Tenn. GOP pulls out the stops to fight unionization

[Ruff Ryder]

Sen. Bob Corker

The employees at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., are voting this week on whether to join the United Automobile Workers union, and at first blush, it wouldn’t seem especially controversial. Many of the workers understandably welcome the opportunity to unionize, and the plant’s owners don’t have a problem with that at all. Indeed, Volkswagen executives are accustomed to working with organized labor at its facilities elsewhere.

So, if workers and management are on the same page over unionization, why has this quietly become a major national story? Because Republican policymakers have decided both the workers and the plant owners are wrong – and the GOP officials are desperate to intervene.

State Senator Bo Watson, who represents a suburb of Chattanooga, warned on Monday that if VW’s workers voted to embrace the U.A.W., the Republican-controlled Legislature might vote against approving future incentives to help the plant expand…. A loss of such incentives, industry analysts say, could persuade Volkswagen to award production of a new S.U.V. to its plant in Mexico instead of to the Chattanooga plant, which currently assembles the Passat.

At a news conference on Tuesday, United States Senator Bob Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga and a Republican, also called on VW employees to reject the union. He called it “a Detroit-based organization” whose key to survival was to organize plants in the South.

“We’re concerned about the impact,” Mr. Corker said. “Look at Detroit.”

That seemed like a pretty cheap shot – by the senator’s reasoning, Detroit’s crises were labor’s fault, and all unions invite crises in all cases – but Corker wasn’t done.

Yesterday, the Republican senator claimed he had secret knowledge of a plan to reward the Chattanooga VW plant with a new product line – but only if workers reject the plan to join the UAW union. This is the exact opposite of what the company has said, but Corker said he’s been “assured” that his secret tip is true.

Asked about Corker’s brazen attempts to intimidate workers, National Labor Relations Board expert Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, a professor of labor at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, told Reuters, “I’m really kind of shocked at Corker’s statement.” Another labor expert, Harley Shaiken of the University of California-Berkeley, suggested the senator’s claims may even be illegal.

What in the world is pushing local and federal Tennessee Republicans to such extremes?

The contemporary GOP faces some notable divisions. Republicans no longer necessarily agree with one another on foreign policy, health care policy, monetary policy, or the degree to which to emphasize social issues. There are stark divisions between Tea Party Republicans and the Republican establishment. The GOP’s libertarian wing is a frequent source of consternation.

But if we were to make a list of issues on which there is broad, unifying agreement within today’s Republican Party, a deep hatred for labor unions would probably be near the top, especially in the South.

With this in mind, the VW plant in Chattanooga isn’t just a proxy fight, it’s also seen as a scary domino for the GOP’s fiercest opponents of unionization.

This week’s vote, which will run for three days beginning on Wednesday, is being closely watched because it could make the Volkswagen factory the first foreign-owned auto assembly plant to be unionized in the traditionally anti-union South. […]

Labor experts say a U.A.W. victory could create momentum to unionize the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Ala., and the BMW plant in Spartanburg, S.C.


And so everyone from the Tennessee’s Republican governor to Tennessee’s Republican senators to Tennessee’s Republican state lawmakers are pulling out all the stops.

And they’re getting some help from Grover Norquist and his outfit’s latest project, something called the “Center for Worker Freedom.” The conservative outfit has put up 13 billboards in Chattanooga, condemning the United Auto Workers for having supported President Obama, who rescued the nation’s auto industry in 2009.

Some of the billboards say UAW has helped “elect liberal politicans.”

That’s right, the anti-union activists spelled “politicians” wrong.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/tenn-gop-fights-hard-block-vw-unionization

 

[QueEx]

And so everyone from the Tennessee’s Republican governor to Tennessee’s Republican senators to Tennessee’s Republican state lawmakers are pulling out all the stops.

And they’re getting some help from Grover Norquist and his outfit’s latest project, something called the “Center for Worker Freedom.” The conservative outfit has put up 13 billboards in Chattanooga, condemning the United Auto Workers for having supported President Obama, who rescued the nation’s auto industry in 2009.

-- throw out the facts; dismiss the logic !!!

Just mention Obama and a lot of white people in the south and a lot of so-called or self-described black conservatives automatically knee-jerk-conclude: its against their best interest.

 

[Ruff Ryder]

Just mention Obama and a lot of white people in the south and a lot of so-called or self-described black conservatives automatically knee-jerk-conclude: its against their best interest.

True.

These people are scared for their jobs, most are unskilled production workers, they make a decent wage (Thanks to the UAW setting the standard) and they don't have anything to fall back on so the GOP knows they can scare them, notice the use of 'Detroit' and 'Obama' in the anti-union rhetoric.

GOP intervention tips scales in unionization vote

It wasn’t long ago that employees at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., were likely to unionize. Workers broadly seemed to support the idea; the plant’s owners were on board; and the United Automobile Workers union was heavily involved in trying to seal the deal.

Everything was on track, right up until Republican officials in Tennessee intervened in a big way.

Late Friday night, after three days of voting, the results were announced: employees voted 712 to 626 – roughly 53% to 47% – against joining the UAW.

The U.A.W. lost the unionization campaign even though it took place with one highly unusual – and highly favorable – circumstance. Unlike most American companies, Volkswagen pledged to remain neutral, in some ways offering quiet support to the union.

Nevertheless, Republican politicians in Tennessee as well as some outside conservative groups made sure that the plant’s nearly 1,600 workers heard plenty of anti-union arguments.

It was as ferocious an anti-union campaign as anything Americans have seen in a while. Indeed, the Republican effort, bolstered by inside-the-Beltway lobbying activists like Grover Norquist, featured both carrots and sticks: GOP policymakers not only threatened to kill tax incentives for the plant if workers joined a union, but Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he had secret knowledge that if employees turned down the UAW, the plant would be rewarded with a new product line.

Corker, it’s worth noting, had promised not to intervene during the voting process. It’s unclear why he broke his word and made comments that contradicted the company’s own executives.

There’s no great mystery as to why Republicans pulled out the stops to defeat unionization. GOP officials have always been hostile towards labor, but with unions serving as a key pillar in Democratic Party support, Corker, Norquist, and their allies were that much more motivated to win in Chattanooga. What’s more, because labor is weakest in the South, Republicans feared unionization at this VW plant might lead to more organized workers throughout the region.

So what happens now?

For UAW, the setback is obviously a severe disappointment and missed opportunity. But it’ll also be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of the promises Republicans made in the lead up to the vote.

Republicans fighting a yearslong unionization effort at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee painted a grim picture in the days leading up to last week’s vote. They said if Chattanooga employees joined the United Auto Workers, jobs would go elsewhere and incentives for the company would disappear.

Now that workers have rejected the UAW in a close vote, attention turns to whether the GOP can fulfill its promises that keeping the union out means more jobs will come rolling in, the next great chapter in the flourishing of foreign auto makers in the South.

Corker, in particular, gambled quite a bit of credibility on the outcome. VW said the outcome of the workers’ vote would have no bearing on future production decisions, but the Republican suggested the exact opposite. A decision on the future of a new midsized sport utility vehicle should come in a couple of weeks, and if Corker was wrong, he’ll have some explaining to do.

Of course, whatever the outcome, Republicans arguably still owe people an explanation for using over-the-top tactics to help dictate the outcome of this unionization vote.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-intervention-tips-scales-tenn-vote

 

[SPECTRE1]

I guess this is why they highlight the problems in Detroit by corporate media to scare Unionization efforts. They used to just outright attack the quality of the cars without justification.

The message:

If you Unionize, companies will not locate to your area to provide jobs. Your city will go bankrupt and you will lose everything.

 

[thoughtone]

 

[Upgrade Dave]

If the workers had made this decision without the political interference, I would be fine with it but, as usual, the Right couldn't win on the merits of their argument so they lied.

Good for VW though for their stance and the way they handled it.

 

[Ruff Ryder]

Some of these people are seething in hate for Barack Obama.