This month, Tennessee auto workers struck a blow for job security — by rejecting an overture from the UAW.
The vote at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant came after more than a year of heavy lobbying from the United Automobile Workers. The union argued it would deliver higher salaries and more benefits to the workers. And unlike other companies, the German-based management of VW didn’t oppose the drive, allowing the union to take its case to the plant’s workers.
Which makes it all the more remarkable that when the votes were tallied, the workers said “no thanks” to the UAW offer.
True, a 712-626 vote is no landslide. But when auto workers reject a union promising them a better paycheck, it’s news. And the message they sent was clear: They don’t want to risk having Chattanooga become another Detroit.
For Big Labor, this was a huge defeat. The VW plant was supposed to be the opening act in a union drive through the South’s right-to-work states, where many foreign automakers now operate plants. Many had predicted an easy UAW victory.
We hope it’s a wakeup call for New York. What’s interesting about the Chattanooga workers is that they apparently reject the class war model that makes employers the enemy. To the contrary, they recognized that they’re in it together — and that if you make yourself more expensive than the market can bear, there are plenty of places beckoning for your industry to relocate.
The VW workers at Chattanooga have seen Detroit — and understand it’s not a future that works. Is anyone in New York paying attention?