Posted on 02/17/2014 1:34:33 PM PST by rightwingerpatriot
In a huge defeat for the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, workers in Tennessee voted 712 to 626 against union representation at a Volkswagen plant. This event may be remembered in the future as one of the final nails in the union coffin. We can only hope so but this news is fantastic, and even better as the UAW had a lot of advantages going into the vote.
First, Volkswagen was in favor of unionization and had already been conducting talks with the UAW. Normally, businesses are hostile to unions as they are a cancerous parasite that will slowly sap and destroy the host business once they invade. However, Volkswagen, being an European entity, was quite used to having unions in the workplace. Another advantage is that the UAW pulled out all the stops. There are no hard estimates, but it's safe to say that the union spent quite a bit of money pushing the pro-union vote.
Luckily for the average worker, the plant in question resides in Tennessee, a Southern state. Southerners are very leery of unions and are normally conservative. They've seen the devastation wreaked upon the Big Three automakers by the UAW and the post-apocalyptic wasteland that Detroit has become. Neither do they want to see their hard-earned money going to liberal causes through forced union dues. My father was a member of a union because he was forced to and it drove him crazy to see his union spend millions every election cycle on candidates that not only stood for everything he was against but was also against the very industry he was working in.
What I find hysterical is the liberal moaning going on as they try to pin their loss on some boogeyman. They've said that outside "economic terrorists" influenced the vote or that some billboards urging workers to vote against the union somehow tipped the scales. I'm sure that the UAW didn't have billboards of their own or other literature (or threats by pro-union goons). The reason why the UAW lost in Tennessee is that the workers know that the union doesn't give a damn about them. Unions are about control and squeezing as much money as they possibly can, even if it forces the company to shut down. The workers at the Tennessee Volkswagen plant are making $19.50 an hour, which is four dollars more than union workers are making in Michigan!
Union membership is on a death spiral as workers have woken up to the scam of organized labor. The UAW was had 1.5 million members, but it is now down to 400,000. Overall, union membership in the private sector is less than 7%. Overall, union membership has dropped from 17.7 million in 1983 to 14.5 million in 2013. While this three million may not seem that much, you have to remember that union membership in the public sector has shot up and now encompasses around 35%. Yep, bloated, inefficient government is the refute of the union worker.
In other union news, there are three cases pending that will have a major impact on unions in that state. In one case, students are suing over the fact that public school teachers get tenure after 18 months on the job. This leads to a preponderance of bad teachers as it's virtually impossible to fire them, and the students are suing, claiming that the practice violates their right to an adequate education. The two other cases involve workers wanting to opt-out of paying for dues that fund political causes that they are against. The SEIU and the California Teachers Association are being sued for their procedures. The plaintiffs want the unions to have to ask for the money instead of having the workers trying to get the money back through a byzantine process designed to keep them from doing so.
When an organizing drive is featured as national news, has a president’s backing, and has a neutral corporate employer in the election, with union members on its board of directors, and the union loses the election, yes it is a crippling and remarkable defeat.
[53%-47% is a “crippling” defeat?]
I agree on the “crippling” description not being the best choice of words. I prefer the “absolute, utter, humiliating”,loss the union goons were handed.
This is Chattanooga we are talking about. It is more left than Knoxville or Smyrna, but not by much.
VW will compare its record against the UAW any day. This was proven.
The UAW has no say in how to govern a motor company. Greed rots from within.
The anti-union campaign was well run.
I saw an interview with some workers who asked “why would I vote in a union that supports gun control and abortion?”
No, it wasn’t a crippling defeat. The UAW crippled themselves by years of corruption and all other sorts of illegal activities. Some people are getting the message that unions are not for the workers, they are for the union bosses.
If you own a business and the shop unionizes, move it—offshore it if necessary. If those aren’t options, just shut ‘er down and let the site rot.
The union dues for government employees are going to go up.
HOORAY 712! There are enough parasitic hands in your pocket. Have you looked at your pay stub?
The BIGGEST hands before your money gets to your pocket is BIG GOVERNMENT & BIG INSURANCE (socialization of risk). FICA-MED, U.S. FICA, FED INC TAX, STATE INC TAX, sometimes CITY INC TAX.
The BIGGEST hands in all of your pockets as your money leaves is BIG GOVERNMENT (just about everything you purchase with what remains of your paycheck is taxed to feed the BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALIST LEVIATHAN).
You are being plundered by socialist parasites.
BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM (unions are an integral part of BIG GOVERNMENT)
HOORAY 712!
Does the NLRB shut down that plant to punish the employees for this vote?
I've read somewhere that it would be $650.00 per month to start.
Wow, 650 per month for union dues????
So, if they were already satisfied with pay and benefits, these guys had to think about what a union would do for them? And then thinking about so much in union dues to pay? Then it seems clear why they voted down the union.
I heard that these guys at VW already earn more than their counterparts at union auto plants. I’m sure they had to wonder what additional benefit they would get from a union.
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