Map of Right to Work states vs forced unionism states.
The UAW defeat is more proof that workers value their right to work and their hard earned wages. There is no longer a reason to pay dues for union heads to butt in on behalf of the workers. The relationship between employees and management is fine. If the bosses want to be productive they should move to China, ruin the manufacturing base and send the jobs back home. The Wall Street Journal details the UAW’s defeat in Chatanooga here.
This wasn’t merely one more failed union organizing attempt. The UAW and its chief Bob King spent years working toward this vote as part of its strategy to organize plants in the American South, and all the stars were aligned in its favor.
Mr. King colluded with IG Metall, Volkswagen’s German union, to neutralize Volkswagen management. It pitched the collaborative vision of a labor-management “works council” at the plant that makes the VW Passat, and it claimed to have learned its lesson from the confrontation and strikes that hurt Detroit’s auto makers. Volkswagen management gave the union the run of the plant to lobby workers while denying similar privileges to union opponents.
So it’s nothing short of remarkable that the union couldn’t make the sale. The failure reflects how well the plant’s workers are doing without a union, to the tune of $27 an hour including benefits. The defeat also speaks to the harm the UAW has done to itself by driving GM and Chrysler to bankruptcy and pushing companies like Caterpillar to move new production from union plants.
