Brent Snavely

Detroit Free Press

The UAW is escalating its organizing efforts with several automakers and is using widely different strategies as it tries to translate ongoing campaigns into tangible wins, UAW leaders and other sources say.

While the union's campaign to organize some automakers has appeared, at times, to stall in recent years, there are signs of renewed UAW activity in Mississippi with Nissan and in California with Tesla. Meanwhile, a fierce legal battle with Volkswagen rages on over the UAW's right to represent skilled trades workers at the automaker's plant in Chattanooga,Tenn.

Taken together, the organizing efforts show a union that has refused to give up even after multiyear efforts that have yielded few big victories.

The UAW is mounting a multipronged, nationwide push now because it is concerned that the Trump administration will be far more anti-labor than the Obama administration once it gets a labor secretary in place and establishes an agenda, according to a person familiar with the union's campaigns.

Andrew Puzder, Trump's controversial nominee for labor secretary, withdrew his nomination on Wednesday, but it's unlikely he will be replaced by a nominee that labor unions like.

UAW Treasurer Gary Casteel told the Free Press there has been a spike in interest for union representation at multiple auto plants operated by foreign automakers in recent months.

Casteel said he isn't sure what is driving the interest but he has a few theories. Casteel said the increased attention on the loss of manufacturing jobs and on the North American Free Trade Agreement during the presidential campaign, along with President Donald Trump's focus on U.S. jobs, has, in some ways, benefited the UAW.

"Here's the deal: Everything he has done with the manufacturers has helped us. It's growing our numbers," said Casteel.

He also attributes the increased interest to the better contracts the UAW negotiated with the Detroit Three in 2015.

"What I’ve seen post Big 3 bargaining is that there was a real uptick in interest. People saw that the rank and file workers actually had a real voice," Casteel said. "So, I don’t know if that is what caused it or not, but post bargaining, we saw a doubling or tripling of interest" at foreign automakers' plants.

Organizing continues to be critical for the UAW, which has gained members in recent years as the economy has rebounded but still needs to organize foreign automakers to regain bargaining leverage in the auto industry.

Helped by record U.S. auto sales and production increases, UAW membership rose by nearly 5,200 in 2015 to 408,639, according to the union's annual filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. It was the sixth straight year of growth for the UAW, but membership remains well below the peak of about 1.5 million in 1979.

The union's strategy to organize automakers has varied widely. With Nissan, for example, the UAW has married a global social justice message with a worker rights campaign. With Volkswagen, the UAW set up a local chapter to recruit workers as it worked with an automaker that was, at one time, neutral when it came to the UAW.

"It's just like when you are treating patients in the hospital: Every one of them gets a different treatment for a different illness," Casteel said.

On March 4, the UAW will hold a rally at a Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., that will be led by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and actor Danny Glover.

In Chattanooga, the UAW's victory in an election to represent about 170 skilled trades workers has been stalled, for now, by Volkswagen's appeal of the the election.

In Fremont, Calif., the newest front for the UAW, a worker at Tesla Motors captured national attention when he wrote a blog post complaining about low pay and working conditions at the automaker's plant.

"Although the cost of living in the Bay Area is among the highest in the nation, pay at Tesla is near the lowest in the automotive industry," Jose Moran wrote. "We need better organization in the plant, and I, along with many of my coworkers, believe we can achieve that by coming together and forming a union."

Moran's blog created a media firestorm for a number of reasons. First, the Tesla plant was previously operated by a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., commonly called NUMMI, and the workers were represented by the UAW.

Second, Tesla's factory south of San Francisco is the only assembly plant owned by an established American automaker that is not unionized. All General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler plants in the U.S. are unionized, in stark contrast to foreign automakers, which have established nonunion plants, many of them in the South.

Here's a deeper look at where the UAW stands in several key organizing campaigns:

Tesla: In early stages

The UAW has been trying to organize Tesla since 2010, according to a story by Gizmodo.

"This is not the first time we have been the target of a professional union organizing effort such as this," Tesla said in a statement. "The safety and job satisfaction of our employees here at Tesla has always been extremely important to us."

Moran, who used to work at the plant when it was operated by GM and Toyota, told the Free Press he first reached out to the UAW for support in early 2013.

"NUMMI had a strong labor-management relationship, and that is missing right now at Tesla," Moran said.

He said support has grown for forming a union, but workers are not yet ready to ask the automaker to recognize their union or call for an election.

"We are organizing, we are talking to workers and once we form our committee … we will march up to upper management and see if they recognize our union," Moran said. "If not, then we will petition for an election."

VW: Success stalled by litigation

The UAW has been trying to organize Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga since about 2009. The union came close to winning a majority support election in 2014 but lost 712-626.

Analysis: UAW faced tough sell with happy VW workers

The loss was a devastating setback to then-UAW President Bob King who was dealing, at the time, with a company that took a neutral position during the election.

"There was a collaborative approach with the company there," Casteel said.

The union was defeated, instead, by fierce local political opposition from Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, Republican Sen. Bob Corker and other politicians and right-to-work groups.

But the UAW didn't give up. Instead, it quickly set up a local UAW chapter in July 2014 and invited workers to join. The UAW has pursued a similar strategy with Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Soon, the UAW Local 42 called a new election for skilled trades workers who voted in favor of forming a union for their group in December 2015.

Volkswagen challenged the validity of that election with the National Labor Relations Board, lost, and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. The German automaker argued that the group selected by the UAW for representation is part of a larger community of workers and cannot be separately represented by a union. The German automaker also hired Littler Mendelson, a firm that prides itself in legal tactics designed to block unionizing efforts.

Gary Klotz, a partner at Butzel Long in Detroit, who generally represents corporate clients, says Volkswagen will likely lose its appeal.

That's because the same court ruled in a 2008 case that unions could represent separate bargaining units within the same workforce, and that case has been reaffirmed by other appeals courts.

"I think that, like the other federal appeals courts, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will … rule against Volkswagen in their appeal," Klotz said. "I think realistically they don’t expect to win. I think their tactic is a stalling tactic."

Volkswagen, in its legal filings, argues that the NLRB incorrectly interpreted the legal standard for separate bargaining units.

"When Volkswagen’s shop structure is properly considered, it becomes clear that the union’s gerrymandered maintenance unit is not an appropriate one under the board’s traditional criteria," the automaker said in its appeal.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a number of other groups have joined Volkswagen's legal challenge.

"If history is any indicator, we will prevail in the courts," Casteel said.

Nissan: Civil rights, worker rights

With Nissan, the UAW has married its workplace organizing campaign with a message tied to civil rights and human rights.

After losses at a Nissan plant in Tennessee in 1989 and again in 2001, the union relaunched its campaign in 2013 with the assistance of actor Danny Glover, local clergy and politicians. A website, called Do Better Nissan, is dedicated to highlighting allegations of unfair treatment of workers.

In Canton, where more than 80% of the workers are African-American, the UAW is working with a number of local religious leaders, as well as the Mississippi Alliance for Fairness at Nissan, a coalition of civil rights leaders, ministers and worker advocates, to apply public pressure on the automaker.

UAW supporters and community leaders have frequently alleged that workers should receive better pay and benefits, that the automaker should use fewer temporary workers and that the company frequently tries to intimidate workers who participate in union activities.

Nissan says it has instituted a Pathway program that has allowed thousands of workers to transition from a temporary agency to Nissan employee status and denies the intimidation tactics. The automaker also says its workers' hourly wages are significantly above the average central Mississippi production wage of $16.70 per hour. And it says it operates its plants at or above industry standards for safety.

"Our 6,400 employees have safe, stable jobs, with some of the highest wages and strongest benefits in the state of Mississippi," Nissan said in a statement to the Free Press.

But the automaker has been the target of widespread UAW protests.

Last month, the UAW launched protests at Nissan dealerships in Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, N.C.; and New Orleans. Protesters held signs that read, "Workers’ rights are civil rights" and "Hey Nissan. Stop threatening your workers in Mississippi."

70 in Nashville protest Canton Nissan plant's work conditions

The UAW also has taken the Nissan campaign global and has held protests against Nissan in Brazil, Switzerland, France and South Africa.

Casteel said the UAW's approach with Nissan is driven by the automaker's refusal to meet with the UAW. He said the UAW isn't ready to force an election at Nissan but will continue to apply public pressure on the automaker to recognize the union.

"It's just not fair to the worker for us to willy-nilly go out there and file for an election," Casteel said. "Our endgame is we are going to keep putting pressure on that company."

Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or bsnavely@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrentSnavely. USA TODAY and the Nashville Tennessean contributed to this report.