Derided Auto Workers

Late word is that the United Auto Workers (UAW), which filed an objection with the the National Labor Relations Board over how the vote against unionization of the workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee was tainted by outside anti-union influence, has withdrawn its objection.  The UAW has decided that the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees such matters, can't really do anything to hold a new vote or mitigate the result of the old one, and it doesn't want to do anything that would do the workers more harm than good while VW tries to get its plans to build a midsize SUV off the ground.  UAW president Bob King is happy with the fact that House Democrats are looking into the possibility of undue influence from Tennessee Bob Corker and Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, both Republicans.

Wait - House Democrats? Isn't their influence down to, uh, zero?

So the workers lost again.  Volkswagen lost again.  They wanted a union to allow the creation of a workers' council to give the workers on the assembly line a greater voice in how the plant is run.  Now there's even talk of German VW workers petitioning Berlin not to approve a trade deal with the United States until and unless their American counterparts are given the same rights to organize as they have in Wolfsburg.

Ladies and gentlemen, America is the new South Africa!  Not only are we run by right-wing thugs, we're about to be boycotted for violations of workers' rights!

Bob King says there will be another effort to organize the VW plant in Tennessee soon enough.  Yeah.  And the Polo will finally be sold in These States, but I ain't waiting up nights.