Union Wanted

Volkswagen's only American factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee is the only VW factory on the planet without a German-style works council to help managers and workers work together on safety, job security, and problem-solving.  Volkswagen, which has used this style of labor management to great effect elsewhere and has improved its profitability because of it, is letting the workers in its Tennessee plant vote on unionizing the plant through the United Auto Workers union, which would allow a works council to be formed.  The three-day vote is an hour from its conclusion as I type this, and you and I may both know the results by the time you read this, but the outcome is likely going to be close.

Republican politicians in the state, notably Governor Bill Haslam, former Chattanooga mayor and U.S. Senator Bob Corker,  and Tennessee state senator Bo Watson have all weighed in - heavily - to try to swing the vote against unionization, saying it will discourage other auto suppliers from investing in the state, and Watson has even threatened to lead an effort to rescind Volkswagen's tax incentives for locating its plant in Chattanooga if the unionization is approved.  While right-wing groups have been putting up billboards in Tennessee showing a blighted Detroit in order to suggest how Chattanooga could face the same devastation - including the possibility of way too many black people on federal assistance! - if the UAW gets its way, Senator Corker - who became the only freshman Republican U.S. Senator elected in 2006 thanks to a racist ad from an outside group against his black Democratic opponent - said that the automaker would agree to make their new intermediate SUV . . .

(Remember this?  I wrote about how I didn't like this . . .)

. . . if the plant did not unionize.  Volkswagen quickly said that this was not true, and that the company is neutral regarding the union vote.  No one is being pressured to vote for the union, VW  isn't urging anyone to vote against it, and as I understand it, no one absolutely has to join the union once it's been approved if it's been approved.

My gut tells me that the UAW won't be approved to set up shop at the VW plant.  Anti-union, right-to-work sentiment in Tennessee dies hard.  Some folks suggest that this could lead to other foreign own plants joining the UAW; the VW Chattanooga factory would be the first such plant to do so.  Even if it does, I don't think it will lead to mass unionization at other foreign-owned American plants, most of which are also in Dixie; other Southern states are arguably worse at allowing unions.  But if it does go through. I'll be very surprised . . . and very pleased.

But I still don't like this SUV . . ..