Tennessee Auto Plant Rejects Unionization

Unions may have had a role to play in business at the turn of the 20th century. But since then, unions have morphed into a Democrat extortion machine, demanding that businesses give more and more until those companies are ultimately driven out of business. Likeminded engineers should feel free to associate with each other in professional groups- like guilds, educational groups that advance the state of the trade, and so forth. But as soon as any of the groups begin to demand that businesses pay more than the market values for skills, then the group should be banned. In Tennessee, the United Auto Workers tried to unionize a VolksWagon plant, and they failed. Now they are whinging incessantly about outside political pressure. The tears, they are tasty.

From Politico here:

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., have rejected the United Auto Workers, shooting down the union’s hopes of securing a foothold at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South. The vote was 712 to 626, said the UAW, which blamed the loss on “politicians and outside special interest groups.”

The vote, announced late Friday night after three days of balloting, is a devastating loss for the UAW, whose membership has plummeted from a high of 1.5 million in 1979 to around 400,000 today. Outgoing UAW President Bob King had staked his legacy on organizing a Southern auto plant for the first time.

But the decision is a triumph for Tennessee Republicans like Sen. Bob Corker, who lured Volkswagen to Chattanooga as mayor in the early 2000s. Corker and other Republicans warned workers that the UAW’s presence would irreparably harm the plant, and in recent days he claimed — with little evidence — that Volkswagen would choose not to expand the plant if workers unionized.
“Needless to say, I am thrilled for the employees at Volkswagen and for our community and its future,” Corker said in a brief statement Friday night.

The D.C.-based Center for Worker Freedom, a division of conservative activist Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, also campaigned against the union drive by blaming unions for Detroit’s economic woes and saying the UAW supports liberal politicians who favor gun control.

If the vote had passed, Volkswagon would have certainly tabled any future plans for expansion. Looters loot. Its what they do. May as well say that fish swim. Unions destroy factories, while doing very very little at worker education and training. Fact of the matter is that if you are good at your job, you don’t need a union to recognize your value and award you accordingly. Under a union, no one advances on their own, and everyone’s wages become depressed. The only rich people in a union are union bosses.