Rah Rah Rah we beat back the Union. Do you know the real truth about Volkswagen? Probably not. Since many of collect your info from FOX NEWS and a variety of other highly biased right wing news and comment sites let's look at the truth about Volkswagen.
The Union fight at Volkswagen was odd because the fight was between the Union and conservatives like the Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist and Bob Corker. The company, it wanted the Union and almost needs the Union. This Union drive had nothing to do with wages, most workers are happy with their wages and benefits, but everything to do with improving company worker relations. Volkswagen Germany is accustomed to Unions and in fact the company sees it as an eventual necessity if it is to expand in the United States, as it is the way they do business. All Volkswagen plants worldwide with the exception of Chattanooga Tennessee, and the ones in China, have a Works Council. Under American law VW cannot have a works council in the plant without a Union. What does the works Council do? The works council is a management /hourly collaboration on schedules, production schedules, expansion plans for the plant,pay, furloughs and a variety of other issues that are discussed before they become major problems. So fact is the company wanted the union. The south was slated for a second Volkswagen plant but company officials now say that it is doubtful it will be built in the south if in the U.S. at all.
The union was, not surprising, defeated by a series of conservative lies. Bob Corker rode into town (he is an ex-mayor of Chattanooga) stating that if the union was defeated a new line would be developed to build a VW SUV (the plant builds the Passat) an out and out lie that the company quickly tried to squelch. The conservative talking heads talked constantly of planned job cuts which again was not true in fact with the Works Council in place the plant was expected to expand not contract.
Seems that when we are inviting foreign investment into our country that we need to understand their business concepts. We do with the Japanese because it is an acceptable plan, (Non Union), to most. If the Germans like unions and need these works councils as a part of their operations then let it be so. Another UAW vote cannot be held for a year although other unions could come in and organize the plant. That would be interesting now wouldn't it, an auto plant organized under AFSCME. Don't be surprised if it happens. Volkswagen wants the union.
The workers like the company.
ReplyDeleteThe workers like the working conditions.
The workers like their benefits.
The workers like the pay.
Why would the workers want a union to take their money without benefit?
I have always wondered why unions were allowed to ride into town banners flying presenting their case yet no one can say anything in response to their lofty claims. The unions can give away the workers dues to anyone they want and are not held accountable. I have always disliked the double standard.
Rick, when does the SEIU get to represent your workers?
An alternate to this situation is for the plant to form a local union which would then allow for the desired collaborative structure.... Guess what the UAW has to say about that.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Chair of Volkswagen’s global works council, Bernd Osterloh who is also the head of VW’s German works council and member of Volkswagen’s supervisory board, Volkswagen’s works councils do have a say over investment decisions. They can slow them down, but they can’t block them completely. It should also be noted that employee representatives occupy half of the seats on Volkswagen’s supervisory board. The board also must approve investment decisions. Companies go to great lengths to avoid having all of the employee representatives on the supervisory board vote against a management preference.
There also appears to be a strong connection between the former chairman of the German metalworkers union, IG Metall, Berthold Huber and Bob King, president of the UAW...
One of the questions to look to is that because of the strong association between the UAW and counterparts at IG Metall, even if the Chattanooga plant opted for a single location union agreement... would the representatives for other works counsels shun them.
In the 1990's Clinton attempted to get legislation to allow for Work Counsels. The proposal was shut down by unions and business alike. Of course union bosses rejected the idea.... Why? because the union would have had to cede its grievance function and narrow its role to collective bargaining.
For the UAW, its not about representation... its about money.... its about power. Its about forcing business to transfer employ wealth to the union.
From "The World Socialist Web Site"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/17/tenn-f17.html
"In a devastating defeat for the United Auto Workers union, workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant voted against the UAW last week. With nearly 90 percent of the workers casting ballots, the UAW lost the certification vote by 712 to 626.
The debacle left UAW President Bob King and other union officials stunned. UAW executives had spent millions of dollars on the campaign and were counting on the backing of VW management, which agreed to work with the UAW to set up a German-style “works council” at the plant.
Predictably, UAW officials blamed the defeat on right-wing Republican politicians and the supposedly “antiunion” sentiment of workers themselves. In fact, Chattanooga workers voted “no” because they correctly saw that the UAW would function as nothing more than a company union. UAW leaders like President Bob King and Region 8 Director Gary Casteel made it clear that the UAW would do nothing to address workers’ grievances over low pay, the increased use of casual labor and poor working conditions. On the contrary, UAW officials made it clear that they would keep wages low and productivity up—and subtract union dues from workers’ paychecks to boot.
Before the vote, workers became aware of a clause in the Volkswagen-UAW “neutrality agreement” promising the automaker the union would engage in “maintaining and where possible enhancing the cost advantages and other competitive advantages that [Volkswagen] enjoys relative to its competitors in the United States and North America.”
In other words, the UAW told Volkswagen it would keep wages “competitive” with the Detroit-based automakers. The Chattanooga workers could only take this as a threat; full-time workers hired at the Volkswagen plant in 2011 earn about $5 more per hour than their counterparts at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler who were hired over the last six years.
Workers at the Tennessee factory—many of whom worked in northern plants before—know full well that the UAW has overseen the destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs, the closing of hundreds of factories and the abandonment of virtually every gain won by auto workers."
"In the 1920s and 1930s, the US automakers used company unions as a bulwark against organizations that sought to articulate workers’ interests—i.e., real unions, including at one time the UAW. The longstanding prohibition of company unions, established with the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, is based on the tacit admission that workers and bosses have a different set of interests. As King’s statement makes clear, the UAW denies this elementary principle.
DeleteAs a result of decades of betrayals, UAW membership has fallen from 1.5 million in 1979 to 380,000 today. The latest defeat in the South, combined with the anticipated loss of millions in income once dues payments become voluntary for auto workers under Michigan’s right-to-work law next year, could lead to the complete collapse of this rotten organization.
This threat to the bloated salaries of thousands of union executives will no doubt accelerate the transformation of the UAW into a purely business operation. The UAW already sits atop immense financial resources. Recently Italian automaker Fiat paid the UAW-controlled retiree trust fund $4.35 billion to buy out its stake in Chrysler. The trust also controls billions more in GM and Ford stock. This has given the UAW even greater financial incentive to ramp up the exploitation of workers. "
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/18/pers-f18.html
DeleteIt is a historical fact that the industrial unions in the US, including the UAW, were founded as a result of a rebellion against the old craft-dominated American Federation of Labor. Those struggles were led by socialists and left-wing militants.
The organizations that workers built in the 1930s and 1940s have long ago betrayed them and become arms of the corporations and the government. This trajectory was already foretold in the unions’ opposition to an independent political movement of the working class and their alliance with the Democratic Party, which was used to subordinate the working class to the domestic and international interests of American capitalism."