Posted on 02/10/2014 1:22:43 PM PST by don-o
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are threatening that the state could turn off the spigot of incentives for Volkswagen if workers at the German automaker's plant decide this week to approve union representation.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesnews.net ...
Can that be shown to be true? The ancillary business - parts suppliers, freight haulers plus the existing business to feed, clothe, house and amuse the workers are still going to be there. How exactly does unionization alter projected returns?
Ten most profitable companies in the world, according to Forbes:
1.Exxon Mobil
2. Apple
3. Gazprom
4. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
5. China Construction Bank
6. VOLKSWAGEN
7. Royal Dutch Shell
8. Chevron
9. Agricultural Bank of China
10. Bank of China
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/magazines/fortune/2013/07/08/global-500-most-profitable.fortune/1.html
Yeah, let’s tell these guys how to run their own business. Clearly they’re idiots who don’t know what they’re doing...
I have no problems whatsoever with major companies coming into my state and building their plants due to tax incentives. If such plants result in the employment of me and my current unemployed neighbors, why is that a bad thing?
I would have thought that you, a self professed conservative, would be against taxes regardless of who or what is being taxed?
What happened to it?
Spoken like a union thug who wants the government to buy him a job with my money.
Which labor union are you a member of?
Failed in the 80s. Became a Sony tv plant. Now it’s empty.
They hired GM people to run it and brought in the UAW.
Not a recipe for success.
“VW is dreaming if they think that would be the case.”
The Westmoreland VW plant is STILL sitting empty 26 years after it closed.
The FIRST thing the UAW did when they got in to the plant was to declare a strike for “Parity!” with GM and Ford. In the end, the UAW destroyed 6,000 good paying jobs in Pa, to protect “Parity” at its other auto plants.
I would have thought that you, a self professed conservative, would be against taxes regardless of who or what is being taxed?
I thought equality before the law and limited government were issues we stood on.
I do not want govt making special business decisions. they do not have a good track record.
I guess I missed the memo.....................
Unless VW management are complete idiots I can't imagine why they would possibly think that. Once UAW gets into a plant they control everything. These companies can not afford a long strike. They can't afford to be pressured.
Talk to anyone who has ever held a management position in a UAW auto plant. UAW controls everything. They lean on the company. Ask anyone in management if they have not seen tires slashed or cars vandalized in the parking lot. Ask if they haven't seen people threatened. Asked if they haven't seen workers get high and drunk on the job and protected by the UAW.
Show me a UAW plant anywhere which is close to as productive as any reasonably run non-union plant by Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, etc. They aren't for a simple reason: the UAW (or any union of comparable militancy) bring in work rules which are inflexible and result in more people standing around and being paid to do nothing. If they are fortune, it might be just on occasion. If they aren't, it could be for years as GM discovered.
Of course, Tennessee could do NOTHING if VW closed its doors and left. Just as California could do nothing when Toyota shut down the NUMMI venture with General Motors/UAW.
Accordingly, anyone who thinks the state doesn't have a stake in management when they give incentives is as clueless as those who think venture capitalists won't try their hand at micromanagement the first time profits hint going south.
They shut it down. It made the Rabbit and other small cars. In the 80's Volkswagen almost got driven out of the U.S. market by Japanese and U.S. competition so the factory was closed. Plus at the time VW was big into developing nations. And there were labor issues and management issues.
California got Tesla to fill that facility.
I think all of us helped donate a few $$ to make it happen.
And the union will impact that how?
Of course, Tennessee could do NOTHING if VW closed its doors and left. Just as California could do nothing when Toyota shut down the NUMMI venture with General Motors/UAW.
So why drive it away? There are any number of states who would throw money at VW to build there.
Accordingly, anyone who thinks the state doesn't have a stake in management when they give incentives is as clueless as those who think venture capitalists won't try their hand at micromanagement the first time profits hint going south.
As clueless as anyone who thinks that the Tennessee legislature can make better business decisions than VW management?
Negotiating “in good faith” with unions is like skinny-dipping with Piranhas. Let your imagination be your guide...
VW is one of the most profitable companies in the world. I'm sure "these krauts" are well aware of the risks of "working with" a U.S. union.
So your community has an "x" amount of acres of undeveloped land, generating no revenues whatsoever and a company comes along with an offer to build a plant on that property. If that plant is built, it will provide 500 - 1000 jobs for people in your community, many of whom just may be unemployed.
Why would you NOT offer tax incentives to that company if it will ultimately provide jobs to your neighbors?
So you call me a "UNION THUG" simply because I'm in favor of tax incentives to a new company?
You sir are a frickin moron and have no idea what you are talking about...........
But I digress, how is offering a new plant tax incentives using your money?
They shut it down.
Thank you, you helped make my point......
What happened to it?
I happen to work at what's left of that plant. From 1988 to 1995, it sat idle. They bid out the rights to strip out the machinery and furnishings. A Chinese company won the bid. Then Sony came in with the incentives to rebuild it and make big screen televisions. It operated well until it became clear the 20 year incentives were not going to be renewed and the business was changing anyway.
Fortunately, our part of the company was only peripherally involved in the television business and was sold to ANOTHER company (my present employer) who liked what they saw with the staff here and offered almost all of us seamless employment contracts. So we occupy about 1/8th of the space of that plant and employ about 150 at a location which once employed over 4,000 (with Sony) and, I heard, more than double that number (with Volkswagen).
Such are the wages of dealing with the U.A.W. before 1988 and with even a non-union company which thought it would be stylish to have a foreign C.E.O. who was good at little more than brown-nosing.
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