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  3. In 1979 the United Auto Workers(UAW)had more than 1.5m members, and nine of the country’s ten bestselling cars were American bra

In 1979 the United Auto Workers(UAW)had more than 1.5m members, and nine of the country’s ten bestselling cars were American bra

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问题     In 1979 the United Auto Workers(UAW)had more than 1.5m members, and nine of the country’s ten bestselling cars were American brands. The Toyota Corolla came eighth; the first time a foreign-branded car had cracked the top ten. Today the UAW’s membership is around 400,000, and not all of those are car workers: over the years the union has sought recruits on farms, in casinos and at universities. And of the top ten bestselling cars in America last year, seven were foreign-badged.
    Americans are not only buying foreign-badged cars, they are also making them: seven of America’s 15 most productive assembly plants last year were foreign-owned. Although the UAW has had some success at organizing foreign-owned partsmakers, it has so far failed to organize workers at the carmakers themselves. Its attempts in recent years to get into Nissan’s plants in Tennessee and Mississippi have failed. Now it has set its sights on German carmakers: Mercedes and, especially, Volkswagen.
    At VW’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the UAW, with support from IG Metall, which represents workers in VW’s German plants, has been pushing for the creation of a works council. In German law, such factory-level bodies are distinct from labour unions: they cannot call for strikes, and their membership is limited to employees at the plant in question. Their relationships with management tend to be less adversarial than American unions’. But the UAW seems to see them as a foot in the door towards eventual union recognition.
    The status of works councils under American labour law—in particular, whether a company can have a works council without a union—is unclear. Managers are legally prohibited from "assisting" labour unions, and the National Labour Relations Board has tended to interpret that ban strictly. If VW workers do choose a works council, one way of satisfying the law might be to bring in an outside union to represent employees, thereby giving the UAW a way in.
    It is no coincidence that most of the foreign-owned plants have been built in "right to work" states in the South. Such states ban "closed shops" in which employees are forced to join a union at their workplace. This makes it harder for unions to gain influence, even if they have recruited some of the workforce at a plant. But the UAW’s boss, Bob King, has acknowledged that it must keep on trying to organize the foreign-owned assembly plants, otherwise it may not have a long-term future.
    When the foreign carmakers arrived, the UAW was strong enough to force them to pay the wages it had negotiated with the American car giants in Detroit. But as the number of jobs in the foreign-owned plants grew, and Detroit’s workforce shriveled, the union lost that price-setting power. Since the cost of living in the South is relatively cheap, the foreign carmakers could pay less than the American ones but still find plenty of willing recruits.
Why does the UAW push for the creation of a works council actively?
选项 A、Because this is a common practice in Germany.
B、Because managers cannot interfere with its work.
C、Because a works council cannot exist without a union.
D、Because this gives the UAW a chance to represent workers.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。根据题干关键词UAW和works council定位到第四段。该段第三句提到，美国的法律对于工人委员会的规定十分不清晰，因此，如果大众汽车真的要成立工人委员会，可能就必须引入外部工会来充当工人代表，这样UAW就可以介入工厂，拥有代表工人说话的权力，因此选[D]。文章没有说在德国成立works council是很普遍的现象，故排除[A]；该段第二句提到了资方不能“协助”工会工作，但不管是UAW，还是works council，资方都不能干涉，这不是UAW积极促成works council成立的原因，故排除[B]；文章中没有提到works council不能独立于union而存在，故排除[C]。
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