The GOP Gets All Up in Volkswagen's Business

[n2doc]

By Pat Garofalo

Republicans like to say that they want to get government off the back of business. Evidently that maxim fails to apply when a business isn’t anti-union enough.

Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., are voting this week on whether or not to join the United Auto Workers. Far from attempting to prevent its workers from unionizing, Volkswagen is offering its support, saying "Volkswagen America is committed to defending our employees' legal right to make a free choice." And that seems to have driven Republicans into a fit of madness.

For starters, state lawmakers have said that the hefty package of tax incentives they dumped into Volkswagen’s lap to entice the company to build in Tennessee could be at risk if the plant unionizes. "It has been widely reported that Volkswagen has promoted a campaign that has been unfair, unbalanced and, quite frankly, un-American in the traditions of American labor campaigns," said Republican state Sen. Bo Watson. "Should the workers choose to be represented by the United Auto Workers, then I believe additional incentives for expansion will have a very tough time passing the Tennessee Senate."

Usually I’d consider it a good thing that a state was rethinking the buckets of corporate tax incentives it doles out, since they do little to promote economic growth or job creation. But it’s anti-union animus, not economics, driving this discussion.

And it’s not just state lawmakers voicing their displeasure with Volkswagen: Conservative groups have poured into Tennessee, buying up billboards saying, among other things, that Chattanooga will turn into bankrupt Detroit if the UAW is successful.

more

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2014/02/13/volkswagen-drives-anti-union-republicans-crazy-in-tennessee

[ladjf]

1. This is classic fascism. nt

[Lifelong Protester]

2. Volkswagon should up stakes and move.

Put that SUV plant elsewhere. I am pretty sure that Germans don't like union bashing or busting.

[Fred Sanders]

3. Nice car factory you have there, shame if anything would happen to it.

Hooligans and thugs, beholden to secret billionaire paymaster. Republicans.

Christie, McConnell, McCory, Walker, corruption investigations all over the place and this.

What more evidence do you need?

[jojog]

4. TIPS

Do Not:

Threaten
Interrogate
Promise
Spy

These are against NLRB law.

GOP ----> Threats and Promises violate the law.

[okaawhatever]

5. Now you know why they want to defund the NLRB and blocked all attempts at staffing the

agency. The NLRB is to a Republican what cryptonite is to Superman.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. The NLRB

is a neutered shell of its former self, sadly.

[adavid]

6. This is Ray-Guns legacy

Unions bad, "job creators" good.

[musselmanm]

7. interfering in a federal election

I bet a whole dollar that there are laws for attempting to interfere in a federal election. I believe this election falls under such laws.
Perp walk the bastard to the slammer. and I don't mean a club med prison.

[Marr]

8. This is a pretty blatant admission that "Right to Work State" really means

"no unions allowed".

I doubt it will be mentioned much in our corporate television media.

[dotymed]

14. I live TN.

Nothing on the "news" yet(?). This state is so anti- poor person, yet it does everything to create us...we need the national guard
from Switzerland.
You can get a $10 fine here but the court costs are $250.00 + for-profit (privatized) probation. Anything for the wealthy and corrupt.
Everyone else is worthless. That extends to medical care also.. even with insurance.

We really need a revolution. Will "they" allow us to be peaceful?

[bkanderson76]

10. Detroit is Not Bankrupt by The Doings Of The UAW....Stand Up Chattanooga n/t

[DontTreadOnMe]

11. Where is a DEM Governor giving VW a good deal to move out of Tennessee!

Which states wants to have a VW plant?

When are DEMs going to learn how to play hard ball?

[Historic NY]

12. Well Ny is giving away the store 10 years w/o taxes...

to come and invest here.

[Fawke Em]

15. As a Tennessean, I say let the workers vote first.

If they vote it in (and indications are they will), then let the Republicans in our state TRY to impose what amounts to sanctions on this plant.

It will only serve to piss off the people who voted in the union and their families who support them.

It would be one step toward yanking this gerrymandered-to-death state away from the Teapublicans who are ruining it.

[bkanderson76]

13. Senator Bob Corker (R) Can Go To Hell

[link:http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/14/tenn-lawmaker-stepsupantiunionrhetoricinvolkswagenvote.html|

[tclambert]

16. Tennessee Republicans blame the UAW for bankrupting Detroit?

How exactly does that logic work? Of all the major players in Detroit area politics, it seems like the UAW had the least to do with Detroit's problems.

The problem with unions is that they give workers more power to negotiate with business executives. Republicans can't have that. Business people must have ALL the power, and all the money. Workers--that's just a polite word for slaves. You don't want your slaves to have labor unions.