NYT: Outsiders, Not Auto Plant, Battle U.A.W. in Tennessee

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/business/outsiders-not-auto-plant-battle-uaw-in-tennessee.html?_r=0

By STEVEN GREENHOUSEJAN. 28, 2014



The $1 billion Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga opened in 2011, aided by $577 million in Tennessee subsidies. Tami Chappell for The New York Times


CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — At the Volkswagen plant nestled in Tennessee’s rolling hills, a unionization drive has drawn national attention as business groups worry about organized labor’s efforts to gain its first foothold at a foreign-owned automobile plant in the South. In a region known as anti-union, many view VW’s response as unusual, if not topsy-turvy.

Unlike most companies that confront unionization efforts, Volkswagen — facing a drive by the United Automobile Workers — has not mounted a vigorous campaign to beat back the union; instead VW officials have hinted they might even prefer having a union. And while unions that seek to organize factories often complain that the playing field is tilted because they do not have access to workers in the plant, here the union opponents are the ones protesting what they say is an uneven field.

The anti-U.A.W. forces are making themselves heard, warning that if the U.A.W. succeeds here, that will lend momentum to unionize two other prestigious German-owned plants: the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama and the BMW plant in South Carolina.

FULL story at link.

[DetlefK]

1. It's not just that Volkswagen wants to implement its "works council" management-style...

...which would need legitimized representatives of the workers.

If Volkswagen didn't try to unionize their workers in the US, the unions in Germany would make trouble.

[Eleanors38]

3. "One big union."

[DetlefK]

4. Yeah, the one big union with "metall" in its name. :D

[Eleanors38]

2. The Ideology of powerless workers must be served at all costs.

Even if an individual company thinks otherwise. The custodians of the corporate state ideology are bigger then the corporations themselves.

[Joe Magarac]

5. Who are the outside agitators now?