(READ MORE IN THIS SERIES: UAW supporters see win in Volkswagen Chattanooga union vote)
Darrell Belcher, who was raised in Cleveland, Tennessee, recalls a time when union members for a large appliance maker there went out on strike.
“It got real ugly,” he said in a phone interview recently in the run-up to this week’s United Auto Workers vote at Volkswagen Chattanooga. “That turned me against (unions).”
Belcher, who has worked at VW for nearly 13 years, said the plant is better off without the UAW.
“It will hurt VW,” he said about the union. “And not only that, but it will hurt the community. I’m afraid it will affect other industries coming in.”