Volkswagon Workers Defeat UAW

Employees at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee have rejected joining the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union in a devastating defeat of big labor’s efforts to make inroads in the South.

The workers at the VW plant in Chattanooga voted 712-626 to stay out of the union. TheHill.com reported that Volkswagen actually offered some support for the UAW in its effort, which deepened the blow to UAW.

The setback is a major defeat for the UAW’s effort to expand in the South, where foreign automakers have 14 assembly plants, eight built in the past decade, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Michigan.

“If this was going to work anywhere, this is where it was going to work,” she said of Chattanooga.

UAW officials vowed they would not give up in their effort to organize workers in the South, a region that historically has been much more difficult to unionize than others in the U.S. Organizing a Southern plant is so crucial to the union that UAW President Bob King told workers in a speech that the union has no long-term future without it.

“If the union can’t win [in Chattanooga], it can’t win anywhere,” Steve Silvia, a economics and trade professor at American University who has studied labor unions, told the Wall Street Journal.

Gov. Bill Haslam (R) said through a spokesman that he was pleased with the vote and “looks forward to working with the company on future growth in Tennessee.”

“The workers at Volkswagen looked at the history of this union and made the best decision for themselves, their jobs and their community,” Matt Patterson, Executive Director for Center for Worker Freedom (CWF) said in a statement. “In spite of the UAW’s multi-million dollar propaganda machine, and with company and government officials from the National Labor Relations Board aiding the union in every possible way, workers learned the facts and were able to make an informed decision.”

Over the past year, Patterson has worked with a coalition of local community and business leaders to help educate the citizens of Chattanooga about the UAW’s role in the bankrupting of Detroit and General Motors, as well as the union’s aggressive liberal agenda, which includes millions spent on Democratic candidates and causes vastly at odds with the values of Tennessee voters.

CWF efforts included a billboard campaign across Hamilton County, that featured 13 signs, including 11 digitals rotating a variety of anti-union messages, such as “Detroit: Brought to you by the UAW.”