Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
Last week, Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee “ramped up his anti-union rhetoric” in hopes of persuading workers at Volkswagen AG’s plant in Chattanooga to vote against representation by the United Auto Workers. According to Reuters, on February 12th, Corker said he had been “assured” that if workers at the Volkswagen plant in his hometown rejected representation by UAW, the company would “reward the plant with a new product to build.” Bernie Woodall of Reuters said that Corker dropped that “bombshell” on the “first of a three-day secret ballot election of blue-collar workers” at the Chattanooga plant. The most troubling part—as I see it—is that Corker’s claim actually ran “counter to public statements by Volkswagen…”
The following day, Corker said that he was “very certain that if the UAW is voted down,” the automaker would announce new investment in the plant “in the next couple weeks.” It seems Corker hadn’t heard—or chose to ignore—a statement made earlier by Frank Fischer, chief executive of VW Chattanooga, “that there was ‘no connection’ between the vote at its three-year-old Tennessee plant and a looming decision on whether VW will build a new crossover vehicle there or in Mexico.”
Volkswagen officials acknowledged “their desire for a works council, arguing that their model of labor-management relations serves them well in every other country in the world, except China.” Under U.S. law, however, the company would not be able to “set up a works council without first having its employees vote for a union.”
The UAW “was dealt a stinging defeat” when a majority of employees at the Chattanooga facility voted against joining the union “after a high-profile opposition campaign led by Republican politicians and outside political groups.” According to the Washington Post, the auto union’s loss “came in spite of an unprecedented level of support from the company being organized.” Fischer who had actually “encouraged the idea of starting a German-style ‘works council’ at the plant, like those in place at Volkswagen’s other factories'” apparently was “saddened by the outcome.”
Fisher speaking after the union vote (Washington Post):
“Our employees have not made a decision that they are against a works council. Throughout this process, we found great enthusiasm for the idea of an American-style works council both inside and outside our plant,” Fischer said, reading from a statement. “Our goal continues to be to determine the best method for establishing a works council in accordance with the requirements of U.S. labor law to meet VW America’s production needs and serve our employees’ interests.”
Gary Casteel, organizer for the UAW’s Southern Region, said, “Unfortunately, politically motivated third parties threatened the economic future of this facility and the opportunity for workers to create a successful operating model that would grow jobs in Tennessee.”
Casteel was making reference to anti-union remarks made by “Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers, who threatened to withhold tax incentives from Volkswagen if the workers unionized, and attention from D.C.-based activist Grover Norquist.” UAW officials said they noticed that workers began “to turn against the union as they started hearing ‘threats and intimidation’ against the company.”
It appears that the Chattanooga auto workers may have made a big mistake when they rejected UAW membership last week. According to Huffington Post, theirs is the only “Volkswagen plant worldwide without a formal mechanism for workers’ representation.”
Huffington Post:
The German “co-determination” model mandates works councils, which connect employees to management, at all large German companies. Following the union vote, the head of Volkswagen’s works council told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the automaker would hesitate to expand in the U.S. South.
“I can imagine fairly well that another VW factory in the United States, provided that one more should still be set up there, does not necessarily have to be assigned to the South again,” said works council leader Bernd Osterloh.
“If co-determination isn’t guaranteed in the first place, we as workers will hardly be able to vote in favor” of building another plant in the right-to-work South, Osterloh added.
UAW chief says Bob Corker intimidated workers at Chattanooga Volkswagen plant
Now, thanks to Senator Bob Corker and others who spoke out against UAW representation for workers at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant it looks like the company probably won’t be rewarding the facility with any “new product” manufacturing there…or anywhere else in the “right-to-work South.”
SOURCES
Turns Out Anti-Union Volkswagen Workers May Have Screwed Themselves And The South (Huffington Post)
As Volkswagen workers vote, Tennessee senator ramps up anti-union talk (Reuters)
VW workers may block southern U.S. deals if no unions: labor chief (Reuters)
U.S. senator drops bombshell during VW plant union vote (Reuters)
Auto union loses historic election at Volkswagen plant in Tennessee (Washington Post)
All eyes on Chattanooga: VW’s workers are deciding the future of unions in the South (Washington Post)
annie,
Eddie Haskell?
Elaine or anyone, what was the name of that friend of Wally, the Beaver’s big brother, the one who got under the skin of Mrs.Cleaver? I recall he thought he was slick, but Mrs.Cleaver had his number. 😀
Incivility has left the building, Elaine. Now, this is opinion; but I believe that was key to making the positive change we’ve seen. EVERYONE here is more civil now.
nick,
Yes, you’ve been much more civil lately.
The autoworkers, Volkswagen and the new, new South
By Steven Pearlstein
Published: February 14, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/will-a-new-new-south-emerge-from-the-showdown-in-chattanooga/2014/02/14/9a1d4bd6-9362-11e3-83b9-1f024193bb84_story.html
Excerpt:
There is delicious irony, along with a generous dollop of hypocrisy, in the desperate efforts of business leaders and free-market conservatives to prevent 1,500 blue-collar workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., from forming a union.
For decades, these same elites have been busy telling American workers about all the benefits they’ll get from more cross-border trade and investment. But now that Volkswagen has overruled its American executives and decided to export its union-friendly German management style to a state that markets itself as a union-free zone, their enthusiasm for globalization has waned. To Bo Watson, the Republican president pro tempore of the Tennessee state senate, it’s downright “un-American.”
For decades, Southern companies have beat back union organizers by denying them access to plants and forcing workers to sit through daily indoctrination sessions for weeks on end as they are instructed on the evils of union “bosses” and the near-certain prospect of losing their jobs if they chose to bargain collectively. But now that Volkswagen has agreed to remain neutral and let the UAW in to make its pitch, the anti-union forces outside the factory gates are suddenly outraged by the lack of equal access.
And because Volkswagen refused to make the usual corporate threats that the plant will close and its work will be shipped to Mexico if workers vote to unionize, that responsibility has now fallen to the Volunteer State’s Republican politicians. Just as VW workers began voting last week, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker claimed to have been told by an unnamed top company executive that a vote against the union would guarantee that Chattanooga would be chosen as the production site for a new line of SUVs — a claim quickly denied by VW. Then there was the warning from the aforementioned Watson that if the plant were unionized, the Republican legislature would refuse to appropriate an estimated $700 million in state subsidies necessary to win the SUV expansion and the several thousand new jobs it would generate.
When Democratic politicians offer taxpayer subsidies or dare to interfere with private firms and private markets, as President Obama did with the bailout of Chrysler and GM in 2009, Republicans have been quick to criticize it as socialism and crony capitalism. But when Republicans do it, they call it economic development.
Perhaps the most hypocritical argument coming from the business Babbitts in Tennessee is that VW workers should look beyond their own narrow financial interests in deciding whether to vote in a union and consider the best interests of the wider community. When business leaders have been asked to do the same when deciding where to invest and which plants to close, they invariably dismiss such considerations out of hand, claiming they have no choice but to do whatever is necessary to maximize profits and share prices.
The anti-union claque down in Chattanooga, however, hasn’t restricted itself to job threats. On billboards and in radio ads, it has warned that letting in the UAW would turn Chattanooga into Detroit and hand control of the state over to Obama. My favorite bit of cynical propaganda was posted by the Orwellian-monikered Center for Worker Freedom under the headline, “UAW Wants Your Guns, Part 1.”
Indeed Elaine, but not to their own facts. It IS much more civil here by any analysis.
nick spinelli
And, so does our new commenter, Marie. We’ll be seeing more good people like Marie coming back. As Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing.”
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I had been wondering who was doing the choreography.
anonymously posted
http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2014/02/20/what-happened-in-chattanooga/
———————-
on 1, February 22, 2014 at 3:48 pm anonymously posted
“The right to form a union absent intimidation is one of the most fundamental democratic rights. It is hardly coincidental that among the first things dictators do is ban unions.” -from the previous link
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And what Mike A said.
Everyone has a right to his/her own opinion.
And, so does our new commenter, Marie. We’ll be seeing more good people like Marie coming back. As Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing.”
The records speaks for itself, dear women. Since the rule was enacted it has been very civil here. And, I’m here every day. We need to look forward and acknowledge the rule has changed this place for the better. We need to embrace civility, not just acknowledge it’s the rule. Don’t you like not having the constant epithets flying around? I certainly do.
annieofwi
Some of the worst offenders chant the civilty rule mantra as much as a Buddhist monk chants “ommmmmm”. Is is to laugh.
*****
Yep.
VW Isn’t Fighting Unionization—But Leaked Docs Show Right-Wing Groups Are
November 14, 2013
by Mike Elk
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/14/vw-isn%E2%80%99t-fighting-unionization%E2%80%94but-leaked-docs-show-right-wing-groups-are/
Excerpt:
After Volkswagen issued a letter in September saying the company would not oppose an attempt by the United Auto Workers (UAW) to unionize its 1,600-worker Chattanooga, Tenn., facility, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was flabbergasted.
“For management to invite the UAW in is almost beyond belief,” Corker, who campaigned heavily for the plant’s construction during his tenure as mayor of Chattanooga, told the Associated Press. “They will become the object of many business school studies — and I’m a little worried could become a laughingstock in many ways — if they inflict this wound.”
Corker isn’t the only right-winger out to halt UAW’s campaign. In the absence of any overt anti-union offensive by Volkswagen, conservative political operatives worried about the UAW getting a foothold in the South have stepped into the fray.
Leaked documents obtained by In These Times, as well as interviews with a veteran anti-union consultant, indicate that a conservative group, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, appears to be pumping hundred of thousands of dollars into media and grassroots organizing in an effort to stop the union drive. In addition, the National Right-to-Work Legal Defense Foundation helped four anti-union workers in October file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that Volkswagen was forcing a union on them.
“Everyone is definitely looking at this fight,” the anti-union consultant, Martin (not his real name), told In These Times. “This is the union fight going on right now and everybody [in the anti-union world] is looking to play their part and get compensated for playing their part.”
The last VW plant where workers don’t have a voice
As the only major VW plant in the United States, Chattanooga is also the only plant whose workers have no opportunity to join German-style “works councils” — committees of hourly and salaried employees who discuss management decisions, like which plant will make specific car models, on a local and global scale.
Organizing with the UAW, workers say, would help them to both form new works councils and gain representation at existing ones — which, in turn, would attract more jobs to the area.
“I personally feel like not having a union and not participating in a works council is going to do more damage for future expansion and new product development in Chattanooga than any unionization would do,” says Volkswagen employee Justin King. “The way VW works on the international level, [management] almost expects to work with a union. Now, we aren’t able to say, ‘Hey we would like to build that new SUV, or we would like to hire some new workers.’ We are only hurting ourselves by not going union.”
VW Plant Opens Door to Union and Dispute
By JACK EWING and BILL VLASIC
Published: October 10, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/business/vw-plant-opens-door-to-union-and-dispute.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Excerpt:
Now Volkswagen and its German labor leaders are proposing a solution that is commonplace in Europe, but has yet to be tried in the American auto industry.
The senior labor representative at Volkswagen in Germany, Bernd Osterloh, is planning a trip to the United States to suggest a compromise in what has become a heated battle over the U.A.W.’s relentless drive to organize a foreign-owned auto plant in the American South.
He is expected to push for a German-style works council in the plant — a committee of hourly and salaried employees that gives labor a voice at the management table.
A works council is not like an American union, which can negotiate contracts and authorize strikes. But it does have the advantage of being a familiar form of labor relations for a German car company like VW.
The larger question is whether a works council can satisfy employees and politicians in Tennessee — and give the U.A.W. a foothold in the growing Southern auto industry.
Mr. Osterloh said recently that the Chattanooga plant might have a better chance at landing a hot new sport utility vehicle for the assembly plant, which now produces Passat sedans, if it had a works council to represent it.
In Germany, works councils have a long tradition and are an integral part of the process of mitbestimmung — the right of workers to have a say in corporate decisions. Managers in Germany see the councils as a way to head off labor problems and improve productivity.
To many Americans, the notion of works councils belongs alongside socialized medicine and six-week vacations as examples of the practices that have doomed Europe to near-zero growth. But another way to look at it is that works councils are part of a model that has helped preserve Germany’s industrial base and hold the country’s unemployment to a relatively low level: 5.2 percent, compared with 7.3 percent in the United States.
“It always depends on the people,” said Franz Schabmüller, owner of FS Firmenverwaltung, a group of 10 midsize manufacturing companies based in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. “If the works council has people of integrity who have the interests of the company at heart, then it can work well.”
hskiprob of the ignorati,
On Shesus:
(Ayn Rand: Patron Saint of the Plutocracy). Have a nice pay.
Dredd, You amaze me oh greatest one of supreme intelligence. However, why haven’t you figured out that the plutocrats love government and use it to manipulate society in a multitude of ways noted many times by numerous people on this website. Who ever wrote that piece is practicing yellow journalism and you bought that crap hook line and sinker. Very sad dude. The author is not even correct as to the story of Atlas Scruggs. You should get the audio book or actually read it before you criticize it
The author wrote: Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, depicts a United States crippled by government intervention in which heroic millionaires struggle against a nation of spongers. The millionaires, whom she portrays as Atlas holding the world aloft, withdraw their labour, with the result that the nation collapses. It is rescued, through unregulated greed and selfishness, by one of the heroic plutocrats, John Galt.
They don’t just withhold their labor, they flat out just quit. There is no classic heroism in the book at all other than the invention of a new metal used in making railroad tracts; very heroic. If the government is going to nationalize various industries anyway, what choice would they have had so they just quit. There is no Atlas holding the world aloft, that is also portraying the lack of understanding the author has of the book. John Galt is not even a plutocrat, nor are any of the other main characters. How can you be so mislead by such journalism, if this should even be called that?
Why to you keep buying all the main stream media lies like this, that the plutocrats have been putting out over the last 100 years. Why doesn’t a friend just shake the crap out of you to wake you up from your stupor.
hskiprob
Dredd, wrote “Which would have been the perfect place for Corker to show his neutrality instead of bowing down to the Ayn Rand worshipers (they affectionately call her Jesus, pronounced “Shesus”). He showed us his “neutrality” alright.
His cultural amygdala does not include any circuits for play fair, or play neutral, in the eyes of fair and neutral observers.
He is the new age republican thug (29 year old baby).”
Dredd, you are so full of excrement, I can not even comment on such nonsense. If we had followed Rand and guys like Lindbergh, instead of FDR and his socialists engineers, we would not have to be having this thread.
As I commented, I don’t support his showmanship on this issue, but “Shesus” and “republican thug”. Pure yellow journalistic nonsense from a socialists thug.
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Oh contraire mon illiterati.
Ayn Rand, aka “Shesus”, advocated for killing the underlings, from the poor to those who would unionize against the exceptional ones of gawd.
General Jesus has her wavelength:
(Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala – 4). Have a good pay.
MarieK:
good thoughts.
Some of the worst offenders chant the civilty rule mantra as much as a Buddhist monk chants “ommmmmm”. Is is to laugh.
My son is a Millwright Journeyman, belongs to the union, happily pays his union dues. He has a great pension package and healthcare and he makes more money than I ever did as a nurse. He works full time ( and often gets overtime) in and around the Milwaukee area. He just bought his first home as young single guy and in our economy that is something to be proud of.
Marie, The days of being called “ignorant, liar, racist, sociopath, stupid, etc.” are over. But, many good people like yourself were driven off by that behavior. It is very heartening to see someone like yourself coming back. I understand your trepidations. I could and would not have given you this assurance before the civility rule was enacted last month. You will see other folks like yourself coming back. We need to keep our eyes out and encourage them.