Tennessee Republicans: No
State Cash for VW if Unions Win Election
by Joel B. Pollak 11 Feb 2014
Tennessee Republicans, who control
a two-thirds supermajority in the state legislature and essentially govern
alone, have warned Volkswagen that if the United
Auto Workers (UAW) win an election this week to represent VW's new plant in
Chattanooga,
the company cannot expect to receive any future state-funded economic incentives.
According to Hollie Webb of the Chattanoogan, the message delivered by State
Senator Bo Watson on Monday was also aimed indirectly at the VW workers who
will be voting Wednesday through Friday.
There is already an effort by some
VW workers to oppose the union. Their website, no2uaw.com, alleges that the UAW
has already broken promises it made to workers that it would fight for higher
wages and bonuses for the company. Other workers are looking skeptically at the
union's controversial past record in the auto industry. "Anything they
have been involved with has had problems....We are a great company. I just
don't feel we need this," the Wall Street Journal's Neal Boudette quoted
one assembly line worker as saying.
Democrats responded to the
Republicans' threat on Monday by holding a press conference to "speak out
in favor of allowing workers to exercise their rights without fear of
retribution or outside influence." They alleged that the GOP is attempting
to interfere in the workers' decision. Notably, the UAW is reported to have
campaigned against the Volkswagen plant when it was first proposed in Tennessee, apparently concerned that the new plant would
be yet another non-union shop outside the UAW's traditional power base in the Midwest.
United Auto Workers (UAW)
Bob
King is the president of the United
Auto Workers (UAW), and a
director at the Economic Policy
Institute.
Note: Ron Gettelfinger
was the president for the United Auto
Workers (UAW), and a director at the Economic
Policy Institute.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Economic Policy Institute.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Economic Policy Institute, and Demos.
Demos
was a funder for the United Auto Workers
(UAW).
No comments:
Post a Comment