As workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.,
prepare to vote this week on whether to join the United Automobile Workers,
they are facing unusual pressure from the state’s Republican legislators to
reject the union.
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.
“The members of the Tennessee Senate will not view
unionization as in the best interest of Tennessee,” Mr. Watson said at a news
conference. He added that a pro-U.A.W. vote would make it “exponentially more
challenging” for the legislature to approve future subsidies.
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.
State Senator Bo Watson said that if the U.A.W. is voted in,
the plant could lose future incentives.
Erik Schelzig / Associated Press
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.”
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. Some industry experts say the U.A.W.’s
prospects of succeeding have been buoyed by Volkswagen’s decision not to oppose
the unionization drive and even to hint support for the union.
Volkswagen is eager to have a German-style works council at
the Chattanooga plant. The council would bring together managers and white- and
blue-collar workers to help set factory policies and foster collaboration. Many
labor experts say that to have a works council, employees first need to vote
for a labor union to represent them. If the Chattanooga plant establishes a
works council, it would be the first factory in the United States to do so.
“Our works councils are key to our success and productivity,”
said Frank Fischer, Volkswagen Chattanooga’s chief executive and chairman. “It
is a business model that helped to make Volkswagen the second-largest car
company in the world. Our plant in Chattanooga has the opportunity to create a
uniquely American works council, in which the company would be able to work
cooperatively with our employees and ultimately their union representatives, if
the employees decide they wish to be represented by a union.”
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.
Concerned that a U.A.W. victory would hurt Tennessee’s
business climate, Gov. Bill Haslam has warned that auto parts suppliers might
decide against locating in Chattanooga because they might not want to set up
near a unionized VW plant.
“I think that there are some ramifications to the vote in
terms of our ability to attract other suppliers,” the Republican governor told
the editorial board of The Tennessean last week. “When we recruit other
companies, that comes up every time.”
The Republican pressure has had the U.A.W. and Democratic
lawmakers crying foul.
“This is an outrageous and unprecedented effort by state
officials to violate the rights of employers and workers,” said Mike Turner,
chairman of Tennessee’s House Democratic Caucus. “Republicans are basically
threatening to kill jobs if workers exercise their federally protected rights
to organize. When the company says they don’t have a problem with it, what
right does the state have to come in and say they can’t do it?”
Gary Casteel, the U.A.W.’s director for the South, voiced
dismay with lawmakers’ threats to end future subsidies to VW.
“It’s sad that when workers exercise their legal right to
form a union, some Tennessee politicians are threatening the economic
well-being of communities and businesses just because workers want to have a
voice in the future of Volkswagen in Chattanooga,” Mr. Casteel said.
U.A.W. officials say that numerous auto parts suppliers have
set up shop near G.M.’s unionized auto plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.
The nation’s leading anti-tax activist, Grover Norquist, and
his group, Americans for Tax Reform, have joined the anti-union campaign,
warning that a U.A.W. victory would help bring big government to Tennessee. The
group’s new affiliate, the Center for Worker Freedom, has put up 13 billboards
in Chattanooga, with some calling the U.A.W. “United Obama Workers” and saying,
“The UAW spends millions to elect liberal politicans” — misspelling
“politicians.” Another billboard says, “Detroit: Brought to you by the U.A.W.,”
and shows a photo of a Packard plant that was shuttered 55 years ago.
Chris Brown, a pro-union Volkswagen worker, objects to the
Republicans’ pressure. “This decision should be between the workers, VW and the
U.A.W.,” he said. “We’re the parties involved. Governor Haslam is elected to
run the state. This is our workplace and our decision.”
While Republicans argue that having a union would make the
plant less competitive, Mr. Brown said that having a union and works council
would make it more competitive by increasing employee-management cooperation.
Volkswagen, saying it was concerned about employees’
privacy, persuaded the U.A.W. not to have organizers visit workers at home to
urge them to vote for the union. In return, VW has let organizers into break
rooms to answer questions about unionizing.
Mike Burton, a VW worker who is opposed to the U.A.W., says
that has given the union an unfair advantage, although VW officials say
anti-union and pro-union workers are free to campaign and talk to one another
during breaks.
Though hit hard by the Republicans’ attacks, U.A.W.
officials are predicting victory, noting that most of the plant’s workers
signed cards favoring a union.
But Matt Patterson, executive director of Mr. Norquist’s
Center for Worker Freedom, said: “I’m not predicting victory at all. As long as
people are informed and know the facts, then I consider our job done. If
workers learn all the facts and want a union, that’s their right.”
Source: NYTimes.com
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