Friday, February 14, 2014 must have felt more like a “Friday the 13th” to the UAW An aggressive campaign supported by the powerful I.G. Metall German Union, Volkswagen corporate offices in Germany, and reminiscent of the SEIU’s Death by a Thousand Cuts campaign against my company and our employees, was defeated as Volkswagen Workers in Chattanooga Reject Auto Workers Union!
Facing its day of reckoning, the UAW Asks Labor Board to Weigh New Vote at Tennessee VW Plant. The UAW is crying foul, asserting that comments made by a Tennessee Republican Senator, Caused Workers to Vote Against the UAW. Senator Bob Corker publicly stated that the UAW was in “a death spiral,” and suggested that Volkswagen would move future work to other plants instead of Chattanooga if the union prevailed. Hypocritically, the UAW made no mention of the fact that on the day of the election, its “Defender In Chief,” President Obama, blasted Corker and other local conservatives for “interfering.” The President Stated in an Address that everyone was in favor of the UAW representing Volkswagen except for local politicians who were more concerned about German shareholders than American workers.
One would think if the UAW wanted to challenge the election results, surely it must consider that President Obama’s comments would carry more weight than Senator Corker, and that both comments are Outside the Jurisdiction of the NLRA and Subsequently the NLRB’s Power. Ironically, according to sources close to the election, Senator Corker’s remarks and President Obama’s counter comments came after 1,200 of the approximate 1,300 VW employees had already voted, obviously having no effect on the outcome of the election. However, desperate people do desperate things, and there is little doubt that the UAW is Becoming Desperate. The truth is, this is just another failed attempt in The Long History of the UAW’s Failed Southern Strategy.
That fact that this was another attempt at forced unionization is clear, as the UAW would never have engaged the German union and Volkswagon Germany, or pressured Volkswagen in Chattanooga into signing a Neutrality Agreement unless they were concerned that they did not have enough employee votes to win. Unnamed sources have reported that a large percentage of the election cards from employees coerced by the UAW were actually signed by vendor employees in an attempt to over-inflate employee interest!
Furthermore, this was not the typical Neutrality Agreement often utilized by big labor in the United States, this was the UAW Neutrality Agreement. It does not demand the secret ballot election be bypassed in favor of Card Check, but actually repetitively asserts that a secret ballot election would occur under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In fact, it seemed to be over emphasized to distract employees and others from the real intent which was an Ambush Election (see NLRB Flexes Muscles). The agreement was signed around February 2, 2014 under protest from the VW Plant Manager, who intentionally scribbled …read more