The United Automobile Workers union accused three foreign automakers on Monday of unfair labor practices, asserting that they had interfered with efforts by employees to build support for the union at U.S. plants.
The union said it had filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board contending that the automakers — Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen — had tried to prevent workers from discussing U.A.W. representation at work and that the companies had discriminated against those who had done so.
The action came two weeks after the U.A.W. announced an effort to organize nonunion plants owned by 10 foreign-owned companies, along with the domestic manufacturers Tesla, Lucid and Rivian, which make electric vehicles. The union has tried unsuccessfully to unionize some of those companies’ factories in recent years, but not simultaneously on such a wide scale.
The U.A.W. said Monday that hundreds of workers at Honda’s plant in Greensburg, Ind., and at Hyundai’s plant in Montgomery, Ala., and more than 1,000 workers at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., had signed cards expressing support for joining the union.
At Honda, the union said, workers “report being targeted and surveilled by management for pro-union activity,” while at Hyundai, “management has unlawfully confiscated, destroyed, and prohibited pro-union materials in nonwork areas during nonwork times.”
It said that Volkswagen “had harassed and threatened workers for talking about the union” and that it had “confiscated and destroyed pro-union materials in the break room,” among other accusations.
In a statement, Volkswagen said that it took such accusations seriously and that it would investigate the matter. “Volkswagen respects our workers’ right to determine who should represent their interests in the workplace,” it said.
Honda said, “We have not and would not interfere with our associates’ right to engage in activity supporting or opposing the U.A.W.” Hyundai said that the union’s depiction of the matter was not accurate and that its workers “may choose to join a union or not as is their legal right.”
Shawn Fain, the U.A.W. president, lashed out at the three companies in a statement issued by the union. “These companies are breaking the law in an attempt to get autoworkers to sit down and shut up instead of fighting for their fair share,” he said. “But these workers are showing management that they won’t be intimidated out of their right to speak up and organize for a better life.”
The U.A.W. is trying to organize foreign-owned plants after a six-week wave of strikes against the three Detroit automakers — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Chrysler, and other brands — that resulted in contracts providing record wage increases and additional gains in benefits.
In addition to Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen, the foreign companies that the U.A.W. said last week that it was targeting are Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Mazda, and Volvo.
The new contracts at Ford, G.M., and Stellantis raise the top hourly wage to $40 at the end of the four-and-a-half-year term, from $32 previously. Hourly wages at the foreign automakers in the United States generally range from the high teens to the high 20s.
After the U.A.W. agreements with the Detroit automakers were reached this fall, Honda said it would provide raises of 11 percent next year, and Hyundai said it would increase pay 14 percent next year and 25 percent by 2028. Toyota also announced raises.
