AMERICAN COUNCIL OF EMPLOYEES

VW-CHATTANOOGA

Dear Friend,

More than a year ago, VW-Chattanooga Team Members created the American Council of

Employees for one purpose—to protect our rights as employees to speak for ourselves on those

matters impacting our jobs and affecting our facility.

ACE is still the only organization dedicated solely to the success of Volkswagen in Chattanooga.

We are not beholden to outside groups, competing automakers or self-interested labor leaders.

When you join ACE, you know exactly what you are standing for and who you are standing

beside.

The members of ACE stand for:

• Ensuring that all team members, not just a select group, have a voice in determining the future

of our facility.

• Establishing an effective, local works council model, capable of communicating directly with

the VW Global Works Council.

• Guaranteeing respectful treatment of team members, appropriate conduct of supervisory

personnel and direct interaction with management.

• Maintaining competitive wages, job security and a high quality work environment.

This week, some VW-Chattanooga Team Members are asked to vote as to whether they want to

be represented exclusively by the United Auto Workers. Unfortunately, the UAW, admitting

their failure to secure support of a true majority, denied us the right to vote together as a unified

workforce, opting instead to subdivide maintenance workers with no concern for how this might

negatively impact employees’ long-term interests.

Nevertheless, we should all take this opportunity to evaluate such an extremely critical decision.

When all of the facts are examined, it is clear that the UAW is not the right choice for

Volkswagen or Chattanooga.

Most upsetting is the fact that the UAW would chose such an inappropriate time to demand an

election.

As we all know, Volkswagen and our facility are in the midst of a crisis. We need unity now

more than ever. The company needs our support to overcome some very significant challenges,

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF EMPLOYEES

VW-CHATTANOOGA

and Team Members need to support one another within the effort to improve our workplace and

ensure the stability and quality of our jobs.

The timing of this “ambush election” amounts to the UAW kicking us while we are down, and

puts all of our jobs at risk. Is this the sort of organization we want speaking on our behalf?

The UAW has intentionally left many questions unanswered… What voice, if any, will other

Local 42 members have if the UAW becomes the exclusive representative of such a small

number of employees? How would VW-Chattanooga employees’ interests be prioritized, when

99% of the UAW’s automotive members represent competitors from Detroit? What influence

does IG Metall’s partnership with UAW have, and how will their pledge to keep production jobs

in Germany impact our facility?

We had hoped that our fellow team members would be provided with the information needed to

determine exactly who – and what – they are voting for, but this hasn’t been the case.

The UAW has repeatedly said that exclusive union representation is the only avenue to

establishing a works council at VW-Chattanooga Operations. As we now see, that is entirely

false. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce just released a report, backed by lawful authority, which

directly states that the concept of a works council is legally incompatible with exclusive union

representation. If this is true, we have to ask ourselves, what are the UAW’s real intentions?

What exactly would we be getting if we voted for the UAW?

Without question, we know that ACE supports Volkswagen-Chattanooga Operations, ACE

supports all Volkswagen team members, and ACE supports the Chattanooga community.

So please, ask yourself, who truly deserves your support?

Sincerely,

American Council of Employees

David Reed

Team Leader, VW-Chattanooga

President, ACE-Chattanooga

Tom Haney

Lab Specialist, VW-Chattanooga

Vice President, ACE-Chattanooga