From Payday Report: After Ten-Year Battle, a Younger Generation Leads the Way at Volkswagen
By MIKE ELK
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE – Ten years ago, Angelo Hernandez’s father was involved in the union drive at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. That effort narrowly failed, but a decade later, the son may be able to achieve his father’s dream.
“He was the one who, like, told me about the union before I was even in this job,” says the 20-year-old Hernandez.
When the current union drive got started late last year, his dad started pushing him to get involved. “I’m here and I’m gonna go for it right now,” Angelo says he told his dad.
For more than a decade, workers have fought, argued, and tried to persuade their colleagues to join a union. After the first loss at this Volkswagen plant in 2014, the United Auto Workers even established a minority union, Local 42.