Union Vote At Car Plant Exposes Sneaky Dirty Politics

"This week, employees at an auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee are voting on whether to form a union.

It's interesting for a few reasons: Tennessee is a low-union-density state; the Volkswagen plant in question would be the first foreign auto facility to be organized in the South, marking a growth opportunity for the United Auto Workers; and VW itself has taken a neutral-to-positive stance toward the union, citing its positive relations with employee organizations at factories elsewhere in the world.

But the most interesting part of all is the panicked reaction of local Republican politicians, who are scrambling to find ways to attack the organizing effort and deter the formation of a union.

Sen. Bob Corker held a press conference Tuesday specifically to ask VW employees to reject a union, claiming potential negative impact on the state's economy."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

*Read more here from Seth D Michaels:

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The Young Turks (Winner - Best Political Podcast & Best Political News Site of 2009) were the first original talk show on Sirius satellite radio and the first live, daily webcast on the internet. But that is not the revolution.

We are a rare show that combines all of the news that people care about in one place. We are not afraid to talk about politics and entertainment and sports and pop culture. But that is not the revolution either.

The real revolution is in daring to be honest with people. We don't patronize our viewers or lie to them. We have real conversations and deliver the news honestly.

[HighMagnitudeGT]

Here's what I don't get. People sign up for a job. They know what they're going to be getting paid, how many days off for sick days and vacation, etc... Then they band together to make a union to get more. That, my friends, is called greed.

[Sentinalh]

This is so hilarious, it really shows the allegiances of these Republicans.

[simpleman]

Tennessee drove out nearly all of the unions in their once great state. Now they are one of the poorest states in the nation. The middle class is shrinking just as fast as union membership in this country. If the unions can't get out of this slump, then the middle class will DIE. This will put us in another great depression and millions will starve.

[phinchen]

Cenk, it would have been great if you put a little bit more research into this case:
In all bigger VW car plants, even in China, the workers are unionized. In fact the plant in Chattanooga is the only bigger VW plant worldwide, where the workers aren't unionized. VW works very well together with unions and is not aversed to unions whatsoever.
It wasn't VW telling the legislators to pretend they are on different sides, they are on different sides. Republicans and anti-union lobby groups put pressure on both, the UAW and VW, to not form a union.
Why? Simple: Many foreign car companies have their american car plants in Tenessee and other southern states, because they see it as an locational advantage that the workers there are not unionized. And they are afraid that once the workers unionized at the VW plant, it could spread to other companies.

[yzman]

They should have unionized and VW should have moved the plant to a more pro union site. VW was for the unionization.

[johnmcque]

The first rule of business: to make the best quality product possible, at the lowest cost possible, and pay the highest wage possible.
Henry Ford

I believe in unions, it is one of the driving forces that balanced wealth in this country. The unions forcing companies to so much is their driving force to make robots and move somewhere they don't have to pay high labor costs. This is what happened in Detroit. I drive around the Detroit and Flint Michigan areas and see many vacant factory's. The company's have as much freedom/rights to move as the workers have to unionize. No matter what, if the workers are not happy then they produce less quality, and leading to less then standard products.

[sheet-son]

I've been an electrician for 15 years and we work circles around unions, for half the price.

[canuzzi]

Please Cenk, do a fact check and a better report of this story. It was VW who wanted the Union in the factory in the first place. Especially the german car manufacturing companies made very good experiences with workers' councils. Yourself reported this fact in the past. They know, they benefit, if the workers are involved in company decisions. VW is also a special case due to the VW Gesetz (law): Nobody can have more than 20% of the votes, also if they have a larger share  of the stock. The home state Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) of VW holds 20.2% and a  blocking minority. The announcement to block further development was a direct thread by the GOP to the company not to promote the Union actively. Especially in the last market crises companies and workers saw the benefits in Germany. Kurzarbeit (reduced working hours) during a crises is only possible, if the company has some authority to negotiate with on the workers side - this cannot be done on an individual level. The great opportunity for companies of Kurzarbeit against firing is, as soon as the market kicks of again - they have their full well-trained work force. This was one very  important aspect, that helped Germany to recover so fast after the crises. It's called "Rheinischer Kapitalismus" (Rhine capitalism). German companies learned early on, it's better to integrate Unions into the company than to fight them. 

[chronmasta]

Being against Unions is like being against helping sick people, after all they are just people trying to afford food, shelter for thier family and kids, so they can stay alive...

[OrangeCountyGrower]

What did the Teamsters and UAW do for me?

Well, the teamsters put a company out of business that I worked for by making us take a $1 raise we didn't want.

The UAW laid me off even though my boss wanted to keep me.

Unions get good working conditions at the expense of the WORKER

PS: I'm 2 months away from collecting my UAW pension. . .

[DensetsuVI]

Why are these people so absolutely against imposing regulations and interfering in the free market, until they themselves are the ones imposing and interfering?

I'd say it makes me doubt their credibility, but one cannot doubt something they never had to begin with.

[meistensimmer]

I don't want to defend VW too much here, and as a multinational corporation they certainly first and foremost have their own interest in mind and not the workers'.

But still, Cenk, VW has taken a neutral to pro-union stance in the question.

Why should they do that if they were actuall against it, and in the US, there really is no reason to have a pro-union stance in the first place?

Keep in mind, world-wide their union-including system has worked out for VW relatively well.

[skippyscourge]

I agree with the basic principals of Employee Unions, the only problem is, they have a bad history of becoming extremely corrupt and causing far more harm than good.... I think a far better alternative is labor regulation, enforcement of fair wages, enforcement of reasonable work hours, reasonable treatment, reasonable job safety legislation, and the providing of reasonable healthcare packages.... something else the right hates when the government is telling corporations that they have to provide these things, but who cares what those lunatics want.

[denniswicker]

If people had all the tax breaks corporations have, we wouldn't need unions.  Don't blame the unions for a living wage.

[iamadorknblonde]

"We are pro-choice, unless you chose *not* to join a union, then you have no choice." - Progressives
Corker should mind his own business, but at the same time left-wing hypocrisy opposing right-to-work laws should also be pointed out.

[LTrotskystCentury]

What Cenk calls "some great ironies here" are the inherent contradictions of capitalism, though he chooses not to express it like that. Cenk is, after all, a capitalist, or believes he is. You can see this in his characterization of unionization as "getting better pay" or "more vacation time." Often, as he may know but does not state, unionization is a matter of the workers attempting to achieve better physical survival rates.

The sole purpose of private capital is to maximize profit. It is not to engage in production to meet human needs, or pay workers a living wage. Therefore, private capital exists in tension with an ordered and reasonable human society.

Once private capital begins to accumulate in sufficient quantity among the capitalist class, the profit thus accumulated (from the labor of workers) is then used to distort the political system to subvert the interests of the workers and the masses generally. This is called "the alienation of labor" in Marxism. In Cenkism, it's merely a 'great irony'.

The US political system is now a plutocrat power machine. It has nothing to do with the progress and sustainability of society, or the basic rights, dignity and viability of human beings.

This story is more evidence of these phenomena playing out locally - but they play out everywhere. That's why the world in which we live is one of globalist capitalism, which has but 1 or 2 generations more before it is done. The only question we have to ask is : will the collapse of capitalism take all of us down with it? It's up to us, we must act soon.

[hallabalooza]

To my understanding, they made a vote and the employees voted against it...

[bctopper]

I think we should just unionize everything and become more like France. I love massive unemployment.

[romanmir]

There is no problem with a completely PRIVATE union, that is union that is not enjoying GOVERNMENT backing and privileges over the business owners. However that is NOT what these unions are, these unions are a way for GOVERNMENT to take over the companies basically, because unions have special access and special privileges with the government. As long as the unions are enjoying GOVERNMENT protections, no employer should allow them in his business.

[anonympirate]

Cenk is completely wrong on this Volkswagen has even got Unions on their board and every Volkswagen plant all over the world except this one has a great relationships to the unions and they help make internal decisions and VWs official company goal is to be number one in sales, profits customer satisfaction and work force satisfaction