Takes time to train to the level to be a good employee, keep their wages down so the employee goes elsewhere to work and the time and effort put towards the training happens over and over costing the employer more money. It is especially nit smart in the VW plant since VW works very well in the negotiated contract environment. Prove Coker and the others are lying and revote.

of Tennessee put in office a governor and a senator who have no inkling of the law nor when to keep their mouths shut. If I had my way I would try to impeach both of them for what they did.

and people would realize that they are more valuable than they realize, especially after a few years of experience. That they deserve good benefits and a retirement. They were scared this would spread throughout the South like wildfire.

that I see every day to start feeling better about themselves.

It threatens the Republicans getting elected. They don't give a damn about hard working people.

for years just do the job and don't stir the pot and you will be okay. And they have grown to believe it. I wish more prominent Democrats would come to TN more often and really address the Democratic values we need. But I live in an area that thinks Barack Obama is actually from Kenya. And anyone who really believes that will not take in the truth. Steve Cohen is just about the only senator we have that is worth his salt. And of course we have Her Majesty Marsha Blackburn that so many kowtow to. She is a witch.

and the ruling (republican masters) here in Tn. broke all kinds of NLRB laws about interfering in Union elections. Why would "our" representatives want their constituents to earn less money, benefits and incentives?
VW wanted Unionization. This is their only non-Unionized plant.
How can the citizens of Tn. allow this non-Democratic interference to proceed.
Of course, "they" have lied so blatantly about their intentions. I am watching America implode thanks to greed and the inability to allow average (people) to earn a living wage and have a voice in their workplace.
Gov. Haslam basically said that the German model of workplace input (workers council guaranteed through Unionization) from ordinary workers will not work in Tennessee.
It IS the master of the plantation mentality.

We cannot fault VW on this, all of the intimidation came from the Tennessee politicians who want to keep unions out of their state at all costs.

The car they make in Chattanooga is the "Passat NMS." (Means "new midsize sedan.&quot The platform was designed so it could be made as a sedan or as a crossover on the same line, and the Chattanooga facility was built to allow them to make pretty much any car VW sells in the US.

What Corker et al thought they were saying was, "vote against the union or VW will take your job somewhere else." What they REALLY said was, "vote against the union or one of the most union-friendly companies on the face of the earth will throw away their billion-dollar investment by closing this plant."

This is the SUV plant I am speaking about, it was on the news VW still planned to put this plant and having their current plant going union was not going to halt the SUV line.

They're not talking about building a separate line just for that one car, although the plant is large enough to allow it. The car they are building in Tennessee can be made with a sedan body or an SUV body, and the two cars can go down the line one after the other. It's like a Honda CR-V was designed on the Civic platform, and a RAV4 was designed on the Corolla platform.

bullshit on that whole like of pandering.

Is why were they caught so flat-footed by Corker and others. They were out maneuvered and it cost them the election. Where was their ground operation that they could not counter the lies? I'm sure they had polling showing it would be close but it ended up not being that close. Now it is too late. It is a loss that did not have to occur.

They were asleep at the switch

they worked their asses off in this right to work state. you actually think the union did`t understand what they were up against?

i take it you've never been in a union or organized a union,or an union officer. my family has been and are union members and my wife is an officer. right now we are fighting to save our state from becoming another right not to pay union dues state.

I live in New York but the companies home office is in Texas so the union is in TX. OPEIU local 277. Being a union member is the only good thing about my job.

out there threatening people's jobs, with billboards saying the vote would elect more 'liberal politicans (sic) like Obama' plus running ads on radio and TV, saturating the market, and likely getting the pulpits to go against 'godless socialist unions,' for those of us who are union, know the drill. They smear us all the way to Stalin and Hitler.

The union did not lie down and take it. They had the votes and then the entire GOP apparatus came down on top of them. This was funded by organizations that bought these GOP crooks, the RTW gang, Nordquist and the national GOP.

Obama had Biden promote it and no doubt worked with Germany behind the scenes. If he had come out directly, the intimidation would have started earlier.

Now VW will be asking for the vote again. Biden says that there is a case on collective bargaining rights that the administration will go to the USSC to protect.

The UAW benefitted from the auto bailout which the GOP, especially in the South, were against, using all the socialist and racist slurs, with the Nazi and the USSR catcalls thrown in and they used it here again. A bit of the lies and behind the scenes are posted in the safe haven group, the BOG:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110222233

Thank you, my union brother madrchsod, for being in solidarity with the UAW and not denigrating their hard work in Tennessee. We must stand together, many battles will be won and lost. But we will continue, the stakes are too high.

can't afford to pick fights it doesn't know it will win. The UAW needs to come back again with more boots on the ground. By losing, they've put every worker who openly organized for or supported them at risk. That will make it harder to put those boots down. The fight in the South isn't with the big employers, they're just businesses. The fight is with the Confederate political and financial aristocracy that supports them for ideological reasons and always has, whether it's owning slaves or making cars. They consider their states little more than private fiefdoms, and they respect nothing but power.

These pols were effectively threatening to run VW out of the state.
There is every reason to believe they will carry out their threats if the workers vote in a union.
Keeping unions out is much more important to them than keeping jobs in.

There is nothing the UAW could do to counter that.

Since Union representation in the USA is now a paltry 11.3%...

...and the Kochs/Wilks/Arnolds/Perkins/Murdochs/Dimons/etc., have unlimited financial resources, along with a corporate press, paid politicians, ALEC, and SCOTUS on their sides...

...what kind of more-organized and more-expensive ground operation were you anticipating, to fight this behemoth?

Be seeing you in Tennessee...or maybe not.

it would be nice if people here would recognize how _little_ of the market share any union has anywhere. This is an extremely unfriendly country to unions. The UAW is right now considering the PR affects of a challenge. It may be better to wait a year and hold another vote.

calling this a 'devastating' loss is pretty dramatic.

When it is your job that is on the line. But the UAW should have had a "truth squad" operation where the next shift of workers were handed a leaflet listing the false claim and what the truth really is -- and each shift thereafter. Target the actual 1,500 voters rather than the entire population of Chattanooga. Also get UAW representatives on the news shows pointing out the same thing. Perhaps they did and the media just didn't cover it but to the outsider it looked like the UAW was caught flatfooted and lacked an effective response.

Speaking of leaflets and the press, wondering if you think Reuters is a news source:

11-Feb-2014: From Reuters :

Ahead of the VW vote in Chattanooga, UAW and anti-UAW workers this week were at the plant exits handing out leaflets...

You once again used the judgment call, "flatfooted", and you tossed in a "lacked an effective response", for good measure.

Folks like you--the ones who post inflammatory remarks without first digging into published facts--usually have an agenda.

To use your words, Perhaps you don't have an agenda, but to the outsider like me it appears you are anti-union; because on the leaflet allegation, you were caught flatfooted in your not-so-effective response.

I don't like arguing with another person's rhetoric, so that's it for me.

I have not said the UAW was not on the right track before Corker made his game changing statement on Feb. 12th. Indeed, the fact that this election was thought to be too close to call on Feb. 11th is a tribute to UAW efforts up to that point, considering this was Tennessee. Indeed, it is why it was necessary for Corker to play the fear card. The UAW failed to alleviate the fear generated by Corker and that indicates to me that they lacked on effective response. That leaves two choices. There was either no effective response available or they were caught flatfooted. Obviously, handing out the same leaflets following Corker's comment would not work. Since I wasn't there I have no idea if they changed messaging or not -- just that it didn't work if they did.

Remember the "Harold, call me" ad that caused Harold Ford to lose to, was it Corker?
And Harvey Gant was sailing to victory in NC only to "surprisingly lose."

that type of operation smear. In the past, certification elections were only smeared at the company level. Not by outsiders from many different groups with far superior funding.

from companies not politicians (in the open).
VW wants Unionization. All of their other plants are Unionized and operate well.
How could the UAW expect this kind of opposition from the "peoples representatives?"
It is disgusting and unprecedented (as far as I know) especially when the corporation wants Unionization.

The results still need to be certified by the feds, so there is still a lot of hope for a re-do, under supervision of federal Labor Board authority.

Corker and elected state officials used tactics that are considered unfair labor practice when used by the employers. Threatening to withhold state funding would likely be to the level resulting in a new election.

This is where the UAW needs to act fast and make sure the board has all the information compiled of what Corker and his gang did.

Tenn's tea party-bearing Senator Bob Corker want to be seen as the slayer of union to promote his own image for campaign purpose. An anonymous pro-union worker in Tenn who voted yes for union said that his co-workers who voted no are being obviously paralyzed by economical anxiety and lies by Sen. Corker. They were worried that if they become unionized, VW would be forced to leave if Tenn government impose the hefty taxes on them.

I worked for FedEx for 18 years. It was said that Fred Smith (owner) would rather close the company than let it be unionized. Funny thing, in the end the pilots got the union,, and the workers never did. Fred is a HUGE and I mean huge Tenn and Washington involved politically motivated Republican, which if you think about it, kind of makes him a dues paying member of the republic union party himself.

http://www.freep.com/relart/20140215/BUSINESS01/302150038/UAW-may-challenge-Volkswagen-vote-results-we-re-not-leaving-Chattanooga-

What does it say about his party and it's supporters that that's considered a good move politically?

Is the utter hypocrite that Corker is, it's all political theater. I was a volunteer at an event where President Obama was speaking and Corker was there, acting as thrilled as a little boy meeting his idol. It actually made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

Now I live in Florida, which is only slightly better than Tenn..... :/

Having been in and worked for unions I know how the deck is so stacked against us. For years, the union deal makers were our own worst enemies, letting the anti union propaganda gain the upper hand and how! Many of the elected union officials sold us out, while we worked our butts off trying to keep a good name with the rank and file.
The fights were endless. I had friends who lost their marriages and two who committed suicide. My own relationship took a beating, but we both knew what we were fighting for.
We're retired now and reasonably secure thanks to our union jobs. There are good unions and bad, but the worst union is better than no union. It's all workers have.

I wouldn't fault the UAW here.. they were hit with a ton of bricks. This whole scenario is just depressing.

they would be facing racketeering charges.

into your post. sorry.

my initial impression of you being a union basher is now confirmed.

"Basher" is so harsh.

and 30+ years of anti-union BS being jammed down our throats overshadows all the great things unions have done for us. We wouldn't have 40 hour work weeks, overtime pay, paid vacation and sick time, safe working conditions, etc, if people didn't stand up and say "enough is enough". People fought, bled, and died for many of the things we now take for granted. I am not trying to preach at you, sorry if it sounds that way, but I come from Cleveland, which, at least in 92 when a left, a pro union town About 90% of my neighbors either worked at the Chevy plant or the Ford plant, and my best friends parents were teachers, so my thinking may be colored. Enjoy your weekend, and sorry if I sounded harsh.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110222233

UAW unleash the wolves.

,

Why do Corporations need their unions like the Chamber of Commerce and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers or the army of lobbyists ? Why can't they negotiate for themselves, they have the resources and the money to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

IG Metall, the powerful German labor union which holds half the seats on VW's supervisory board (!!!), is very supportive of the UAW initiative, which is why VW was in favor.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/25/us-autos-volkswagen-uaw-analysis-idUSBRE98O1C120130925

TN's politicians think that they are dealing with a US-style corporation, where employees have practically no influence whatsoever on the board of directors. They really haven't a clue what they're dealing with.