The latest United Auto Workers disclosure with the U.S. Department of Labor shows the union has 816 members at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, or 55 percent of the blue collar work force.

The filing comes as the UAW works toward gaining collective bargaining rights at its first foreign-owned plant in the South. And the union's case for recognition could be bolstered by leadership shakeup at the German automaker that has left a former union chief, Berthold Huber, as the interim chairman of the world's No. 2 automaker.

The UAW last year narrowly lost a union vote at the Chattanooga plant that featured heavy campaigning by anti-union Republicans like U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. Huber at the time urged plant workers to vote to join the "global family of solidarity."

-- Associated Press