VW Rejects Union

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I thought this was interesting: BY a 53% to 47% margin, VW of America rejected allowing UAW to form a union in their plant.

IG Metall, a powerful German union, had forced VW to take a "neutral stance" towards unionizing. VW didn't organize against the union and even allowed UAW to talk to the VW workers.

Our own beloved President even jumped into the fray by "accusing Republican politicians who oppose unionization of being more concerned about German shareholders than U.S. workers".

And still they voted it down. Maybe they remember what happened to GM and how unions wrecked that once mighty company.

Still they may get a "works council ", a European-style committee composed of labor and management to rule on thorny issues. It's yet to be seen if that's legal in the U.S. And, in a year, UAW can try it again.

Under the Obama Administration, IF YOU HAVE TO WORK, you'd damn well better be unionized.

The Link

The Link
 
It was interesting to me that IF they'd voted to unionize they may have had to take a pay cut since VW was paying them $2.00-$3.00 more per hour than the UAW union members.
The article I read didn't mention benefits.
 
I hate that politicians got involved with this. It's none of their business. If workers want to unionize (and take the good with the bad), they should. If they don't want to, they shouldn't. It's nobody's business but theirs - nobody's.
 
There are other things to hate as well. Unions have a unified voice promoting their beliefs vs. a somewhat stifled voice from management. It is the union message of we will bring you higher wages and better benefits vs. we will probably have to fire some people if this happens and our wages are already good. It is a tough argument for companies as even if the company is successful in fending off a union, it forces an adversarial relationship between management and labor. Second, the union can return for a vote each year. Just because a company was successful in year 1 fending off the union, it doesn't mean it will be successful in year 10. As soon as the situation favors union representation, the union will be able to step in. Then, once the union is there, the union is there for life.

Once a union is in place, the union can force management to open their books and provide a complete accounting of costs. If the company is making a profit, the union will negotiate a bigger portion of the profit. If the union goes on strike, the company will lose money and managers will be fired. So managers, caring about their own jobs, focus on the short-term and cave. They give in to union demands and they keep their jobs. It is an easy decision for managers who put their own well being before the company's. However, the long-term outlook is grim. When the industry matures and profits decrease, the union does not renegotiate to lower its members salaries and benefits. Soon, those profits turn to losses as the company is locked into high wages and benefits.
 
In reply to:

"I hate that politicians got involved with this. It's none of their business. If workers want to unionize (and take the good with the bad), they should. If they don't want to, they shouldn't. It's nobody's business but theirs - nobody's."

Really? It is nobody's business that costs will increase and future jobs affected by their choice? The local taxpayers have the right of representation of their politicians to represent them. I saw very little support in Chattanooga for the unionization of the plant.

In the end, the workers had a vote and decided against the union. End of story.
 
I gotta admit this is creative. The community organizer would be proud;

" Here's how it works: Milwaukee County officials approved a living wage requirement for local government contractors to pay at least $11.33 per hour. SEIU's Wisconsin Jobs Now campaign was the main backer of the requirement.

But the new law includes a convenient way for contractors to avoid having to pay the living wage — they can agree to force their employees to join SEIU.
Pay up or else

In other words, SEIU's message is this: You can pay us this way or you can pay us that way, but the bottom line here is you are going to pay.
Expect to see more of this.The Link
 
Federal legislation protects unions. Federal legislators protect their constituents. I am getting sick of hearing everyone complain that Corker was the reason it got voted down. Maybe the workers understood that the union does not provide them more net benefits than they would receive by voting it down.
 
Which makes it ironic that Volkswagen may not expand the current plant and will probably not build a new plant in Tenn because the union vote didn't pass.
 
You're not being a dick. I've read that the Volkswagen Works Council head honcho at their corp office in Germany said after the vote, that VW will take that into account re any expansion or new factories in Tenn. VW works closely with their WCs; half are mgmt, half are union. VW works well with their unions and prefers having a WC in their plants to take care of labor issues. Apparently this came from the Marshall Plan. "Social Democracy." The Tenn plant is the only VW plant in the world not unionized. The NLRB requires a union before a WC can be set up. So interestingly, there's dissatisfaction at VW over the vote.
 
Now the UAW is appealing to the NLRB. They claim that Corker and the Gov. interfered.

They'll probably get another election. UAW could have tried again in a year anyway. It seems inevitable that they'll go union. The parent company is being held hostage by labor over in Europe.

I once read, back in the 60s, that some think tank predicted that eventually all autos would be constructed in third world places like Malaysia in order to get cheap labor.
 
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