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Union Vote At Car Plant Exposes Sneaky Dirty Politics

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  • Arroyo
    2014-02-23 11:41:54 AM
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    Labor unions in Tennessee lost big time when Republican State Senator Bob Corker and a handful of Republican interest groups (from a lot of different directions) were successful in not allowing a VW plant to open in the state with a labor union. Wordy sentence, I know. Basically, they were successful in not allowing a labor union to start up, even though the plant would have brought tons of revenue and employment to the state. This is a prime example of political partisan BS getting in the way of economic growth.

    Here's an in depth article as well from Rueters - Thirteen billboards, one paint-shop worker helped defeat union at VW plant in Chattanooga

    You should also check out this quick vid The Young Turks did on the story. It's pretty ridiculous how this all went down. And even worse that they were successful.

  • RanmaMOJ
    2014-02-23 03:35:36 PM
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    I personally am generally against unions. The main reason is that my mom is a school teacher and I've seen too many examples of teachers who shouldn't have gotten the job in the first place (not qualified but they got the job because they knew someone) keeping their job because they were part of the Teacher's Union. That said, I would like to point out the dirty politics of the UAW, which provides another example of why I don't like unions. The UAW was allowed to campaign at the plant but those against unionizing weren't allowed to campaign at the plant. Tell Democrats they can't campaign somewhere and they get up in arms, but its fair when one of their interest groups makes it so other's are restricted from where they campaign? (I've seen Democrats get up in arms about being told they can't put flyers somewhere. I went to Adams State College [now University] several years ago and the Democrats started putting up campaign signs on the campus. The Republican's did too, after the Democrats started. When both groups were told by school security that they needed to remove the signs because the school was a polling place, the Republican's did with some grumbling, the Democrats tried to argue about their rights to campaign anywhere. The signs for both groups were eventually removed, but the Democrats of the area accused the Young Republicans of the college of using dirty politics)

    Point of fact, the plant IS open, and has been since 2011. What they did is they stopped the attempt to unionize the plant. The union wouldn't have changed the number of people employed at the plant or really changed the revenue the plant generated. It made its 100,000th Passat in May 2012, so how did the defeat of the union affect employment or revenue? (Other than to keep more money in the workers pocket, since they won't have to pay dues in order to work there)
  • johnnycee
    2014-02-23 03:40:59 PM
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    Why is it when the people most affected by this vote have their say and it goes against the wishes of the entrenched establishment, this being the UAW, that they are accused of being duped, when these workers concerns had used the plight of the City of Detroit and it's subsequent layoff's and plant closures as one of the main reasons for the rejection, other's expressed concern about the loss of wages some by as much a $3.00 per hour if the Union were voted in ,others did not want any of their dues money going to political candidates or the candidates personal agenda that they themselves did not support, and from what I could tell , the representatives did address these concerns adequately if at all, so how are they being mislead or duped, the POTUS spoke in favor of the UAW organizing the VW plant, and VW management allowed the UAW inside the plant itself to speak of the benefits of allowing the UAW to represent them, still the employee's did not want the UAW. The UAW gets another bite of the apple in a year, so why sow the seeds of discontent now when you/they can bolster their case for unionization in just a year.
  • AmcmurryFreedom
    2014-02-23 10:13:36 PM
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    This ain't over! The UAW will be making additional movement for future voting on the issue of unionizing the VW workers. Germany has their unionized VW plants, so now the issue is will VW-USA join UAW. Eventually, yes it will happen. I never stop criticizing people that aere so stupid in their views of unions. It was unions that gave you 40 hour work weeks, sick leave, annual leave, paid overtime, medical and dental benefits, pensions, child care, equal pay, training, safety regulations, and management negotiations over improved benefits. If union were never created, you all would be working under the thumbs of bad managers on an intimidation trip.

    Please look at the history of unions in America and around the world. They do have a great deal of success in how we work and live with families being protected. Of course, you can always argue where unions have been corrupt. Unions having ties to organized crime is a bad side of the unions. Organized crime seized an opportunity to control labor and great huge sums on income from all the unionized labors. Organized crime is short lived and is often rooted out in a few years of existence. The Union thugs are either found dead inside concrete or they have been arrested by law authorities. Because our legal hawks watch the money more closely, it is more difficult to operate illegally in labor. It continues to be a focus by special authorities in the FBI. Corporate management can be just as bad as the Union leader and they may be found working together for personal gains. The Unions do work democratically and will vote regularly on Union leadership.

    I'd rather have union representation than not, because I have been personal impacted by bad management instructing me to break Public Law. By informing my union of the issue, management backed off.

    Many professional careers and highly skilled professions have unions and they are networked together to form a large voting block. Although numbers are declining, the Union is a still a strong voice for labor in America. One of the reasons why Union numbers are declining, workers are enjoying those benefits and protections that are currently in place by past Unions shedding blood on the streets for labor improvement. Yes, I encourage all of you to read the history of labor in America and how Unions have improved the workers pay, benefits, protections, and safety. It's foolish to discourage Union representation, because Corporate CEO and Management greed would love to take away your current benefits. Just ask a sweat shop worker chained to a sewing machine.

    Support you Local and all Unions.............they are what made America
  • johnnycee
    2014-02-24 12:36:02 AM
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    Private industry unions are down to their lowest levels ever, it's the public sector unions that has increased in membership, but I believe that will start to decline also as more and more State governments, Pa. being one , that has Bills pending to have the unions collect their own dues and not use government payroll to collect theirs dues, plus there are back door efforts to make Pa. a right to work State, I believe the Union leadership has shot itself in the foot by continuing to support with union dues ,too many politicians with to many agendas that their own rank and file did not support or it was decided to be too divisive of an issue for the union to get involved in, but the leadership did it anyway in hopes of currying favor with the Legislators when it came to contract time.
  • TJ
    2014-02-24 12:08:53 PM
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    What's crazy is that Volkswagen was entirely neutral on the topic. Their German plants are union. I used to be anti-union but have changed my mind recently. The ultra wealthy employers have absolutely nobody to challenge them. Given the choice, employers will under hire, under pay, and give less in general - all in the spirit of squeezing another dime out.
    The south has for a long time advertised that you can build your factories in the south and have lower costs and not have to deal with unions. That's why the politicians stepped in and spread negative words and misinformation. So much for a Free Country where you actually have a freedom of choice. Workers were spoken to in a negative way that made them feel their jobs might be endangered if they went against the politicians wishes (no union).
  • johnnycee
    2014-02-24 12:34:48 PM
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    TJ Wrote: What's crazy is that Volkswagen was entirely neutral on the topic. Their German plants are union. I used to be anti-union but have changed my mind recently. The ultra wealthy employers have absolutely nobody to challenge them. Given the choice, employers will under hire, under pay, and give less in general - all in the spirit of squeezing another dime out.
    The south has for a long time advertised that you can build your factories in the south and have lower costs and not have to deal with unions. That's why the politicians stepped in and spread negative words and misinformation. So much for a Free Country where you actually have a freedom of choice. Workers were spoken to in a negative way that made them feel their jobs might be endangered if they went against the politicians wishes (no union).



    The President, you can say also interfered by supporting the union agenda, the only direct misinformation that I found out was the inference of an additional plant being built with the increase in the subsequent amount of jobs being offered if the union were to be voted out, the Management of VW, flatly denied this as did the union, so I don't think that had anything to with the voting results, so what other lies/misinformation have you heard that certain politicians were spreading.
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