By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--March 10, 2014
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In Tennessee, the complaint is by the union against politicians. Senate Speaker Pro Tem Bo Watson said before the vote that "additional incentives from the citizens of the state of Tennessee for expansion or otherwise will have a very tough time passing the Tennessee Senate" if voters unionize. But that's a statement of fact, and neither he nor any other state politician threatened to yank existing incentives.
The UAW is also making much ado of U.S. Senator Bob Corker's claim that he was "assured" that Chattanooga would be rewarded with a second production line if workers rejected the union. The Senator's "threat was made using United States Government resources," the union complains to the NLRB, and "we believe that Senator Corker used government travel funds specifically to fly to Chattanooga to make his threat in the most open and notorious manner." Nice of the UAW to care so much about taxpayer dollars. The legal problem for the UAW is that Volkswagen immediately disavowed Mr. Corker's claim. UAW regional director Gary Casteel also assured Chattanooga workers prior to the election that Volkswagen officials "specifically said that this vote will have no bearing on the decision of where to place the new product." The union complaint also never mentions that Mr. Obama tried to influence the election by telling Democrats on Capitol Hill the week of the election that Republicans were more concerned with German shareholders than U.S. workers. If anything, Volkswagen favored the union by giving labor organizers the run of the plant while denying similar access to anti-union workers. Germany's IG Metall Union, which holds several seats on the Volkswagen board, also promoted the UAW to Tennessee workers. So although the UAW had ample opportunity to directly make its case to workers, the union is now calling a foul because workers exercised free choice and the vote didn't go its way.This is what the UAW always does, though. Those of us who live in Michigan know it all too well. They never accept defeat. They never permanently accept a concession. Any short-term retreat is guaranteed to be followed up quickly for a demand for far more than whatever was momentarily given up. The UAW is a machine. Its only goal is complete control of your workforce, and it doesn't care what it has to do to get it. The weird thing here is that we appear to have a conspiracy of sorts of management and the union against the workers. Volkswagen hasn't exactly endorsed the UAW, but the company gave the union unfettered access to the shop floor during the pre-vote campaign, and now the company has even joined the union in opposing groups who want to intervene in opposition to the UAW's appeal. What's that all about? There's no conceivable way Volkswagen actually wants the UAW in its plant. They're not stupid. But maybe they're so confident there's no way the union can win that they think going the extra mile to deny the UAW a claim of unfair labor practices is the way to protect the inevitable victory. It's hard to imagine any legitimate grounds by which the NLRB would call for a re-vote, but if you know anything about the Obama NLRB, then you know legitimate grounds likely have very little to do with it.
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