, but after clicking a model, the site immediately offers "Build Yours." From there, visitors select a trim, and then the vehicle pops up with options to choose things like colors and packages. The whole layout is clean, features large buttons and works quickly. At the summary page, there's still the opportunity to search for the user's choice in dealer inventories. This is definitely a major improvement.

2022 Genesis GV70, raging at VW ID.4 tech and thoughts on a new Lexus LFA | Autoblog Podcast #696

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor James Riswick. This week, they talk about driving the Genesis GV70, VW ID.4 and VW Taos. They talk about ways Chevy could "fix" the Camaro. James ranked all the James Bond films based solely on their starring cars. Next, they reach in the mailbag and discuss the question, "Do you think Lexus will make a successor to the LFA and, if so, what do you guys think it would be like?" After ruminating on that query, they dip into the mailbag a second time to recommend a sporty crossover to a listener in this week's Spend My Money segment. Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #696 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown What we're driving: 2022 Genesis GV70 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 2022 Volkswagen Taos How we'd fix the Chevy Camaro All 24 James Bond movies ranked only by their cars Mailbag: What would a Lexus LFA successor look like? Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video: Lexus LFA | TRANSLOGIC