Tennessee State Sen. Bo WatsonNASHVILLE - He still takes issue with Volkswagen's neutrality toward labor unions, but Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said Thursday he will back Gov. Bill Haslam's proposed $165.8 million incentive package for the auto manufacturer's Chattanooga plant expansion.
"It'll be part of the budget," said Watson, the Senate speaker pro tempore, who grilled top Volkswagen officials during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday and called the German company's policies a "magnet for organized labor."
The lawmaker, whose district includes the Volkswagen plant, abstained in the Commerce Committee from voting on the Department of Economic and Community Development's proposed budget. The agency's budget included the incentives for adding a second production line to build SUVs.
Watson told colleagues that VW's investment in Chattanooga has "been nothing but transformational" and the impact "mostly from the positive."
But he also asked David Geanacopoulos, Volkswagen of America's general counsel, about the company's labor policies.
Geanacopoulos said union membership "is a question for our employees to decide." He added the company has a new policy allowing it to talk with any labor group.
"Not about collective bargaining. It's not about union representation," he said.
Commerce Committee members approved the department's budget 8-0, sending it along to Finance.
Last year, Watson joined a chorus of criticism triggered by U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a former Chattanooga mayor, over Volkswagen's lack of opposition to efforts by the United Auto Workers to organize the plant.
Watson said in 2014 that recognition of the union would likely mean the incentive package would face a "very tough time" in the GOP-run Senate. The UAW narrowly lost the union election.
On Thursday, Watson said: "I'm not against that labor has a right to have their voice heard and if they want to organize, they have a right to do that. I agree with that. But I think the process needs to be in a format that's the American process."
That's "typically labor on one side, management on another side. And like any campaign, those that are making a decision are lobbied by both sides as to why it's good to have a union and why it may not be good to have a union."
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.