Well Duh?? UAW Wants To Organize VW Chattanooga Plant Without A Vote

A German union leader on Volkswagen AG supervisory board says union representation at the company's Chattanooga, Tenn., assembly plant shouldn't come without a vote—a position that could complicate the United Auto Workers' effort to gain a foothold at the factory.

The UAW, as part of a broader effort to organize nonunion auto factories in the southern U.S., says it has collected signed union cards from more than half of the 2,000 production workers at the VW plant.

The UAW has signaled it would prefer Volkswagen management to accept the union as its bargaining partner without a secret ballot election by workers, a path allowed under U.S. labor law.

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TheSteve - 10/11/2013 2:28:47 PM

+2 Boost

Is there any successful businessman in his right mind who wakes up one morning and says, "I want to deliver higher quality products to my customers; I want less bureaucracy and greater agility so I can respond to the market's desires more quickly; I want to deliver greater value to my customers and hurt my competition by cutting unnecessary costs so I can deliver better value for the dollar... damn, I need to unionize the shop."

Make no mistake; Unions were originally created to put an end to slave-like working condition with pay of a few pennies per day and brutally long work hours and a workweek that lasted 6 days (and sometimes 7). This was the early 20th century. Today, unions exist to enforce and promote beliefs job entitlement, labor compensation that exceeds free market value, and guarantees of comfort that go on long after the laborer stops working (e.g., cushy pensions and health benefits). All these entitlements and benefits are the union's only focus. They DON'T focus on ensuring their employer's health and sustainability, lower consumer costs, greater consumer value, or higher consumer quality.

In short, unions are self-serving. They can feel entitled all the way to that last labor job leaving the US and going abroad, because that's where companies can get laborers to do the job and still be able to sell their products competitively to US and world markets.