CHATTANOOGA: Skilled-trades workers at Volkswagen’s lone US plant on Friday voted to be represented by United Auto Workers (UAW), marking the union’s first victory at a foreign-owned automaker in the South. The workers who specialise in repairing and maintaining machinery and robots at the German automaker’s factory in Chattanooga voted 108 to 44 to have the UAW negotiate collective bargaining agreements on their behalf. The vote comes nearly 20 months after the union was narrowly defeated in an election involving all hourly employees at the plant. The UAW has been thwarted for decades in its attempts to represent workers outside of General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. Volkswagen had objected to the new vote for the UAW to represent just the 162 skilled-trades workers, arguing that all 1,400 blue-collar workers should have a say over union issues.