Audio clip
Hal Clements
A labor law attorney said Wednesday that companies here should expect an uptick in union activity, citing recent charges aimed at Volkswagen by a group supported by organized labor.
Steve Warren, a Greenville, S.C., attorney, told about 35 officials of Chattanooga area companies that VW's arrival in the city will mean a lot of new applicants to their businesses.
"Be prepared. We're going to see a lot of different things," Mr. Warren said during a labor seminar sponsored by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and Chattanooga Manufacturers Association.
Mr. Warren noted the recent newspaper advertisement and radio spots by Volunteers for Local Hire.
The group, supported by the AFL-CIO's building and construction trades department, said that politicians who negotiated with VW failed to include a "local hire" mandate to ensure Tennessee contractors and workers perform all the construction on VW's Chattanooga auto plant.
Mr. Warren said VW's plant in Pennsylvania, which opened in 1978 and closed a decade later, was unionized.
"You're going to see a lot of new license plates," he said, adding that 65,000 applications for VW's 2,000 jobs at its Chattanooga factory were received so far.
Chattanooga labor law attorney Hal Clements told the group that union activities in decades past gave the city "a black eye" when it came to trying to recruit businesses.
One march he cited by several thousand building and construction unionists clogged activities in the city.
"It made the news all over the country -- 'Local unions shut down Chattanooga,'" he said. "We've had a black eye from that day forward. It has been tough to get businesses to come to Chattanooga when you have that kind of reputation. It just wouldn't go away."
However, George Jones, a spokesman for Volunteers for Local Hire, said elected officials have an obligation to set standards taking "the high road" versus permitting "the low road to lower wages, lower conditions, less benefits."
VW already is looking at possibly expanding its plant and it would have a lot of influence on its suppliers that locate here, Mr. Jones said.
"It ought to be mandated that Tennessee contractors and Tennessee workers get the initial shots at most of the jobs, both in the construction and operation phases," Mr. Jones said.
J.Ed. Marston, the Chamber's vice president of marketing, said need for the seminar arose from a tide of questions by companies about dealing with uions.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
Do not waste your time just get a degree in Health care admin and find work Check out the website http://bit.ly/8FBySg
Unions are a blight on workers, businesses, and cost of living wherever they go. Note the sentence about one plant having to close down after 10 years. In our state, a lower cost of living, reasonable wages and good benefits, should preclude anybody from even thinking abaout unionizing. Avoid unionizing like they were the plague.
Redbearded, your logic is flawed.
Tennessee has hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers, businesses large and small are going under, and the new jobs being created here is few to none.
All of this in a state that has hardly any unionization at all. "Union states" are in no better or worse shape than Tennessee, other than the fact that the people who belong to unions are able to have good health insurance and make more money which they spend in local businesses and contribute to the tax base.
It would be great if you people would spend more time coming up with productive ideas for fixing the mess the Republicans made instead of reciting talking points that are misleading or just flat out lies.
Unions are outdated. Allowing union activity around the VW project, its suppliers or affiliates will simply repeat history in some fashion. Unions will be the festering cancer that will kill the golden egg laying goose we fondly call VW. Little known fact: A company with union has a market value of $40,000 less PER UNION WORKER. Which means less incentive to create new jobs, expand operations or support the local community.
Once more, it is a sad day when individual worker rights are predetermined by uninvolved union leadership with a proven history of greed and exploitation.
Additionally, the hiring of local talent is not and will never be a good argument or cause for discontent. The hiring of "the most qualified" companies is the only reasonable path. Just because you are 'local' doesn't mean you have your act together or have a preeminent right to a contract.
Get your competitive advantage by being the best at what you do, NOT by who you know or where you are located. May the best one win!
Unions emphasis everything but job performance. The best and the worst workers are paid the same wage. Plus the worst workers are hard to get rid of. The system makes no sense. Where is the incentive to do a good job?
Or login with:
New Account