Workers to UAW: Get Stuffed!

Good day all. With all the shoveling I’ve been doing I didn’t get a chance to mention a story out of Tennessee regarding a vote on unionization. It seems that the United (In destruction and greed) Auto Workers tried to organize a Volkswagen plant. The vote didn’t quite go their way.

Now for a little background. Since the Unions and the Democrats utterly destroyed the city of Detroit, car manufacturers have been moving out of Michigan and moving to Right to Work states such as Tennessee. The workers in these plants are generally paid about the same as the Unionized plants in the  north, (Those still in existence), and get essentially the same benefits. The plant managers also get the ability to move workers around as needed and make the manufacturing process more efficient. The workers in nonunion plants also get the added benefit of not have a percentage of their paycheck raked off and sent to the bank accounts of fatcat union heads. Here are the details from Fox News:

Workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee have voted against union representation in a devastating defeat for the United Auto Workers union’s effort to make inroads in the South. The 712-626 vote released late Friday was surprising for many labor experts and union supporters who expected a UAW win because Volkswagen tacitly endorsed the union and even allowed organizers into the Chattanooga factory to make sales pitches.

“This is like an alternate universe where everything is turned upside down,” Cliff Hammond, a labor lawyer at in Detroit, told The Wall Street Journal, noting that companies usually fight union drives.

“This vote was essentially gift-wrapped for the union by Volkswagen,” said Hammond, who previously worked at the Service Employees International Union.

Oh the tears of UAW sadness are ever so sweet! Consider this. Volkswagen did almost nothing to prevent the union from organizing the plant. The owners back in Germany even endorsed the idea somewhat. (And they stockholders should be asking them some very pointed questions at the next shareholders meeting) Still, with nothing in their way, the UAW failed utterly in their attempt to ruin the best thing that has ever happened to the local work force.

The setback is a major defeat for the UAW’s effort to expand in the growing South, where foreign automakers have 14 assembly plants, eight built in the past decade, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Michigan.

“If this was going to work anywhere, this is where it was going to work,” she said of Chattanooga.

Here’s the problem for these union thugs. Workers today are far better informed then they were 30+ years ago. They have also seen the devastation wrought by the unions in places like Detroit. They want no part of that and do not want to have their hard earned money stolen from them and used to basically enslave them. The UAW knows that without more slaves union members, their days are numbered.

Organizing a Southern plant is so crucial to the union that UAW President Bob King told workers in a speech that the union has no long-term future without it.

“If the union can’t win [in Chattanooga], it can’t win anywhere,” Steve Silvia, an economics and trade professor at American University who has studied labor unions, told the Journal. But the loss likely means the union will remain quarantined with the Detroit Three, largely in the Midwest and Northeast.

Quarantined, just like you would do with any communicable disease. Considering how badly the sickness of unionism has damaged private industry, as well as the fiscal health of cities, states and the federal government, I have no problem keeping them isolated in the areas they have already ruined. As to the Northeast, I don’t recall that there are any auto manufacturing plants left up here in the Northeast. I know there used to be, but they closed quite a while ago.

Now one of the reasons that Volkswagen didn’t fight this tooth is rather simple. They have these “Workers Councils” in German plants and probably thought this would be similar. From the Wall Street Journal:

Works councils are standard in German workplaces—almost all other Volkswagen facilities around the world have one. In the U.S., however, it appears to many labor-law experts that they can only be implemented legally if workers are represented by an outside union.

And if you want to see just how well those plants are doing, take a look at the European economy. It’s been circling the drain for decades. Those councils and unions are one of the reasons they opened plants in Right to Work states instead of in Michigan. Still, it looks like the local managers tried to warn their idiot bosses in Germany what might happen if they let the unions in. Being Germans though, it was “Follow Your Orderz! Sieg Heil!”

In addition to letting union representatives into the plant, Volkswagen kept members of management from expressing any views on the vote, and agreed to coordinate its public statements with the union during the election campaign. “This vote was essentially gift-wrapped for the union by Volkswagen,” Mr. Hammond, the labor lawyer, said.

And they STILL couldn’t win! It does appear that the idea of the councils is appealing to some of the workers.

The works council concept also proved a winner for some Chattanooga workers. Jonathan Walden, 39 years old, earns about $19.50 an hour—about $4 an hour more than starting workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler—but he voted for the union because he wants a works council. “I don’t know why more companies don’t do this,” said Mr. Walden, who works in the paint shop.

Probably because it could be a useful idea, gives workers a way to benefit themselves and the company, find ways to improve efficiency and possibly reward workers who came up with good ideas. All of that is utterly alien to the way unions do things.

But more workers were persuaded to vote against the union by the UAW’s past of bitter battles with management, costly labor contracts and complex work rules. “If the union comes in, we’ll have a divided work force,” said Cheryl Hawkins, 44, an assembly line worker with three sons. “It will ruin what we have.”

And what they have is a good job, decent pay, decent working conditions and I’m assuming a chance for advancement.

Other UAW opponents said they dislike the union’s support of politicians who back causes like abortion rights and gun control that rub against the conservative bent of Southern states like Tennessee. Still others objected to paying dues to a union from Detroit that is aligned with Volkswagen competitors like GM and Ford.

And right there is one of the major reasons the UAW lost. The Unions today are part and parcel of the Progressive Liberal Democrat party. The Progressive Liberal Democrats have worked for decades to destroy everything that made America great, and for the most part, they have succeeded. The unions have never had the interests of their members in their minds. It’s always been about looting the serfs and enriching the union heads and their cronies.

Unions, like the Dinosaurs, will soon be extinct. The need for them has long since vanished. Now, all they do is drive their members jobs to either other states, or in many cases, right out of the country. Once the unions finally fail, the money tap that the Progressive Liberal Democrats have long held open will dry up. Once that happens, they will either die as a political party, or evolve into a new party that actually gives a damn for the United States and the American People. (They can take the RINO’s into extinction with them as well)

Congrats to the workers in Chattanooga for putting their interest first and showing that the South has, in fact, started rising again.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Loading...