The workers at Volkswagen of America's assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, rejected an effort by the United Auto Workers union to represent them. The Wall Street Journal reports the vote was 712 to 626 against the union. This is excellent news for the viability of auto assembly plants across the South.
The UAW has a track record of poisoning workers' relations with management. It very nearly caused the death of two of the Big Three U.S. automakers - GM and Chrysler.
Unique in Chattanooga was that VW appeared to welcome UAW participation. Whether this was done to appease its strong European unions or was in fact genuine will probably never be known for certain.
VW's agreement with the UAW requires the union to refrain from organizing efforts at VW during the next year. This because it lost the election in spite of VW's cooperation with the organizing effort.
COTTonLINE guesses that a majority of VW's workers are well-treated, make the same salaries as workers at UAW-organized plants, and see no reason to spend their hard-earned salaries on union dues. Apparently participating in a "works council" of the sort common in Europe didn't particularly appeal either.
U.S. and European cultures differ. Europe may be where most American's ancestors emigrated from, but we roll differently than do our "stay behind" cousins across the pond.
