NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – State Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey said Thursday that it may have been “a mistake” for Tennessee to subsidize the development of the General Motors plant outside Nashville because it has a United Auto Workers union contract.
The Blountville Republican’s comments came as GOP lawmakers weighing a $166 million incentive package for Volkswagen expansion in Chattanooga seek assurances that the German automaker will remain neutral on labor issues among its workers.
Republican lawmakers have grumbled about the United Auto Workers union’s ongoing role at the plant, and Ramsey pointed to the thriving Nissan plant in Smyrna as an example of the benefits of nonunion auto production compared with the GM plant that begun its life making Saturns.
“Maybe we made a mistake years ago with the things we did for Saturn, because it’s been up and down, closed and open, and yet Nissan is booming right now,” Ramsey said.
The GM plant in Spring Hill produced more than 3.7 million vehicles between 1990 and 2007. At its peak, the facility employed nearly 8,000 workers. But that number had dwindled to about 630 by 2009, when auto assembly was idled during the Great Recession.