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The UAW said today that a super-majority of Mercedes-Benz workers have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a vote to join the progressive union help create and sustain the American middle class. With more than 5000 workers at the Mercedes plant outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this is the second group of Southern autoworkers to call for a union election. They want it before May or in less than three weeks. Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., filed their election in mid-March and will have their vote to join the UAW April 17-19. Mercedes management is running an aggressive anti-union campaign, the UAW maintains.*
“We are standing up for every worker in Alabama. At Mercedes, at Hyundai and at hundreds of other companies, Alabama workers have made billions of dollars for executives and shareholders, but we haven’t gotten our fair share. We’re going to turn things around with this vote. We’re going to end the Alabama discount,” said Jeremy Kimbrell, a measurement machine operator at Mercedes. Continue reading
SEC Gets Final Judgment Against Volkswagen on Dieselgate
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said today that it obtained final judgment by consent against defendant Volkswagen Group of America Finance, LLC (“VWGOAF”),* which the SEC had charged in 2019 with making false and misleading statements in connection with its 2014 and 2015 offerings of billions of dollars of corporate bonds.
The SEC’s complaint, filed on 14 March 2019, alleged,** among other things, that from April 2014 to May 2015, VWGOAF issued more than $8 billion in bonds at a time when senior VW executives knew that more than 500,000 of their vehicles in the U.S. grossly exceeded legal vehicle emissions limits, exposing the company to massive financial and reputational harm. The complaint said that VWGOAF made false and misleading statements to investors and underwriters about vehicle quality, environmental compliance, and VW’s financial standing. Continue reading →