Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich chided Tennessee political leaders Friday for trying to influence workers at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant to reject representation by the United Auto Workers union.
“I just don’t think that any political leaders should do anything to influence a union vote,” Reich said during a video chat Friday night with more than 100 labor, church and community leaders gathered at the IBEW labor hall. “I think that violates the spirit of what is fair.”
Reich, a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley and an outspoken proponent of organized labor, said unions are key to limiting the growing income inequality in America and ensuring the success of democracy in America. The former labor secretary and long-time friend of former President Bill Clinton said the U.S. economy did far better through the 1950s and 1960s when more workers belonged to labor unions, and workers today in countries like Germany and Denmark and doing better than most Americans, in part, because of stronger labor unions in those countries.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Gov. Bill Haslam, R-Tenn., said they did not want the UAW to represent workers at the VW plant in Chattanooga because they fear it would discourage automotive suppliers from locating in Tennessee. Many suppliers don’t want to deal with the UAW, Haslam said.
The Tennessee Republicans and other anti-union business groups blamed the United Auto Workers for the economic problems of America’s Big 3 auto makers and the Motor City, which filed for municipal bankruptcy last year.