Unionizing In Tennessee

[Doc]

If you like your deadly Government Motors car...

[4merper4mer]

Suck it, unions. The party is over. Time to get a real job where you're accountable for your efforts.

 

Or they could just run for president.

[Dean Cain]

Luckily for VW they can always relocate the plant to Detroit.

[B-Man]

Why Card Check Matters, Chattanooga Edition

 

Volkswagen workers rejected unionization when they could make their views known honestly.

By Alec Torres

 

On Friday, workers in a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted in a secret ballot to reject joining the United Autoworkers Union (UAW), which had for months claimed that it had public attestations from a majority of workers that they wanted to unionize.

 

Under current labor laws, workers can unionize two ways: directly via card check, or through a secret ballot. The unionization process begins with union officials or workers trying to get members of the bargaining unit at the firm to sign their names on cards affirming their desire to unionize, a public process. If 30 percent of the workforce signs the cards, an election can go ahead, but if 50 percent have signed, the employer can choose to recognize the union, and it’s formed without a secret ballot. If the employer declines or the card process won between 30 and 50 percent support, a secret ballot election is held that requires majority support.

 

Under so-called card-check legislation that Democrats have tried to push through Congress in recent years, 50 percent of the workforce having signed a card would automatically create a union without a secret ballot — regardless of the employer’s wishes.

 

Because of allegations that the UAW was intimidating workers into signing cards, VW asked that a secret ballot be held. Under the “card check” regime labor advocates envision, in other words, if the UAW had been right that the majority of workers had signed cards, the unionization that failed on a secret ballot would have gone ahead.

 

 

 

 

.

[Koko78]

Because of allegations that the UAW was intimidating workers into signing cards, VW asked that a secret ballot be held. Under the “card check” regime labor advocates envision, in other words, if the UAW had been right that the majority of workers had signed cards, the unionization that failed on a secret ballot would have gone ahead.

 

I hope we can all see why VW was wrong to do this, and that the only truly fair way to ensure that these poor mistreated, underpaid and abused workers were given union protection was for the company to respect the wishes expressed by the workers by signing the cards. Cards signed by the workers under union supervision to ensure they filled the cards out correctly, of course.

[IDBillzFan]

I hope we can all see why VW was wrong to do this, and that the only truly fair way to ensure that these poor mistreated, underpaid and abused workers were given union protection was for the company to respect the wishes expressed by the workers by signing the cards. Cards signed by the workers under union supervision to ensure they filled the cards out correctly, of course.

 

Wouldn't making workers go through all the work to get a card disenfranchise the voters? A lot of those workers don't have the means to get a card.

[drinkTHEkoolaid]

 

 

Wouldn't making workers go through all the work to get a card disenfranchise the voters? A lot of those workers don't have the means to get a card.

do they have to show ID?

[Koko78]

Wouldn't making workers go through all the work to get a card disenfranchise the voters? A lot of those workers don't have the means to get a card.

 

Thankfully, the good folks at the UAW will make the personal sacrifices necessary to protect those oppressed workers by providing not only a card for each worker, but writing utensils and a very large gentleman to ensure that the card is filled out correctly by the worker and without interference from the evil greedy corporate bastard employers.

 

do they have to show ID?

 

Of course not. That would be racist and wrong.

[boyst]

Joe is a Union Man. UAW, in fact. It can't be that bad!

 

Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher - a.k.a., “Joe the Plumber" - announced today on Facebook and earlier on his Web site that he has landed a union job with Chrysler Group LLC.

 

Mr. Wurzelbacher, 40, of Springfield Township, who once was vilified as an "unlicensed plumber," said he was on his fourth day today and taking a smoke break at the time, when he was accosted by a co-worker as a “teabagger,” a derogatory term used for Tea Party members.

 

 

...or does this belong in the Tea Party Thread, since he is a T-bagger?

[B-Large]

The workers voted no by secret ballot- hard to argue with the result, and you have to think the workers are pretty happy with a stable job and didn't feel like they were getting ripped off or put in unsafe working conditions.

 

See Detroit and that mess as an example of why Unions have a bad name. In Mining or some other hazardous industry a Union still makes sense- but good lord look what they did to GM....

[IDBillzFan]

The workers voted no by secret ballot- hard to argue with the result, and you have to think the workers are pretty happy with a stable job and didn't feel like they were getting ripped off or put in unsafe working conditions.

 

See Detroit and that mess as an example of why Unions have a bad name. In Mining or some other hazardous industry a Union still makes sense- but good lord look what they did to GM....

 

They've also FUBAR'ed whatever is considered the US education system. That we take something as important as the education of our youth, and leave it up to people who get to keep their job just because they managed to stay around the longest is an embarrassment this country will likely never be able to overcome in my lifetime.

 

Teachers can complain about their pay all day, but they will never earn the pay they want until they can fire AND cut off the income of those who fail to perform. There is plenty of money in education. It's just being abused by the unions.

[B-Large]

They've also FUBAR'ed whatever is considered the US education system. That we take something as important as the education of our youth, and leave it up to people who get to keep their job just because they managed to stay around the longest is an embarrassment this country will likely never be able to overcome in my lifetime.

 

Teachers can complain about their pay all day, but they will never earn the pay they want until they can fire AND cut off the income of those who fail to perform. There is plenty of money in education. It's just being abused by the unions.

 

I don't disgaree. Not quite the same, but we have tenured, untouchable professors at out school of medicine who draw huge checks and don't do **** anymore... in fact, they become polticians internally and make it hard for people to get stuff accomplished. The fact that you cannot fire people who are blatently bad is just one reason people are starting to rethink Unions. The drop in Union mebership is a concrete example of that very trend.

 

It is very eye opening though that asking most parents with young kids, they solution it always to spend more, build more schools, etc... very few want to step back and consider that the appriations are not the issue anymore.

Edited February 19, 2014 by B-Large

[B-Man]

FTA:

 

Now we know different: At Vokswagen’s Chattanooga factory, the UAW was actually welcomed by the employer. No union-busting propaganda sessions. VW, which already has a powerful union back home in Europe, wanted to set up German-style “works councils,” where rank and file employees could have a say in production decisions. But, according to many U.S. labor lawyers, it needed a union partner — otherwise, under the Wagner Act the works councils would be considered an illegal “company union.” The UAW seemed ready to be that partner. UAW organizers were allowed in the plant to make their case. Management didn’t argue back. . . .

 

The most interesting part comes next: If Volkswagen now goes ahead and starts its works councils anyway, without the UAW, will organized labor sue to have them declared illegal?

 

That would give the Roberts Court a precious opportunity to interpret the Wagner Act in a way that actually allows non-legalistic, non-adversarial forms of worker participation in management (despite the “company union” prohibition). In effect, the courts could help VW create what those on the left have been (correctly) demanding of the right: a reasonable alternative to traditional unionism, giving workers a “voice” without subjecting every management decision to a war of bargainers and lawyers and (ultimately) the formalized pitched battle of a strike.

 

Now that would be a threat to Big Labor. Which is why they might not sue.

 

 

Because they’re not about helping the workers.

 

 

UAW Crushed — What Comes Next?

 

 

 

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Edited February 19, 2014 by B-Man

[Doc]

I don't disgaree. Not quite the same, but we have tenured, untouchable professors at out school of medicine who draw huge checks and don't do **** anymore... in fact, they become polticians internally and make it hard for people to get stuff accomplished. The fact that you cannot fire people who are blatently bad is just one reason people are starting to rethink Unions. The drop in Union mebership is a concrete example of that very trend.

 

It is very eye opening though that asking most parents with young kids, they solution it always to spend more, build more schools, etc... very few want to step back and consider that the appriations are not the issue anymore.

Spending other people's money always is/has been easier than addressing the cause of the problem.

FTA:

 

Now we know different: At Vokswagen’s Chattanooga factory, the UAW was actually welcomed by the employer. No union-busting propaganda sessions. VW, which already has a powerful union back home in Europe, wanted to set up German-style “works councils,” where rank and file employees could have a say in production decisions. But, according to many U.S. labor lawyers, it needed a union partner — otherwise, under the Wagner Act the works councils would be considered an illegal “company union.” The UAW seemed ready to be that partner. UAW organizers were allowed in the plant to make their case. Management didn’t argue back. . . .

 

The most interesting part comes next: If Volkswagen now goes ahead and starts its works councils anyway, without the UAW, will organized labor sue to have them declared illegal?

 

That would give the Roberts Court a precious opportunity to interpret the Wagner Act in a way that actually allows non-legalistic, non-adversarial forms of worker participation in management (despite the “company union” prohibition). In effect, the courts could help VW create what those on the left have been (correctly) demanding of the right: a reasonable alternative to traditional unionism, giving workers a “voice” without subjecting every management decision to a war of bargainers and lawyers and (ultimately) the formalized pitched battle of a strike.

 

Now that would be a threat to Big Labor. Which is why they might not sue.

 

 

Because they’re not about helping the workers.

 

 

UAW Crushed — What Comes Next?

Has the Wagner act ever been used to declare a "works council" illegal in the US before?

[IDBillzFan]

Wisconsin Purple People Beaters finds a new way to force people to join.

 

Here's how it works: Milwaukee County officials approved a living wage requirement for local government contractors to pay at least $11.33 per hour. SEIU's Wisconsin Jobs Now campaign was the main backer of the requirement.

 

But the new law includes a convenient way for contractors to avoid having to pay the living wage — they can agree to force their employees to join SEIU.

 

In other words, SEIU's message is this: You can pay us this way or you can pay us that way, but the bottom line here is you are going to pay.

 

The union doesn't care which way you go. If a contractor opts to pay the living wage, the union can claim credit, thus strengthening its appeal to workers to join voluntarily.