UAW seeks VW's blessing to represent Tennessee workers Doing so would eliminate the need for a more formal and divisive vote, UAW President Bob King said, and allow the union and VW to represent the workers using an "innovative model" that would be a milestone in the union's long-running effort to organize foreign-owned auto plants. Critics, however, argue that such an approach would be undemocratic. Historically, the U.S. South has been hostile to unions, and scoring a win at VW would mark the UAW's first success at a major foreign automaker's plant in that region. That could alter the landscape in the U.S. auto sector, opening door to similar efforts at plants owned by Germany's Mercedes in Alabama and BMW in South Carolina, and possibly those owned by Japanese and South Korean automakers, analysts have said. The question in Tennessee would be whether the UAW seeks a formal vote for recognition or asks VW officials simply to recognize the union as the official bargaining unit for the workers under a new German-style representation model called a "works council." I don't think that's in the best interests of Tennessee. "If they want to ... recognize us based on majority, I think that is the quickest, most effective way," he added, noting that the UAW has taken a similar approach with hundreds of other companies in the United States. Avoiding lengthy and potentially bitter elections has been an aim of U.S. labor for years, said Arthur Schwartz, a consultant and former General Motors Co labor negotiator. The Employee Free Choice Act, which has never had enough support to pass in U.S. Congress, would have allowed a union to be automatically recognized without an election if it were able to persuade 50 percent of the workforce plus one person to sign cards supporting the union. Opponents of the act, including many Republicans, say that approach subverts the democratic process. They argue the union can pressure workers to sign the cards, whereas as elections with confidential ballots allow people to vote their true desires. "Team members (at the plant) have said to me, "Well, I had the understanding that I would have a secret ballot, the democratic process, and now it looks like it's being taken away from me,'" said Don Jackson, an industry consultant who was VW's U.S. manufacturing chief until last June. UAW officials have said workers have already expressed their desire by signing the cards. The head of VW's global works council, Bernd Osterloh, told Reuters the current debate was "absolutely unacceptable" and there were "clear signs" the UAW has the support of many employees in Tennessee to discuss some sort of representation. "VW has only acquired its global strength because workers are tied into corporate decisions," he said in an email. We will continue the talks in the U.S. to set up a German-style works council with the UAW and all politicians that are open to this. VW executives in the United States have said the workers will have the final decision on whether to choose the UAW, but they have repeatedly focused on a formal voting process. Jackson, the former U.S. manufacturing chief at VW, expects the automaker would only accept the union after a confidential ballot vote by the Tennessee plant's workers. Tennessee officials are more hostile to the union. U.S. Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, told Reuters on Tuesday that bringing the UAW into the VW plant would be "a job-destroying idea" and termed laughable the union's claims it has become more flexible and easier to work with than in the past. Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit, Andreas Cremer in Berlin and Jan Schwartz in Hamburg; editing by Matt Driskill and Matthew Lewis