An article titled “Volkswagen to Close Chattanooga Plant Following Anti-Union Vote, State to Lose 13K Jobs” is actually from a “satire” news site called the National Report.
“Top Volkswagen executives are meeting this evening to discuss the process for closing their Chattanooga plant following a vote last week that saw workers in the plant reject efforts by VW representatives to setup a German-style works council by voting against representation by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union,” the fake news piece reads.
It had more than 63,000 shares on Facebook as of Friday.
It continues: “According to Reuters, ‘German workers enjoy considerable influence over company decisions under the legally enshrined ’co-determination‘ principle which is anathema to many politicians in the U.S. who see organized labor as a threat to profits and job growth.’” There’s no Reuters article with that text.
The National Report has a disclaimer that says it’s fake news, but it’s sometimes hard to find.
“National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental,” it reads, via Archive.org.
Many people thought the Volkswagen article was real.
