Posted in Labor Unions, News

UAW appeals Volkswagen union vote, citing “extraordinary interference”

   February 23, 2014

This is great news!

The United Auto Workers will appeal its loss in a unionization vote at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., claiming it faced “extraordinary interference” from Republican politicians like Sen. Bob Corker and Gov. Bill Haslam.

The vote, held last week, was UAW’s best opportunity in 40 years to organize a Southern, foreign-owned auto plant. Volkswagen, which has German-style works councils at most of its factories throughout the world, had decided not to oppose the union drive. But Republican politicians and outside conservative groups, led by Corker (R-Tenn.), helped persuade workers to reject the union, 712-626.

“It’s an outrage that politically motivated third parties threatened the economic future of this facility and the opportunity for workers to create a successful operating model that would grow jobs in Tennessee,” UAW President Bob King said in a statement.

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15 thoughts on “UAW appeals Volkswagen union vote, citing “extraordinary interference””

  1. To say that unionization at the Tennessee Volkswagen plant would be an opportunity to create a successful operating model for job creation may be a bit premature. Especially since UAW was a contributing factor to the trials and tribulations of Government Motors (GM)
    But there is another operating model that has never been seriously considered and that is of unsubsidized and untaxed enterprise in a freed market. This, though, might be especially foreign to Tennessee since slavery with full taxation of income prevailed before the Civil War. Then, since the institution of the income tax in 1913, slavery with only partial taxation of income prevailed.
    However, in order to support the growing welfare/warfare state, slavery with full taxation may need to be reinstituted, not just in Tennessee, but throughout the land of the free. Just kidding, of course— about this being the land of the free.

  2. Ernest, you’re not premature, you’re just wrong. Unions are a pain in the neck, but without them, all the money flows to the 1%.

    Couldn’t agree more that Wall Street should be kicked off welfare.

    “Bank Of America Dumps $75 Trillion In Derivatives On U.S. Taxpayers With Federal Approval”

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/301260-bank-of-america-dumps-75-trillion-in-derivatives-on-u-s-taxpayers-with-federal-approval
    To put that in perspective, US GDP in 2012 was around $16.5 trillion. We blew a lot more than the $6 trillion, they’re claiming in Iraq and Afghanistan. Social Security’s Trust Fund is $2.3 trillion. Bank of America is just one Wall Street bank. They all have derivative exposure, but they won’t disclose how much. I’ve seen estimates of $700 trillion.

    Why aren’t Republicans leading on that?

    “GRAPH: As Union Membership Has Declined, Income Inequality Has Skyrocketed In The United States”

    http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/03/147994/unions-income-inequality/

    Physicians, attorneys, engineers, tenured faculty, anyone who uses credentialing to restrict the “supply” of their labor, in order to put a floor underneath their wages is bargaining collectively. It’s not pretty, but if you find a better solution, by all means let us know.

    If Gov. Walker was in favor of lower state taxes, the first thing he would do is end the job killing government regulations against marijuana. Just like alcohol, prohibition doesn’t work. That doesn’t mean Republicans endorse healthy people using pot, it just means they’re realists.

    http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2012/04/27/the-smoke-and-mirrors-of-the-legalization-debate/

    W/R/T federal taxes, this is from Beardsley Ruml, NY Fed Chair, back in 1946:

    “(Federal) Taxes for revenue are obsolete

    “…The necessity for a government to tax in order to maintain both its independence and its solvency is true for state and local governments, but it is not true for a national government. Two changes of the greatest consequence have occurred in the last twenty-five years which have substantially altered the position of the national state with respect to the financing of its current requirements.

    The first of these changes is the gaining of vast new experience in the management of central banks.

    The second change is the elimination, for domestic purposes, of the convertibility of the currency into gold.”

    …

    http://www.constitution.org/tax/us-ic/cmt/ruml_obsolete.pdf

    Republicans are right. We need much lower federal taxes on the 99%. That should start with bringing back a full holiday on the payroll tax.

    The last time we had demand-pull inflation, too many dollars chasing too few goods/services, was World War II. It’s not a co-incidence that was the last time we had full employment. That’s when you raise federal taxes, to manage aggregate demand.

    Right now we have cost-push inflation, because the oligarchs control all the fossil fuels and they don’t want the government funding sustainable alternatives.

    This from Warren Mosler @wbmosler is excellent http://moslereconomics.com/2010/02/04/dallas-address/
    Democrats are right, we need much more federal spending on health care, education, and green infrastructure.

    When you hear a Republican or a Democrat talking about “balanced” federal budget, you now know they’re a fiscal illiterate. We can run out of potable water, clean air, mineral, metals, and land. We cannot run out of currency. (Greece can, because they don’t have their own currency.) The terrific and accessible 49-minute video below from UMKC Economics prof, Stephanie Kelton @stephaniekelton explains that it’s the three “sectors” (public, private (domestic), and foreign) that have to “balance,” not the federal budget. Capitalism runs on sales. When the private sector and the foreign sector are broke (where we are now), the only sector that can “spend” is the public sector.

    http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/video-archive/2013/11/221-2524

  3. It is not just Wall Street, but all welfare recipients, that should be kicked off welfare.
    Unions are not necessary to stop the flow of all money to the 1%. All that is necessary is for the 99% to outlaw welfare. A democracy will accommodate the wishes of that 99%.

  4. Ernest, what part of $75 trillion did you not understand?

    “To put that in perspective, US GDP in 2012 was around $16.5 trillion. We blew a lot more than the $6 trillion, they’re claiming in Iraq and Afghanistan. Social Security’s Trust Fund is $2.3 trillion. Bank of America is just one Wall Street bank. They all have derivative exposure, but they won’t disclose how much. I’ve seen estimates of $700 trillion.”

    You asserted: “Unions are not necessary to stop the flow of all money to the 1%.”

    Back it up.

    Name some occupation, other than Wall Street, or a labor union, that pays a decent wage. I’ll wait.

    The reason the oligarchs keep attacking unions is because they know it’s the only hedge on the 99% have their power.

    You asserted: “A democracy will accommodate the wishes of that 99%.”

    Nope.

    Not if the media that controls the information that the 99% gets is controlled by the oligarchs, who btw outsourced national security to themselves.

    Edward Snowden worked for Booz Allen Hamilton.

    “99 Percent Of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Revenue Comes From The Federal Government”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/booz-allen-hamilton-revenue_n_3415451.html

    That’s welfare in return for ignoring the Bill of Rights and spying on U.S. citizens.

    Then, they launder that welfare up to the oligarchs who control the Carlyle Group.
    http://www.carlyle.com/our-business/portfolio-of-investments/booz-allen-hamilton-inc

    That’s a billionaires club that includes some of Osama bin Laden’s relatives. But they do let some poor folk in, the Romney’s and Bush’s.

    That’s why wingnut media pushes Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi so hard. That’s why liberal media pushes gun control so hard. The oligarchs who control both don’t want you to figure out the common ground, prosecuting Wall Street, ending foreign military occupations, and legalizing pot.

    1. Taxpayers do not need to suffer $75 trillion in derivatives dumped on them, since taxpayers can tell their representatives to stop bailing out risk takers. A market will not work if it is not allowed to fail. Indeed, bailing out risk takers insures more of the same.
      What occupations other than in Wall Street or in labor unions pay a decent wage? My answer is first remove government support from Wall Street and labor unions . The freed market then will begin to answer your question.
      We still have a democracy, defective though it may be. We generally get the representation we vote for. The media is not entirely to blame since, supposedly, graduates of public schools have learned to be critical learners. Some college professors, though, have disagreed with that.

    1. As I said in my opening salvo, the freed market in which economic effort has been neither subsidized nor taxed has never been seriously considered. I will spare you the endless examples of the deleterious effects of the lack of a freed market, both personally in my own pathetic entrepreneurial efforts and in what I have studied about our fanciful land of the free. Suffice it to say, the failure of the planned economy with its welfare/warfare theme is supplying a multitude of examples to satisfy both wings of the ruling Republican/Democrat Party.

      1. Are you including the effects of the deleterious slave wages and pollution in your freed market from Mexico and China? And how about the soon-to-be freed market from Vietnam and their deleterious minimum wage of @.06 hour?

        Or didn’t they cover that in your high school civics class way back when?

        1. No, I am talking about the American economy, not the economies of China, Vietnam, and Mexico. Undoubtedly, if I had taken a high school civics class, it probably focused on American citizenship. Today, I suppose, with our troops stationed throughout the American Empire, global civics would be in order. Good point.

  6. There has never been a free market, period.

    http://billmoyers.com/episode/the-deep-state-hiding-in-plain-sight/

    Moyer’s show over the weekend is just the latest exposure about who and what controls the, “economy.”

    Subsistence markets, ‘black markets,’ for the immediate lack of a better term, exist for the rest of us to one degree or the other, but we have no actual control over the deep state, ‘markets,’ at the moment.

    No War But Class War.

  7. The UAW appeal isn’t going anywhere. A U.S. Senator does not lose his First Amendment rights to speak on issues of the day. Further, Sen. Corker did so outside the plant while the UAW was allowed unprecedented access inside the plant. (He was the mayor who brought the plant to Tennessee in the first place.) As for “scare tactics,” is anyone going to insist the UAW doesn’t use them. The line workers at VW made a free will decision. They decided they wanted to be Chattanooga, not Detroit.

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