Very First Auto Workers Union In The Deep South!

[RobDownSouth]

Tennessee, a state unabashedly hostile to union workers is stunned.

The workers at the massive VW auto assembly plant in Chattanooga voted to unionize under the United Auto Workers (UAW) last Friday.
A Union was voted down at the same plant in 2014 and 2019, but workers noticed that the UAW was securing contracts with larger pay raises and better working conditions.

Republican governors are scared shitless that this might be the first "domino" in the Deep South. In May, workers at the yuuuuge Mercedes Benz plant in Alabama will vote on unionization, and preliminary estimates make prospects look very good. Needless to say, Alabama Governon Meemaw is none too pleased.

Big unions south of the Mason-Dixon line! I do declare!

 

[Rightguide]

Tennessee, a state unabashedly hostile to union workers is stunned.

The workers at the massive VW auto assembly plant in Chattanooga voted to unionize under the United Auto Workers (UAW) last Friday.
A Union was voted down at the same plant in 2014 and 2019, but workers noticed that the UAW was securing contracts with larger pay raises and better working conditions.

Republican governors are scared shitless that this might be the first "domino" in the Deep South. In May, workers at the yuuuuge Mercedes Benz plant in Alabama will vote on unionization, and preliminary estimates make prospects look very good. Needless to say, Alabama Governon Meemaw is none too pleased.

Big unions south of the Mason-Dixon line! I do declare!

Won't be long and they'll destroy that plant as well.

 

[desecration]

More jobs for China!

 

[butters]

Tennessee, a state unabashedly hostile to union workers is stunned.

The workers at the massive VW auto assembly plant in Chattanooga voted to unionize under the United Auto Workers (UAW) last Friday.
A Union was voted down at the same plant in 2014 and 2019, but workers noticed that the UAW was securing contracts with larger pay raises and better working conditions.

Republican governors are scared shitless that this might be the first "domino" in the Deep South. In May, workers at the yuuuuge Mercedes Benz plant in Alabama will vote on unionization, and preliminary estimates make prospects look very good. Needless to say, Alabama Governon Meemaw is none too pleased.

Big unions south of the Mason-Dixon line! I do declare!

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ed-pending-vote.1595434/page-10#post-98735696
post 244

having said that, it's a big enough win to deserve its own thread!

 

[Bn2f]

More jobs for China!

China, Tennessee???
Explain this to me, please.
What part of Chattanooga and Volkswagen (A German Company) caused you to conclude that this would increase employment in China???

 

[TrailerHitch]

Interesting as Tennessee is a right to work state.

 

[YDB95]

China, Tennessee???
Explain this to me, please.
What part of Chattanooga and Volkswagen (A German Company) caused you to conclude that this would increase employment in China???

It's simple. Every time anyone doesn't give big business exactly what it wants, people like him envision all business leaders moving overseas en masse, usually to China. Never mind that the exodus of American factories was most pronounced during the administration of Mr. Deregulation himself, Ronald Reagan. But hey, don't try to cloud their minds with facts!

 

[MajorRewrite]

When VW originally opened that plant in Tennessee, didn’t they want a union? Because they were used to working with a union in Germany. But the plant opened without a union because the state vigorously opposed the idea of a unionized plant.

That’s what I remember but I can’t find a reference to it online. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyone else remember that?

 

[RobDownSouth]

More jobs for China!

"Errybody knows unions equal offshoring!" had a good run, roughly 1980-2010....today, not so much.

When VW originally opened that plant in Tennessee, didn’t they want a union? Because they were used to working with a union in Germany. But the plant opened without a union because the state vigorously opposed the idea of a unionized plant.

That’s what I remember but I can’t find a reference to it online. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyone else remember that?

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that little gem! People in the Deep South have it drummed into them by conservatives that "Unions Bad!" and that if they'll only accept below market wages, munificent automakers will open a big plant in their little town.

They see aging rust-belt plants in the Midwest outsourced to China but that's no longer competitive. Mexico is now the plant location of choice but there has been a slow evolution of doing SOME assembly in Mexico but finishing the job in the States (to take advantage of the marketing and tax considerations of "Made in America".

"Errybody Knows..." ™ copyright 2000 Republican Internalized Bullshit LLC. World rights reserved.

 

[Pad_Foot]

Unions = Communism!!
Corporations have lovely souls and are so patriotic and oh so American that they care about their workers and America!

Two bullshit ideas !!

 

[colddiesel]

The biggest problem with the UAW is that they increase the cost of Labour. Ford, Stellantis and GM have already fired about 23,000 American workers between them since the UAW's big "win" last year. More job losses will occur, some business will go overseas , not so much to China but to Chinese subsidiaries in Latin America and will mainly be for parts rather than for whole vehicles. Washington will eventually require that parts be sourced in the USA, but by the time that happens they will largely be produced by robots not paid Labour.

Meanwhile, the American consumer will continue to be grossly overcharged (about 30-50%) for the American made product. In their other capacity as taxpayers, the American consumer will also continue to dish out subsidies to the big 3 at the rate of $150 million + per year ($125-130 Billion since 2009)

At one time a deal might have been struck to co-produce with a Chinese manufacturer but it will not happen in a poisoned political climate. Ford could not work with Mazda, the Toyota GM factory is the only foreign operation closed down by Toyota, The Stellantis Fiat co-operation just ain't, and is losing market. At the same time most Americans have not noticed that their companies have sold off and re-patriated most of their overseas capital.

And China: why should they care? Their domestic market is already twice the size of either the USA or Europe and they have another 600 million people in rapidly developing East Asia to supply.

My amazement is reserved for the toleration of the US taxpayer and consumer; when will they revolt about paying for this clusterfuck?

 

[YDB95]

My amazement is reserved for the toleration of the US taxpayer and consumer; when will they revolt about paying for this clusterfuck?

When a critical mass of voters get it through their heads that living wages aren't the problem, greedy corporations are. This win is a sign that we're heading in that direction at last.

 

[TrailerHitch]

When a critical mass of voters get it through their heads that living wages aren't the problem, greedy corporations are. This win is a sign that we're heading in that direction at last.

It's always been funny to me how so many people hate Unions and underpaid workers but have no issues with massive corporate profits and CEOs making 10,000 times what the average worker makes.

 

[colddiesel]

When a critical mass of voters get it through their heads that living wages aren't the problem, greedy corporations are. This win is a sign that we're heading in that direction at last.

In 1978 the Uaw had 1.54 million members. 90% in the auto industry.
In 2023 the UAW had fallen to 390,000 members of which 195,000 were in the auto industry (about 50%). 25% of the current membership works in higher education! The auto industry number has dropped by 23,000 since the big strike and "Win" in 2023.
Trump put an additional import tax on imported cars of 27% to be paid by American consumers. Even with that Tax, Chinese cars can still compete on price. Biden and Trump are following exactly the same policy on manufacturing industry protection, and American consumers are paying for it through government subsidies, import duties, soft loans and grossly excessive prices. The US car industry has not won anything, and the number of workers left to celebrate any wage increase is tiny.

Profits are not huge, but executive pay is almost criminally so. In the first world, CEO pay in most countries varies between 30 to 50 times average worker pay. In the USA it is over 150 times.

The American auto industry has already lost the International competition. Voters are powerless to change anything with both right and left of domestic politics marching in lockstep and devoid of ideas.

 

[desecration]

Unions were huge in the 1950s, then suddenly we had imports, and by the 1980s unions were dying.

This is a classic case of the market correcting a monopoly (unions).

CEO pay reflects ability. Most of what we are seeing is a lack of quality high-powered CEOs.

And then there's the clowns that Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have hired.

 

[TrailerHitch]

Unions were huge in the 1950s, then suddenly we had imports, and by the 1980s unions were dying.

This is a classic case of the market correcting a monopoly (unions).

CEO pay reflects ability. Most of what we are seeing is a lack of quality high-powered CEOs.

And then there's the clowns that Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have hired.

Explain to me how Unions are a monopoly? They negotiate contracts, wages, benefits, working conditions. They don't mandate anything.

There is no CEO anywhere worth 100 to 10,000 times what their employees make. They produce NOTHING, the employees do. Honestly, as a former Union member I am astonished that more businesses are not being paralyzed by walkouts. They certainly should be with the lack of living wages paid today. My current part-time job suffers from continual exodus of employees, pay is about average for our area, hours are flexible for the most part, BUT we are massively understaffed and led by buffoons that expect one or 2 people to accomplish what 4 or 5 used to do in the same amount of time. My plan is to be gone before the end of the year and completely retire once and for all. I'm only staying now because of the employee discount and projects we are doing at home. The job market is so strong here you can quit a job and usually have one the very same day elsewhere.

 

[desecration]

Explain to me how Unions are a monopoly?

They make labor into a monopoly across the industry.

There is no CEO anywhere worth 100 to 10,000 times what their employees make. They produce NOTHING, the employees do.

A bad CEO can mean the company crashes or worse, misses opportunities and therefore begins the decay cycle toward cash cow. A good CEO keeps making opportunities. Are they overpaid? Maybe, but I think that reflects a shortage of viable candidates.

 

[TrailerHitch]

They make labor into a monopoly across the industry.


A bad CEO can mean the company crashes or worse, misses opportunities and therefore begins the decay cycle toward cash cow. A good CEO keeps making opportunities. Are they overpaid? Maybe, but I think that reflects a shortage of viable candidates.

First point you attempted to make is ludicrous. There is no monopoly and you can't even prove it other than with off hand comments.

Joe Nobody down in the warehouse makes $15 an hour with his co-workers. If all of them quit the whole business shuts down until replacements can be found. The CEO could jump out of his penthouse window and become hamburger 30 floors below and the company won't even pause operations.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Covid might have fucked outsourced offshored auto production permanently.

Covid disrupted the absolute fuck out of supply chain deliveries, and shipping companies feasted at enormous increases in shipping costs.

Covid has subsided to the point where it no longer has quite an affect on the cost of shipping prices, but prices still remain spectacularly high (relevant to the last pre-Covid year 2019). Shipping companies have become addicted to high profits.

Senator Mitch McConnell, representing his primary constituency (his wife Elaine "Coco" Chao-McConnell), has done everything in his power to keep those prices high. Chao's Chinese family has amassed billions of dollars in shipping contracts and owns a significant number of bulk carriers, which transport imported autos into the USA.

Auto companies have responded by de-emphasizing auto exports to America, and taking advantage of relatively lower costs of shipping auto sub-assemblies to Mexico, where they are assembled and then imported into the USA.

 

[desecration]

The relationship between the Ku Klux Klan and unions:

The Klan in the 1920s was involved, in some parts of the country, with pro-union activities. For example, in Williamson County, Illinois back in 1922, a mixed-race crowd of union coal miners attacked strike-breakers killing 20 of them. This incident was called the Herrin Massacre. Within two years, Herrin and the rest of Williamson County backed one of the nation's strongest local Klan organizations. Many in the 1920s and 30s shared joint Klan-union membership. The United Auto Workers, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, and Akron rubber workers were all examples of unions with Klan support.

https://newrightausnz.blogspot.com/2006/07/revolutionary-klansman-interview-with.html

 

[TrailerHitch]

The relationship between the Ku Klux Klan and unions:


https://newrightausnz.blogspot.com/2006/07/revolutionary-klansman-interview-with.html

WOW! A hundred year old incident. Show proof of any ties today or in the last few decades.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Unions were huge in the 1950s, then suddenly we had imports, and by the 1980s unions were dying.

This is a classic case of the market correcting a monopoly (unions).

You ought to learn the real history of the American automotive industry. It’s fall was completely the fault of management.

The product design was crap and quality control was nonexistent. Management problems.

To prove that management was the problem and not the workers, Japanese car companies built factories in the US and made quality products with American labor.

The US companies dumped their management teams and eventually got serious about quality. After they got their heads out of their asses, they too made quality products with American labor. Of course they’d lost a big chunk of market share before they stopped being morons.

 

[Rightguide]

Covid might have fucked outsourced offshored auto production permanently.

Covid disrupted the absolute fuck out of supply chain deliveries, and shipping companies feasted at enormous increases in shipping costs.

Covid has subsided to the point where it no longer has quite an affect on the cost of shipping prices, but prices still remain spectacularly high (relevant to the last pre-Covid year 2019). Shipping companies have become addicted to high profits.

Senator Mitch McConnell, representing his primary constituency (his wife Elaine "Coco" Chao-McConnell), has done everything in his power to keep those prices high. Chao's Chinese family has amassed billions of dollars in shipping contracts and owns a significant number of bulk carriers, which transport imported autos into the USA.

Auto companies have responded by de-emphasizing auto exports to America, and taking advantage of relatively lower costs of shipping auto sub-assemblies to Mexico, where they are assembled and then imported into the USA.

Did you note the big demonstration for Trump by construction trade union members in Manhattan yesterday?

 

[desecration]

The product design was crap and quality control was nonexistent. Management problems.

These came about because the automakers were no longer a favored destination for executives, thanks to constant union angst.

Actions have consequences.

 

[butters]

gotta laugh at desecration's attempts to conflate union activity from 100+ years ago to what is happening in the world today

srsly, why can't these twits stop clinging so desperately to the past and get with the programme?