Posted on 07/12/2014 10:11:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I just returned from another trip to Tennessee where I was able to catch up with a few folks from the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga and see how things were developing. The conversations there had shifted quite a bit from earlier in the year when the vote regarding UAW unionization was raging, and recent reports make it clear that the big auto union isn’t going to be content with licking their wounds from their recent loss. As Ed reported back in April, the UAW had withdrawn their request for a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board, which some saw as a sign that the fight was pretty much over.
But from what I was hearing, union organizers weren’t looking at things that way at all. There was talk of going ahead and forming an “informal” bargaining unit anyway. And now it looks like they are making it officially unofficial.
Five months after the United Auto Workers (UAW) failed in its bid to unionize Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn., manufacturing plant, the union is giving it another go. But this time, they’re not bothering with the traditional election route.
Instead of calling on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to administer an election, the UAW has decided to form a voluntary association called Local 42. At least initially, the group will not collectively bargain on behalf of the plant’s whole workforce, and it will not collect dues. Yet if a majority of the plant’s employees agree to join Local 42, there is a chance that Volkswagen will recognize it as the workers’ exclusive bargaining agent, granting it full union privileges without the need for an election.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Just fore a bunch of signatures and declare the place unionized!
It's almost like they have a pen and a phone.
Typical liberal thinking. Damn whatever you think, we (the smarmy liberal elite) will do what WE want, and we are going to cram it down your throat.
Apparently all they need is a phone and a pen,too.
I don’t have a problem with this. If the workers understand the need to make a product that will return a profit to investment, so be it.
“If the workers understand the need to make a product that will return a profit to investment, so be it.”
That will occur the day after pigs fly. your Obama check arrives, and Hell freezes over.
When the union shows up at your home for a friendly chat along with seeing your spouse and kids, most will sign. Elections are so yesteryear for the collective. For the few who won’t sign, they will either be irrelevant or worse. The company will not protect them. Their European operations are comanaged and they support unionization.
The communists are on a roll. They aren’t going to let no stinking, freedom-loving Americans stop them! This is THEIR police state now!
If VW does not make a profit to its investors they will close.
VW is not fighting this.
Unions by and large became a naughty word after WWII.
In the early years they were needed to protect workers and stop child labor. The unions then attacked business and demanded more profit than what was deemed affordable by investors.
If VW sees this as an operational outlay they will regret this move as OSHA and DOL already govern the original demands of any union.
Looks like they are taking a page out of the Democrats playbook and DEEMING that the members voted for it.
I think I see where this is going.
I’ll bet “informal” organizations aren’t subject to any of the (barely enforced) laws that would pretend to restrict a normal union. So anyone on the receiving end will have little recourse against them.
VW deserves everything the UAW throws at them. VW is a pro-union German corporation, It essentially did nothing to defeat the union in the election, and has demonstrated it is more than willing to have a union at this plant despite what its workers want.
IIRC VW is pro union, and sided with the union, but the employees of the VW plant DON’T WANT THE UNION.
The UAW is operating with the blessings of Volkswagen against the will of the majority of the employees.
That being the case let VW pay all the dues, and costs associated with bargaining with themselves.
And those VW employees who voted against the union should organize themselves now in order to prepare themselves for when the unofficial Local 42 decides to become official and nip that in the bud.
Yep, they should create a No42 organization
In my experience as a business consultant, German companies like to work with unions. However, they are not pushovers like the US auto industry. They are extremely well organized in how they do business and expect the same from union members.
Very misleading headline, I’m afraid. The union “exists” whether the company is required (normally as the result of a secret ballot election, but sometimes as a result of an employer (upon seeing that a large number of employees have signed cards) recognizing the union as its employees exclusive bargaining agent). The only issue is the company’s duty to bargain with whatever group claims to represent the majority of its employees.
As far as card check goes, my fairly extensive experience is that employees are invariably told by the organizers that their signature is only for the purpose of demanding an election (”after all, that’s the American way -— put it up to an election ...”) and do so despite the fact that the cards also say the union can use the cards to demand recognition without an election. Most employees are then SHOCKED when the union demands recognition on the basis of signed cards and somewhat grateful when the company rejects the demand and insists on a secret ballot election.
Tennessee is a right to work and lots of people have a dislike for them. My dad worked 45 years in telecommunications and never joined. UAW would do well to remember the Boeing plant in Oak Ridge. They won their long strike and Boeing closed the plant and relocated within a couple of years. Yea the union sure showed them.
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