“Volkswagen workers vote overwhelmingly to join the UAW, giving the union a groundbreaking win”

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/0.../volkswagen-uaw-vote

The beginning of the end. Local media is positively giddy

Viva la Mexico

Future Headline: Chattanooga VW Plant Closes

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Future Headline: Chattanooga VW Plant Closes

Don't need to wait for the future... Ask Mack truck now

Those workers certainly cut the throats of the next generation of workers. Hopefully it works out for them for now.

My uncle retired from Chrysler and that is where I first learned of the nonsense of some union workers. My last boss worked with a UAW plant to try and improve their efficiency. Although the workers had reached their daily quota by 8 am and were sitting in the break room the remainder of the day, he could not get any one of them to help out by trying his suggestions.

I know union workers in the chemical plants and there are as many stories of marginal workers who would otherwise get fired if not for union protection.

I worked for a few years with former Union Carbide workers. They were some of the worst, laziest people I have ever worked with.

My friend was a union steward before moving into management and I heard plenty of stories of the slacker he had to protect, including one who spent most of his day watching porn. I am no fan of unions.

The market outlet is terrible. Sales are coming to a halt, the economy sucks, lots of delays in new investment and models, confusion over future regulation, and a strong push for cost cutting and head chopping.

Not the time for union BS on top of it. This won't take until the next generation it will happen quickly or the OEMs won't survive. They came to the south for a reason.

Mexico doesn't just have lower wages.. Less OSHA, less EPA, etc. We simply can no longer be competitive. These fools are so short sighted and they will bury all of us who make our living in the auto industry.

Just like the strikes, it hurt tens of thousands of suppliers, etc. But they dont give a damn.

Sadly I only see more workers unionizing. Pay has not kept up with inflation and housing costs.

^^^So then what? Only union workers can/will be able to afford to keep up w/ inflation housing costs...At least until they no longer have a job because nobody else can afford the product(s) manufactured/sold by their employer, which they're rendered non-competitve in the market place!

More from the above linked article:

Volkswagen once before had had an American plant where workers were represented by the UAW, in Pennsylvania. But that plant closed in 1988 in the face of weak American sales by Volkswagen. And the UAW has had little success winning the right to represent nonunion auto workers since then, until Friday’s vote.

But the union’s effort had been opposed by a coalition of six southern Republican governors who have nonunion auto plants in their states.

The six, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee as well as the governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, signed a letter this week arguing those nonunion jobs would be at risk if the union won Friday’s vote.

“The reality is companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunity. We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good-paying jobs to our states,” said the letter. “Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy.”

But the vote represents a run of success by the nation’s unions, which won pay increases of 10% or more for nearly a million union members last year, according to an analysis by CNN. Strikes were at a decade high in 2023, and organizing activity also increased.

I've managed people in the UAW, Steelworkers, and IUE (electrical workers), and worked around IBEW, DWU, and some others. I've pretty much seen it all, and have friends and coworkers and relatives that have seen similar things.

That said MANAGEMENT is responsible to manage the business. Bad management begets unions. Good management makes them unnecessary. And even with a union bad management allows them to get out of control. This includes negotiation of contracts by senior HR and Lawyers. They focus on pay and benefits but compromise an "work rules". It is the work rules and massive inefficiencies that kill plants, not the pay/benefits. I will gladly pay full union scale for good workers who show up and do a good job and justify their money's worth.

3 of the plants I worked in are gone now and production moved to Mexico, South Korea, or elsewhere. Because management let the unions get out of control and then couldn't put the genie back in the bottle.

I am absolutely tickled to see abusive employers like Amazon get unionized. Amazon is a true sweat shop with telemetry on workers to ensure they reach their nearly unreachable quotas. No one works there for very long.

This VW plant, I don't know. Failure to raise pay to offset inflation is a big issue. If VW is smart they will negotiate pay and benefits but refuse silly work rules and excessive job classifications that cannot cross over into each other's work.

But Tennessee is a right to work state so no one can be compelled to join the union or pay dues. What you will find in reality is that the only way unions survive is by having the employer deduct union dues from employees paychecks and deliver it directly to the union. If you make the union bill it's members directly and collect dues on their own, payment rates drop 80-90%. If you don't pay your mortgage, you get foreclosed. If you don't pay your car loan, it gets repossessed, if you don't pay utilities, they get turned off. But if you don't pay your union dues? Not much. They can't refuse to represent you or throw you out.

I live in Chattanooga and could see this one coming. Part of it is the mentality of the worker today. Times are changing and assembly line work is different than what most are accustomed to. VW recently gave a large pay increase to workers but the workers viewed it as not enough. VW in Chattanooga is preparing one assembly line for the ID4 electric SUV. With the overall sales of EVs falling it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

quote:

Failure to raise pay to 'offset' inflation is a big issue.

Who here has gotten a 30% pay raise in the last 3.5 years? I'll wait...

quote:

But Tennessee is a right to work state so no one can be compelled to join the union or pay dues. What you will find in reality is that the only way unions survive is by having the employer deduct union dues from employees paychecks and deliver it directly to the union. If you make the union bill it's members directly and collect dues on their own, payment rates drop 80-90%.

Interesting...

quote:

Shortly after 11 pm ET on Friday the National Labor Relations Board, the federal body that oversees such votes, announced that 73% of the 3,600 workers at the plant who cast ballots had voted in favor of joining the union. There was an 84% turnout among eligible voters.

So 73% of the 3,600 workers at the plant who cast ballots voted in favor of joining the union. But only 84% turnout among eligible voters = 3,024 voted x .73 = 2207 in favor.

A majority, yes, so they must want to pay the union dues... but those who didn't vote for the union won't be compelled to pay the dues.

Approximately 1,400 may not want to pay the union dues.

I work in a Union shop.
There is a guy who makes the same as me and produces about a third.
He does not have the technical skill I have, or the tools.
But he's been Union for so long he's just riding the system.
Burns my Balls!

I hope VW immediately starts making plans and tells their staff they are free to move to Mexico if they’d like to keep their jobs.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^So then what? Only union workers can/will be able to afford to keep up w/ inflation housing costs...At least until they no longer have a job because nobody else can afford the product(s) manufactured/sold by their employer, which they're rendered non-competitve in the market place!

Most folks do not take a macro view of economics. Just my house. Today.

Atlas Shrugged.

Retired Federal Employee. I got three things out of it. Better pay,better benefits and better retirement than non union. The factory my dad worked for (as did I for a few years). Moved the plant because the truck drivers wanted to unionize. I didn’t go to college,so for someone who didn’t,I did well for myself. Wouldn’t have the money or benefits had I got stuck in that factory. Union places usually get better pay. I’m form Arkansas and they hate em here. Just my experience with em.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Failure to raise pay to 'offset' inflation is a big issue.

Who here has gotten a 30% pay raise in the last 3.5 years? I'll wait...

Gov't workers with COLA's and Social Security recipients. Private sector not so much.

But that is the point. My employer had a corporate town hall meeting where the CFO presented the financials. Record revenue and profit and all that. During Q&A he was asked if annual raises would be increased due to inflation. This arrogant brit said "we didn't lower the raises during low inflation so we are not increasing them now".

Except from 2011-2021 - a period of maybe 2% inflation, average annual raises were 3% for good performance, and higher for the top performers (maybe 5-6%). So during low inflation, annual raises were just a bit higher than inflation. They got used to it, and don't want to increase raises because nothing like this had ever happened in their careers. So much for being agile and nimble and all the stupid buzzwords.

So what is the result? Much higher attrition as people quit and get new jobs to get more money. The loss of experience and the replacement with cheaper younger people with little experience is really showing and will result in some disasters in the near future.

My point is - enough money to combat inflation, but maybe not as much as union pay, considering no union means no dues, would have been smart. Now VW will have a hell of a lot more trouble on their hands than simply increased expenses. Very short sighted on their part.

quote:

quote:
Failure to raise pay to 'offset' inflation is a big issue.

Who here has gotten a 30% pay raise in the last 3.5 years? I'll wait...

Gov't workers with COLA's and Social Security recipients. Private sector not so much.

Hmm... inflation has hit most of us pretty hard.
Inflation was caused by government... but only government workers seem to be shielded, at least somewhat, from its effects.

How much government can we afford?