Volkswagon Workers Reject UAW Bid To Unionize Southern Plant

by JASmius

The Scott Walker effect in action?:

In a stunning defeat that could accelerate the decades-long decline of the United Auto Workers, employees voted against union representation at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant — a factory seen as organized labor's best chance to expand in the South.

An official overseeing the vote, retired Tennessee Circuit Court Judge Sam Payne, said that a majority had voted against UAW representation by 712 to 626 — 53% to 47%.

"Needless to say, I am thrilled for the employees at Volkswagen and for our community and its future," Republican Senator Bob Corker, who had been vociferous in opposition to unionization at the plant, said in a statement on his website.

It says something, I think, about unionization in this country that the UAW's defeat in the Battle of Chattanooga is describable as "stunning".  Why is the failure of Big Labor to expand into territory that has always been hostile to it "stunning"?  Wouldn't a victory there have been at least mildly describable as such?  Particularly for a cohort that is in a "decades-long decline," even if they do run General Motors for Red Barry?

One thing the UAW isn't running short of is whiny excuses:

Shortly after the vote was announced, Gary Casteel, the UAW's regional director, vowed that the union would continue to work to unionize the plant. "We're not quitting on this," he said.

"It's unfortunate that there were outside influences," he added, referring to efforts made by Corker and the Center for Worker Freedom, a group led by conservative crusader Grover Norquist, which put up 13 anti-union billboards in the area....

Yeah, because a fair fight isn't fair to Big Labor.  They're supposed to have the outside influencer edge all to themselves, damn it.  Their messiah said so.

Matt Patterson, executive director of the Center for Worker Freedom, said, "The workers at Volkswagen looked at the history of this union and made the best decision for themselves, their jobs, and their community.

"In spite of the UAW’s multi-million-dollar propaganda machine, and with company and government officials and Obama’s NLRB aiding the union in every possible way, workers learned the facts and were able to make an informed decision."

Local anti-union organizers had protested the UAW from the start, reflecting deep concerns among many workers that a union would strain cordial relations with the company, which pays well by local and U.S. auto industry standards. [emphasis added]

IOW, the UAW wasn't needed.  Yet they tried to crowbar their way in anyway, in the hopes of poisoning those cordial management-labor relations, driving VW into eventual bankruptcy, and adding another automotive company to Barack Obama's portfolio.

But have no worries.  As Mr. Casteel vowed in Charlie Brown-esque fashion, they'll be back.  As I have seen with my own eyes firsthand, unions are like the aliens in Ender's Game - they just keep coming, periodically, secure in the knowledge that eventually the Earthers will run out of military child prodigies - or will have one turn on them.  All VW has bought is time.

Good thing I drive Fords.