US labour leaders are closing in on a decades-long goal of organising a factory run by a foreign car-maker, thanks to a bridgehead opened up at Volkswagen.
While a vote has not yet been scheduled, the United Auto Workers union says a majority of the 1700 workers at VW's plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have signed cards asking for union representation.
A win at VW would increase pressure on fellow German car-makers BMW and Daimler AG to open the door to unionisation efforts at their US facilities.
It could even boost the union's claims for recognition at factories run by Japan's Nissan, Honda and Toyota and South Korea's Kia and Hyundai.
Despite strong traditions of organised labour in their home countries, German, Japanese and South Korean car-makers have strongly resisted unionisation efforts in the US. Most of their plants are in southern states where anti-union sentiment runs high.
