Image Credit: State of Tennessee
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee joined five other governors in opposing the United Auto Workers’ unionization campaign with a vote this week of Chattanooga Volkswagen autoworkers on whether to unionize.
Lee is joined by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott against what they call misinformation from the UAW.
“The reality is companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunity,” Lee and the governors wrote. “We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good-paying jobs to our states. These jobs have become part of the fabric of the automotive manufacturing industry. Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy – in fact, in this year already, all of the UAW automakers have announced layoffs.”
Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman London Lamar, on the other hand, offered her support of the Chattanooga workers and UAW, saying that Lee has a history of “anti-worker” legislation such as a removal of automatic Tennessee Education Association deduction options from Tennessee teacher paychecks and an incentive restriction for businesses that allow card check union elections.
“Unlike Tennessee’s governor, we applaud Volkswagen workers for engaging in the democratic process and we would welcome the UAW’s expansion in Chattanooga,” Lamar said in a statement. “We aren’t surprised to see Gov. Bill Lee join with other anti-union states trying to tip the scales against workers. Lee, who inherited a company that made him a millionaire, has signed more anti-worker laws than any governor in Tennessee history.”
Lee and the governors, however, believe a vote to unionize would jeopardize those auto manufacturing plants’ future.
“In America, we respect our workforce and we do not need to pay a third party to tell us who can pick up a box or flip a switch,” the governors said. “No one wants to hear this, but it’s the ugly reality. We’ve seen it play out this way every single time a foreign automaker plant has been unionized; not one of those plants remains in operation. And we are seeing it in the fallout of the Detroit Three strike with those automakers rethinking investments and cutting jobs. Putting businesses in our states in that position is the last thing we want to do.”
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
3 Responses
Having been raised by small business owners, I’m predisposed to be anti-union.
Please note the social standard and taxes of union cities and states.
Good for you Molly…..I’m in the same boat and I tell my ‘union’ friends’ that they are selling their souls to the collective devil with their union….when all of them are talented enough to run their own business, rather than being ‘run’ by their ‘beloved’ union! Unfortunately, the ‘ELITE’ ruling class GOP must have an alter ego, because they keep ‘LURING’ these BIG UNION companies in our state! Lee and the State Legislature bent the taxpayers over backwards (not themselves – they took a ton of money from FORD, then committed the taxpayer to 80 billion in ‘infrastructure’, SORRY!) Lee’s statement : “The reality is companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunity,” Apparently, the taxpayers DO NOT have choices when it comes to BIG CORPORATE SUBSIDIES. Am I INSANE in believing that a stupid FORD pro-UNION group, won’t be challenging this Tennessee plant’s employees to walk down that ‘pied piper’s’ lane ? ANYONE? I’m gonna lay 2 to 1 odds that what is happening in Chat will happen in Brownsville! WHY? Because the elite ruling class doesn’t really care!
YOU do not want the UAW in our STATE they are breaking our car companies, FORD and GM to not want them, but cant get rid of them. THEY are like leaches and they have a large voter block. I say NO TO UNIONS