[ad_1]
In the last defeat of organized workers in the south of the country, workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee rejected an attempt to form a union this week.
Of the 1,600 workers who voted, 833 opposed the unionization effort, according to results released Friday night. United Automobile Workers has been trying for years to organize the Chattanooga plant, recording a close defeat in 2014.
"Our employees spoke," said plant general manager Frank Fischer in a statement. "We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with Tennessee's elected officials and business leaders."
Union leaders have long been focused on the South, which they see as important to ensuring the victory of workers across the country. Despite sustained unionization efforts throughout the region – including a Nissan plant in Mississippi, a Toyota plant in Kentucky, and a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama – the union has not been successful in locating repeatedly in the area.
The possibility that a company or its competitors will transfer their production to poorly unionized southern states may encourage workers from other countries to accept lower wages and make other concessions.
The wages of Volkswagen production workers in Chattanooga start at $ 15.50 per hour, rising to $ 16 in July. The factory's maximum salary of $ 23.50 is well above the salary median in Chattanooga, but about 20 percent less than experienced workers can earn in unionized factories of automakers such as General Motors and Ford. No major foreign automaker has syndicated factories in the United States.
The loss highlighted the difficulty of organizing private sector workers in a political environment that is openly hostile to unions, even as workers have made gains through collective action elsewhere. Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee, who once ran an outsourcing company, opposed US law. campaign because, according to him, the presence of a union would further prevent the state from attracting other companies.
Mr. Lee visited the factory and talked about his objections to the workers.
Wilma Liebman, president of the National Labor Relations Council under President Barack Obama, said she had never heard of the direct appearance of a governor to the workers to urge them to vote against union representation. Mr. Lee's office did not respond to requests for comment.
State representative Robin Smith, a Republican whose district includes the plant, said the decision to unionize could threaten tens of millions of dollars in future investment by the state.
"It's much easier to defend the incentives, the use of taxpayers' money, when investing in the respect of our state's philosophy," Smith said in an interview.
The pressure of politicians has been a recurring feature of organizing campaigns in the South. Opposition of Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi helped defeat a U.A.W. Nissan's organizing campaign at a Nissan factory in 2017 and the antagonism of Governor Nikki Haley appears to have had a similar effect at Boeing's South Carolina plant in 2015, prompting the union to cancel the vote.
The United States also blamed its 2014 defeat at the Volkswagen factory to the aggressive opposition of local politicians. Bob Corker, a senator at the time, said that a union would make the society less competitive and that leaders would add a production line to the factory only if workers voted against a union.
Volkswagen has also changed its position towards the union after this campaign. In 2014, the company declared itself neutral and even appeared to encourage recruitment efforts. Trade union representation was seen as a means of creating a "company committee", a common feature in Germany through which workers and management collaborated on issues such as factory rules and schedules. Almost all of the company's other factories in the world are unionized.
This time, Volkswagen was also officially neutral, but its posture was much more resistant. From the company An election website informed workers that "we prefer to continue to have a direct relationship with you, working together, in one team" – the type of language that companies often use to indicate their opposition to a union.
"It's really different," said Matt Sexton, a Volkswagen worker who also participated in the recruiting efforts this year. "There is no neutrality at all." He said that, unlike the last time, the supervisors had made anti-union comments at meetings and that the organizers had not been allowed to campaign in the factory.
The publication Labor Notes obtained a recording of a recent meeting in which all hands had participated, during which Mr. Fischer, the managing director, had apparently reproached a union for the disappearance of a Volkswagen factory in Pennsylvania in the 1980s.
Mr Fischer recalled that production at the Pennsylvania plant had started in the first half of 1978 and that in October of this year, there had been a strike. "Volkswagen's management has never been able to actually manage the plant until its closure in 1988," he said at the time of registration.
In 2015, a small group of Chattanooga factory maintenance employees voted in favor of unionization, but Volkswagen refused to negotiate with them, which resulted in litigation.
When the U.A.W. After standing for election to the National Labor Relations Board this year, the company objected that the case involving this small union was still pending, forcing the union to resubmit its vote after he had withdrawn his business.
Workers and organizers also took a more conventional approach this time, highlighting the benefits of a union on issues such as safety and schedules.
"In 2014, unionization was a prerequisite for implementing VW's" co-determination "management system," said Daniel Cornfield, a sociologist who studies work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "In 2019, the campaign for unions is much more focused on traditional organizing issues in the United States."
Sexton said other workers were increasingly frustrated by the shortage of production crews, which resulted in increased stress for workers and more injuries. He added that the plant's medical team was often unsympathetic, claiming that the injuries resulted from "pre-existing conditions" and sent workers back on the lines.
He also said that the management often provided overtime shortly before the end of a shift, in violation of Volkswagen's policies.
Mr. Fischer, who was the plant's general manager until 2014 and returned in the spring, said in the recording that he was focused on correcting some of these issues, such as hours practices. additional.
The company stated that its injury rates were well below the industry average and that workers assessed at the on-site medical clinic were allowed to return to work only after being released for medical reasons. He added that he had reduced overtime in recent years to make the schedule more predictable, and now demanded that overtime not be canceled if called.
Keri Menendez, a worker who rallied to oppose the union, admitted that morale had deteriorated somewhat in recent years. But she said that she was generally satisfied with her salary and benefits and that having a union could disrupt her open-door relationship with her supervisors.
"I'm not a person who thinks the grass is always greener on the other side," Ms. Menendez said.
[ad_2]
Source link