UAW’S THIRD TRY WITH VW

The United Auto Workers (UAW), like a bad penny, has turned up again and wants to make its third attempt at drumming workers in Chattanooga’s Volkswagen manufacturing plant into a union.

Its previous efforts, in 2014 and 2019, were unsuccessful, though both were close votes.

This year, fresh from successful contract negotiations from what used to be known as the Big Three (Ford, GM and Chrysler), the UAW hopes it can reach 50% plus one vote of the plant’s some 5,000 workers.

Officials said last week they have gathered more than 1,000 signatures on union authorization cards. They need 30% to put a vote in motion (about 1,500 signatures).

Between now and when, or if, the union secures enough signatures to trigger a vote, expect hard sells from both UAW and anti-union forces.

The union will promise the moon, telling workers how much they can extract from greedy management, how badly they’re being treated, how much rosier things will be if they’re in charge.

Anti-union officials will remind VW employees how much the company has paid them, about their recent 11% (!) raise, about the company’s wage progression program, about how much the company has done for the community, and about how with a union they would have no ability to determine how their dues are used and which political candidates they support.

They also might remind workers that during the run-up to the 2019 vote, the UAW was spending worker dues (more than $1.5 million just before the vote) to defend union leaders accused in federal court of corruption, and, from 2013 to 2017, had spent more than $36 million on expensive hotels and resorts, more than $10 million on private jets, limousines and other travel, and more than $3 million on upscale restaurants and catering.

We also think there’s a cautionary tale to tell about unions and automobile manufacturing companies in the United States.

UAW membership peaked with 1.5 million members in the United States in 1979, having extracted concession after concession from manufacturers in the 1960s and 1970s.

As unions became bloated and auto workers’ salaries increased, the cars they were turning out also became bloated in size, less reliable and more expensive. Though foreign cars could be purchased in the U.S. before the 1970s, the decade saw the beginning of an explosion of foreign cars — cars that were better made, got better gas mileage, were cheaper and were made without union labor.

In 1989, for the first time, a foreign model, the Honda Accord, became the best-selling car in America. And every year since then, with the exception of 1992-1996, a foreign car (not truck, SUV or crossover) has been at the top of the list.

Over that time, foreign auto companies sought to expand to the U.S., where much of their market was and to save on the cost of importing. Many of those companies chose to locate their plants in the South, where they got a better deal from states and where union interest is lower than in the East or Midwest.

Though unions have tried, very few automobile manufacturers in the South are unionized.

Our fear is that if more foreign manufacturing plants in the U.S. become unionized, the less reliable the cars will become. Fit and finish will become secondary to union breaks. Securing concessions will become more important than securing a drive shaft.

(Need we say Volkswagen already is in the bottom third of the 2023 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, as compiled by J.D. Power?)

And union-forced increases in the cost of the cars will, in turn, price more and more Americans out of buying a new vehicle.

Volkswagen officially says it’s neutral on the presence of a union.

However, it also has been our impression that the car maker — minus a union — has been a companionable partner with employees. If it is not, the union bid will have a greater chance of succeeding. If it has worked closely with employees, and the disgruntled voices of a few unhappy workers are just that, then it is likely the UAW will be shut out for a third time.

It also will be interesting to see what part, if any, local, state and national office-holders play in the run-up to a vote, if there is one.

Then-U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, then-Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, state Sen. Bo Watson and then-state Rep. Gerald McCormick, all Republicans, were among those who were openly opposed to union representation in 2014. In 2019, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, all Republicans, were outspoken against UAW representation.

We’ve said at both previous union votes we believe the workers at Volkswagen are being treated well by management and don’t need the baggage that comes with UAW representation. We haven’t heard anything that would change our mind this time.

So the first salvo in this round has been sounded. But the noises will get a lot louder and a lot more frequent if a vote is ever scheduled.