Workers at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga may soon vote on whether to become members of the UAW.VW, UAW and jobs recruitment
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said Friday that Volkswagen’s dialogue with UAW about a collaborative German-style works council arrangement is hurting the state’s recruitment of business. And then he specified that some auto suppliers thinking of moving closer to Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant may balk if the United Auto Workers succeeds in unionizing the factory.
Really? Then why doesn’t the Teachers union, Tennessee Education Association, hurt business recruitment? It is a statewide union that represents more than 46,000 elementary and secondary teachers, school administrators, education support professionals, higher education faculty, and students preparing to become teachers.
Volkswagen knows a thing or two about making cars, and VW started the dialogue with the UAW to help them create an innovative model of employee representation. All VW plants around the world except here have such representation, and VW says a works council labor board “can only be realized together with a trade union.”
VW also has said the workers will decide. Tennessee is, after all, a right-to-work state.
And by the way, the unions in Detroit did not decide to keep making gas guzzlers and driving away customers who wanted better mileage. In fact, they advocated changing the business model to be more competitive. But no, corporate paralysis and a good dose of collusion with gas companies made the decision to keep making the same tired, heavy, customer shunned cars led to the downfall of many American car companies — and eventually Detroit.