Chattanooga Volkswagen Workers Embrace
Union in Historic Vote as UAW Sets Its
Sights on the South
Epoch Times,
by
Chase Smith
Original Article
Posted By: Skinnydip,
4/28/2024 10:52:10 AM
Chattanooga, Tennessee, is known as “Gig City,” not for its many live music venues, but for its role as the first city in the Western Hemisphere to offer 1 gigabit-per-second fiber internet service to residents and businesses, an honor that it claimed in 2010.
In 2024, Chattanooga has come to be representative of a different movement—the labor movement in the South. An overwhelming vote by the city’s Volkswagen employees on April 19 to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) union was the first crack in a decades-long barrier holding back the labor movement south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Until now, the Chattanooga facility has been the only non-union Volkswagen plant worldwide.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Quigley 4/28/2024 11:07:38 AM (No. 1707685)
The cancer spreads.
17 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
red1066 4/28/2024 11:11:33 AM (No. 1707686)
I wonder if huge profits and bonuses to upper management coupled with high inflation and interest rates have anything to do with this?
14 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
stablemoney 4/28/2024 11:27:32 AM (No. 1707699)
Vehicle prices have already risen, now with increased labor cost from union organization, Volkswagens will soon be built in Mexico.
26 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
DVC 4/28/2024 11:53:11 AM (No. 1707715)
They will be sorry, but by then it will be too late.
19 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
mc squared 4/28/2024 11:59:56 AM (No. 1707724)
Chinese manufacturers are building factories in Mexico.
9 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 4/28/2024 12:13:24 PM (No. 1707744)
Re #5, and that is why the NAFTA agreement MUST be ended.
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
OldBuffalo 4/28/2024 12:18:48 PM (No. 1707746)
I have a Japanese built Toyota on the way, in transit. That's one way around this.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
chance_232 4/28/2024 12:41:46 PM (No. 1707756)
Unions don't get voted in if the workforce is happy.
I would vote for a union with my current employer just to stick it to them. And I hate unions.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Kate318 4/28/2024 12:54:18 PM (No. 1707763)
I have family, friends and clients who belong to unions. All decent people who make hourly wages I could only dream of.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
formerNYer 4/28/2024 1:14:08 PM (No. 1707768)
Hitler's car - Volkswagen hasn't made a good car in 40 years. This will only hastenm their demise.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Tennman 4/28/2024 1:27:17 PM (No. 1707771)
Not much is made of VW being in favor of unionization. Talk about a death-wish. Major differences in German, and Japanese unions compared to ours.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
plomke 4/28/2024 1:35:23 PM (No. 1707775)
Westmoreland Pennsylvania,1975.
Volkswagen.
The first foreign car maker set up shop in the USA.
That really didn't work out too well for either VW or the UAW.
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Mass Minority 4/28/2024 2:07:12 PM (No. 1707784)
Just wait til October when they realize 100% of their dues ( minus the nationally boss's cut obviously) were donated to the Biden campaign and they are all instructed to vote a straight D ticket. They might reconsider, especially after seeing all the shiny new Mercedes and jaguars the shop stewards bought with their new union stipends.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 4/28/2024 3:14:25 PM (No. 1707806)
As I suspected, one of the big contributors was the generous contracts the UAW wrestled out of the big three last year, and the workers think they'll get the same. Great for the ones who don't lose their jobs when the companies cut staff to pay for raises, or close the plant because the UAW made it uneconomic. Another factor is that VW management has wanted a union all along because they think they'll get a partnership like they have with German unions. They'll be shocked to find out otherwise. I predict much heartache in the future.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
hershey 4/28/2024 3:54:34 PM (No. 1707821)
Best thing that ever happened to me in my old work life was getting promoted and OUT of the union...paid dues, went through two strikes and never got squat from them....
4 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
chumley 4/28/2024 4:41:43 PM (No. 1707841)
I used to work in a union shop. They spent so much time defending the lazy and inept they didnt have time for legitimate grievances. Worthless.
4 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/28/2024 5:50:22 PM (No. 1707886)
I'm guessing that many of the disgruntled and laid-off people from Michigan moved down to Tennessee and are a large part of the work force. Southern people are smarter than this.
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
JimBob 4/28/2024 7:05:15 PM (No. 1707917)
We can speculate, but it would be nice to have some reasonably solid INFORMATION as to why the workers voted the way they did.
The shop I worked in was all Federal employees many years ago, then the Congress mandated that certain categories of work be 'evaluated' to be turned over to private contract workers. The endless 'evaluations' and the turnover of the contractors -where the workers lost all their accumulated leave and seniority each time there was a contractor change- made it so that many of the decent people who actually did the work on the equipment no longer had a career, it was just a job, they were treated as cogs in the machine, no respect- took quite a toll on morale and the quality of the workforce. During my last year working there, they got in a contractor who really treated the workers badly, and they were looking to form or join a union for their own self-preservation.
Idiot management ruined what had been a pretty well functioning outfit.
I wonder what the REAL story is at the VW plant.
1 person likes this.
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Bye-bye, Fahrvergnügen.