Volkswagen workers in Tennessee vote to join UAW

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://apnews.com/article/volkswagen-union-vote-united-auto-workers-chattanooga-51544590d8a06efddfa2f6ac7db00fbe

Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers union Friday in a historic first test of the UAW’s renewed effort to organize nonunion factories.

The union wound up getting 2,628 votes, or 73% of the ballots cast, compared with only 985 who voted no in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board.

[Yoda]

Nice!!! All the more impressive considering the GOP governor and Volkswagen management were working together to defeat the union drive. The UAW is on an absolute roll.

[jojoju1998]

Note to Starbucks's union: This is how you organize.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Note to Starbucks's union: This is how you organize.

I don't know how much comparison there is to be made there; the longevity and turnover rates are both hugely different between these two sectors.

Either way, good work UAW.

And to hell with all the GOP politicos who came out to try and discourage this.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Wonderful news!!

[lfromnj]

Don’t German companies prefer to work with unions?

[Beet]

Finally, some good news. And it didn't come from Washington.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

As a proud member of the United Auto Workers, I welcome my brethren and sisters to the labor movement.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

What a disaster. Still, a great reminder that we need to eliminate subsidies for unions once and for all by repealing Davis-Bacon, Norris–La Guardia, the National Industrial Recovery Act, Wagner, etc. Unions are extortionary and profoundly harmful institutions in practically all modern cases. We've seen some of the harms they created in the Rust Belt, and it is imperative that they do not reemerge in the South. Luckily, 70% of Tennesseans voted to constitutionally adopt right-to-work just 2 years ago, which should help check their expansion.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

[Libertas Vel Mors]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

[NerdyBohemian]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

[Libertas Vel Mors]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

Increasingly, our friends on the left are realizing their views are fringe, and rely primarily on coercing people into accepting institutions such as unions that they do not want. My hope is that this will lead them to reject the idea that, say, workers at a car plant have an obligation to join unions, and to embrace the ideals of personal liberty and government non-interference in private affairs, but I worry that it will instead lead them to anti-democratic extremism.

[NerdyBohemian]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

Increasingly, our friends on the left are realizing their views are fringe, and rely primarily on coercing people into accepting institutions such as unions that they do not want. My hope is that this will lead them to reject the idea that, say, workers at a car plant have an obligation to join unions, and to embrace the ideals of personal liberty and government non-interference in private affairs, but I worry that it will instead lead them to anti-democratic extremism.

How is the UAW, a private organization whose bargaining members voted to join (overwhelmingly), negotiating with VW, a private corporation having anything to do with “government interference?”

[Libertas Vel Mors]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

Increasingly, our friends on the left are realizing their views are fringe, and rely primarily on coercing people into accepting institutions such as unions that they do not want. My hope is that this will lead them to reject the idea that, say, workers at a car plant have an obligation to join unions, and to embrace the ideals of personal liberty and government non-interference in private affairs, but I worry that it will instead lead them to anti-democratic extremism.

How is the UAW, a private organization whose bargaining members voted to join (overwhelmingly), negotiating with VW, a private corporation having anything to do with “government interference?”

Great question. As I mentioned above, our federal government has passed dozens of laws favoring unions in the workplace. While ideally, there would be total freedom for employer and employee to transact, these laws force employers to negotiate with unions, create special pathways for unions to force workers to join them (unless states pass right to work laws), and even require that employers not fire striking workers (people who literally aren't doing their jobs). As a result, it has become so onerous for employers to resist unions that many are essentially forced to give in. The federal government is putting a thumb on the scales for the UAW etc, so to speak. If the UAW was really a private organization that VW could choose to negotiate with, not negotiate with, etc as it pleased (and vice versa) I would have no problem with it. But it's not -- it is an extension of the state, and proudly so.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

Increasingly, our friends on the left are realizing their views are fringe, and rely primarily on coercing people into accepting institutions such as unions that they do not want. My hope is that this will lead them to reject the idea that, say, workers at a car plant have an obligation to join unions, and to embrace the ideals of personal liberty and government non-interference in private affairs, but I worry that it will instead lead them to anti-democratic extremism.

How is the UAW, a private organization whose bargaining members voted to join (overwhelmingly), negotiating with VW, a private corporation having anything to do with “government interference?”

Great question. As I mentioned above, our federal government has passed dozens of laws favoring unions in the workplace. While ideally, there would be total freedom for employer and employee to transact, these laws force employers to negotiate with unions, create special pathways for unions to force workers to join them (unless states pass right to work laws), and even require that employers not fire striking workers (people who literally aren't doing their jobs). As a result, it has become so onerous for employers to resist unions that many are essentially forced to give in. The federal government is putting a thumb on the scales for the UAW etc, so to speak. If the UAW was really a private organization that VW could choose to negotiate with, not negotiate with, etc as it pleased (and vice versa) I would have no problem with it. But it's not -- it is an extension of the state, and proudly so.

This is a good read on the subject:

https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/labor/reforming-labor-union-laws

[NerdyBohemian]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

Increasingly, our friends on the left are realizing their views are fringe, and rely primarily on coercing people into accepting institutions such as unions that they do not want. My hope is that this will lead them to reject the idea that, say, workers at a car plant have an obligation to join unions, and to embrace the ideals of personal liberty and government non-interference in private affairs, but I worry that it will instead lead them to anti-democratic extremism.

How is the UAW, a private organization whose bargaining members voted to join (overwhelmingly), negotiating with VW, a private corporation having anything to do with “government interference?”

Great question. As I mentioned above, our federal government has passed dozens of laws favoring unions in the workplace. While ideally, there would be total freedom for employer and employee to transact, these laws force employers to negotiate with unions, create special pathways for unions to force workers to join them (unless states pass right to work laws), and even require that employers not fire striking workers (people who literally aren't doing their jobs). As a result, it has become so onerous for employers to resist unions that many are essentially forced to give in. The federal government is putting a thumb on the scales for the UAW etc, so to speak. If the UAW was really a private organization that VW could choose to negotiate with, not negotiate with, etc as it pleased (and vice versa) I would have no problem with it. But it's not -- it is an extension of the state, and proudly so.

Oh no, won’t someone think of the poor billionaires who can’t fire a worker for simply expressing interest in organizing or can’t intimated and threaten workers who do so.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

So? Popular opinion doesn't mean squat. A majority of people (57%) think universal healthcare is good¹. A majority of people (64%) think that, even if transitioning is morally wrong², trans people have a right to be "morally wrong"³. Just as often as the median voter bucks our party line, they buck yours.

Spoiler alert: Footnote 2, or, "I know you guys are talking about a union in Tennessee, but I'd love to take this opportunity to attack Haley/Ryan for posts he'd probably get banned for defending"

Show

Unlike the other footnotes, this isn't a source I can link, it's a tangent about how many Americans, exactly, think transitioning is morally wrong for the people watching at home. As you've said before, 49% of people believe that⁴, which, while a plurality, is still not an absolute majority. However, when I pointed out that it was, in fact, not an absolute majority, you explained it away as a trick of the fact that they referred to it as "changing your gender", which is leading language (because HRT doesn't do anything, apparently), and the fact that they included undecideds.
⁴ So assuming every last member of the 51% that does not find transitioning immoral supports protecting trans people from discrimination, that leaves 13% that do to make the 64%.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

You'd have to be legitimately brain dead to argue against unions, since they are largely the reason the middle class American dream ever existed, and their coordinated destruction a big part of why the latter has disappeared.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

Ok and? 56% of respondents are bad people.

People who cheer for unions to fail are bad people

56% of Americans want unions to have the same or less influence than they do now.

I said what I said, do I need to say it again slower?

Increasingly, our friends on the left are realizing their views are fringe, and rely primarily on coercing people into accepting institutions such as unions that they do not want. My hope is that this will lead them to reject the idea that, say, workers at a car plant have an obligation to join unions, and to embrace the ideals of personal liberty and government non-interference in private affairs, but I worry that it will instead lead them to anti-democratic extremism.

How is the UAW, a private organization whose bargaining members voted to join (overwhelmingly), negotiating with VW, a private corporation having anything to do with “government interference?”

Great question. As I mentioned above, our federal government has passed dozens of laws favoring unions in the workplace. While ideally, there would be total freedom for employer and employee to transact, these laws force employers to negotiate with unions, create special pathways for unions to force workers to join them (unless states pass right to work laws), and even require that employers not fire striking workers (people who literally aren't doing their jobs). As a result, it has become so onerous for employers to resist unions that many are essentially forced to give in. The federal government is putting a thumb on the scales for the UAW etc, so to speak. If the UAW was really a private organization that VW could choose to negotiate with, not negotiate with, etc as it pleased (and vice versa) I would have no problem with it. But it's not -- it is an extension of the state, and proudly so.

Oh no, won’t someone think of the poor billionaires who can’t fire a worker for simply expressing interest in organizing or can’t intimated and threaten workers who do so.

Weird strawman. Not all employers are billionaires, but more importantly, yeah, billionaires have the right of free association too. Do you think, for example, that it should be illegal to fire someone for being a racist? What about organizing a racist group on company property?

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Also, note your own goalpost shifting -- from "these are private organizations" to "who cares that the government is putting a thumb on the scale for the UAW?"

[wnwnwn]

El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

#WWCbuilttheUSA

[Fuzzy Bear]

I served as a Teamster Shop Steward during the 2010s.

Labor Unions have always been a check on the unlimited greed of employers.  They are needed to provide a measure of fairness for workers in the workplace.  That's because employment should be something more than modern-day serfdom.  And we've had that in America, and the widening income gap is an indication that we are traveling down that road to serfdom.

What's more, Labor Unions are now, for many workers, the only check against Runaway HR Departments.  A Labor Union may be the only way through which an individual worker can assert their rights in the workplace when they have been violated.  Union contracts provide vehicles for arbitration, and legal representation for affected workers.  Yes, there are goldbricks and chronic complainers who take advantage of this.  I'm more concerned about the worker with a legitimate grievance who is being hosed.  The Union puts him on equal footing with his boss in a dispute, and the dispute is more likely to settle the dispute on the merits.

While I agree with my friend on the right Haley/Ryan on many issues, I don't on this one.  I would suggest that Republicans embracing right-to-work laws was a disaster for them in the 1950s.  Then-VP Richard Nixon noted that in the 1958 wipeout, the Right-to-Work Republicans lost, while the Republicans who were silent on the issue survived.  If these workers want to organize, that's their right, and it should remain so.

[Nyvin]

Important to note that this was one of the only Volkswagen plants "in the world" to not be unionized.

This includes factories in Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil.