UPDATE 1-Germany's IG Metall to deepen ties with U.S. union UAW

(Adds comments from press conference in Tennessee, recasts)
By Kirsti Knolle and Tim Ghianni
FRANKFURT/SPRING HILL, Tenn., Nov 19 (Reuters) - Germany's
largest trade union and the U.S. United Auto Workers (UAW) said
on Thursday they would deepen their partnership and set up an
office in Tennessee to boost labor rights at German automakers
and their suppliers based in the United States.
Frankfurt-based union IG Metall estimates that 100,000
employees work for German auto manufacturers in the United
States.
"We want to help the UAW to comprehensively ensure good
working conditions, fair remuneration and genuine employee
participation rights in the United States," said Wolfgang Lemb,
an IG Metall executive board member.
For the UAW the partnership is a chance to develop new
approaches in representing employees' interests, said Gary
Casteel, UAW vice president and head of its organizing effort at
foreign-owned plants.
"The Germans understand better than anyone in the world that
what's best for employees is best for the employers," Casteel
said at a press conference in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Spring Hill, near Nashville, is where the two unions will
set up shop as the Transatlantic Labor Institute at a UAW union
hall, near a General Motors Co (N:GM) GM.N plant.
The UAW relied on the help of IG Metall that led up to a
February 2014 labor representation vote where workers at the
Volkswagen AG VOWG_p.DE plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
rejected the U.S. union.
The UAW also hopes that IG Metall can help it organize
workers at the Daimler AG DAIGn.DE Mercedes-Benz plant in
Alabama. There has been less UAW activity at the BMW BMWG.DE
plant in South Carolina, a staunch anti-union state.
Trade unions are a powerful voice in Germany. IG Metall
represents employees' interests at all major car makers in
Germany and unions sit on the boards of all major companies. In
the United States unions generally wield far less clout.
The ties between the two unions comes against the backdrop
of the emissions scandal at VW.
Lemb dismissed the emissions scandal as a problem of
management. "The employees should not be held hostage," he said.
The German carmaker has opposed a bid by skilled trades
workers at its lone U.S. auto assembly plant to be represented
by the UAW, saying the timing is bad. The vote is due to take
place on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N13D2TP