UAW Chief Rues Lack of Unions at Foreign-Owned Plants in U.S.

Outgoing United Auto Workers President Owen Bieber is disappointed that the union has been unable to organize employees at most of the foreign-owned U.S. auto plants during his tenure.

But Bieber and union Vice President Stephen Yokich, almost certain to be elected the new president next month, predicted at a news conference Wednesday that the UAW eventually will succeed in its campaigns at the so-called transplant factories.

Bieber said lax enforcement of federal labor laws has allowed the companies to “harass people and deny people their free rights to organize.”

“They threaten that they’ll move out, close plants. They highly screen people” before hiring, Bieber said. “We’ve seen that just recently in South Carolina in the case of BMW.”

A telephone call to BMW’s U.S. headquarters seeking comment was not immediately returned.

The only transplant factories with UAW workers are those that grew from joint ventures between U.S. and offshore companies. They include the New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif., which builds Toyotas and Chevrolet Geos; the Auto Alliance International plant in Flat Rock, Mich., which builds Ford and Mazda products, and Diamond-Star Motors in Normal, Ill., which builds Mitsubishi and Chrysler products.

The UAW has failed to organize workers at Toyota’s plant in Kentucky, Honda’s plant in Ohio, Nissan’s Tennessee operations, Subaru-Isuzu Automotive in Indiana and German auto maker BMW’s new plant in South Carolina.