Posted on 02/20/2014 12:28:40 PM PST by Kaslin
Last week, Volkswagen employees at a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted 712 to 626 to reject membership to the United Auto Workers (UAW), dealing a devastating defeat to organized labor. The workers’ vote against unionization demonstrates just how little faith the American people have in union bosses and their false promises.
Months prior to the election, UAW representative Gary Casteel presciently foretold that “if we go for a traditional election where the outside organizations could campaign against us, we’d probably lose.” For this very reason, organized labor fought tooth and nail for Volkswagen to recognize it as its workers’ bargaining representative based on a card check whereby employees express their support for unionization by signing a card.
The card check process is rife with flaws and open to manipulation. Under card check, labor organizers confront workers and can pressure, bully, even coerce them into signing a card. UAW representatives proceeded with card check early on because they knew it was their best opportunity to unionize the plant. But after the union announced a card check majority, some workers immediately complained of malfeasance.
Eight Volkswagen workers filed a charge, alleging that union representatives misled them into signing the authorization cards. Allegedly, they were told that by signing the cards they were merely voicing their support for a vote on the issue, when in fact they were agreeing to union representation. The workers attempted to renege, but were met with burdensome bureaucratic regulations that prohibited them from doing so with ease. The charge led Volkswagen leadership to file a petition for a secret ballot, much to the UAW’s chagrin.
The secret ballot leveled the playing field by allowing workers to vote privately without fear of retribution. Most importantly, the secret ballot, a hallmark of the democratic process, ensured that the ballots would accurately reflect the workers’ free choice.
If a secret ballot election had not been held, things might have turned out differently. UAW President Bob King admitted as much when he stated, “We would be certified as a bargaining representative of the workers at (the VW plant in) Chattanooga, Tenn., if it were not for the right wing forces … Only because of the right-wing attacks and right-wing pressure, we’re going to have to go to an election.” King pointed the finger instead of looking in the mirror, but his comments are representative of his organization’s desire to restrict democracy, the outcome of which has only reinforced the importance of the secret ballot.
It is not as if a secret ballot precluded the UAW from trying to persuade workers to vote in favor of representation. In fact, with the assistance of Volkswagen, the UAW waged an expensive campaign to persuade workers to favor the supposed benefits of joining a union. In the end, Big Labor’s arguments held no water with the workers. The majority of plant employees understood that joining the UAW may very well have endangered the plant’s profitability and their livelihood, which is why they voted to reject union representation.
We can’t say it any better than Volkswagen worker Mike Jarvis, who recently told a media outlet, “Who is growing? Who is moving forward? Who is paying their people great, and who is not? Look at Detroit, where there are city blocks of empty houses. So what is the common denominator there? The UAW.”
The die has been cast. The Chattanooga vote has made it exceedingly clear that American workers will not allow themselves to be forced into unions.
Those 712 Volkswagen workers showed us why protecting the secret ballot in union organizing elections is so important, and why we can never let union bosses take that away from American workers.
And yet 47% of the nimrods voted to be more like Detroit . . .
Communists only support democracy when it can be used to foster communism. They oppose it when they know democracy will oppose their goals.
Thus gay marriage has NEVER won a vote. Ever.
I arrived at my first job in the late ‘70’s just after a unionization drive. The union lost. The employees told horrifying stories. Anybody who spoke out against unionization had their car keyed and all four tires slashed. Some people’s tires were slashed so many times they quit because they couldn’t afford to stay.
This was a plant in Satellite Beach Florida, two blocks from the beach. If the surf was up half the plant didn’t come back from the morning break. People smoked pot just outside the doors before coming back into work. I can’t imagine how bad the place would have been if the union had won.
Card check - if ever implemented, is no better than just giving up and letting the union ruin VW - as it so successfully did for GM and Chrysler.
And, as has been said before, VW is not exactly a quality leader now. Just imagine the effects if the UAW gets their hands on things.
You worked for Lyn Aerospace?.................
I'm dumfounded. Just dumbfounded. How do you satirize idiots like this when the idiots start speaking in satire from the get-go?
“You worked for Lyn Aerospace?.................”
It was called Regency Communications at 1227 South Patrick Drive. At the time they were the largest producers of CB radios in the world. But, they had two 707’s and the top officers flew around the country in royal style the company could not afford. (Oh, they sucked money out in kickbacks from suppliers too.)
HOORAY MeganC!
Thus gay marriage has NEVER won a vote. Ever.
Tyranny of the minority by activist judges for loudmouth collectivists.
I remember those.....................
“I remember those.....................”
They had a really decent product and a huge market share. It took real, malevolent criminality on the part of top management to run them out of business.
Their opposition to the secret ballot is naked in it’s reasoning and cannot be justified.
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