Volkswagen Employees Have Rejected The United Auto Workers Union

The Detroit Free Press posted an article today about the vote by workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee. The workers voted against the United Auto Workers Union (UAW).

The article reports:

Volkswagen has said it favors the creation of a German-styleworks council,” which gives workers a voice on a variety of product and other decisions. Under U.S. law, a union must represent employees for a company to form a works council.

But Snyder voted against the UAW because, he said, Volkswagen is the best employer he’s ever worked for.

“How is somebody here really supposed to know what a works council is going to be like?” Snyder said. “You can have somebody tell you one thing and somebody tell you another thing. Nobody really knows.”

I think that is a really smart statement. The UAW has played something of a role in the bankruptcy of Detroit. They are not totally responsible, but they are not totally innocent either.  I think this vote represents a realization by the workers that they have been treated fairly by the management of Volkswagen and they do not want to risk their current benefits. Unions have traditionally had a role to play in American industry, but many of the benefits of unionization have been taken over by the government. The government now monitors working conditions, waste disposal, and benefits–all things the unions were originally involved in. Unfortunately the unions have become political organizations with overpaid leadership that lives far above the living standard of union members. They have become no different than the corporations and corporate fat cats they continually criticize.

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Fired For Breaking A Rule Before It Was A Rule

As I write this, there is no lawsuit connected to this story. The person who would normally be entitled to file a lawsuit has not indicated that he will do so, although he has not totally ruled it out.

On Thursday, the Daily Caller reported the story about Drew Johnson, formerly one of the editors of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press. Mr. Johnson was fired on Thursday for breaking a rule on Monday–the rule was not put in place until Tuesday. So what was Mr. Johnson’s infraction? Mr. Johnson changed the title on an editorial to read “Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough.” This headline appeared on the day President Obama visited Chattanooga to promote his new jobs program.

Despite the headline, the Free Press kept the headline up on its website and received a lot of internet traffic related to the article.

The article at the Daily Caller reports:

However, two days after the editorial had been published he was called in and fired for the piece.

“So I was brought into human resources today and I was told, ‘You’re being fired for violating the policy that you have to have an editor sign off when you make a change to a headline,’” he said. “Well, I said, ‘That’s funny, because that policy wasn’t in place until after I wrote the piece and you guys told me that was the policy on Tuesday. And I wrote the piece on Monday.’”

Mr. Johnson is looking for a new job. Gone are the days when fiery editorials on both sides of the political spectrum graced our newspapers. Unless the media begins to report both sides of the story, we will lose our representative republic. What happened to Drew Johnson is an outrage, but somehow most of the media seems to be unconcerned.

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A Compromise Is Not Always A Compromise

This story is based on two articles–one posted in Investor’s Business Daily yesterday and one posted in the Wall Street Journal today. Both articles deal with President Obama’s proposed “grand bargain” on tax reform.

Yesterday in Chattanooga, Tennessee, President Obama offered to cut taxes for corporations in return for increasing government spending. (I believe he calls it “investment.”)

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Mr. Obama will agree to reform the corporate tax code—a GOP priority and one even the President claims to support—but only if the reform raises more revenue and only if he is allowed to spend that windfall on his priorities.

A White House press release clarified that the President would also like to raise taxes on individuals, not just businesses, while allowing federal spending to rise still higher. But showing they retain a sense of humor in the West Wing, the press release suggests that the President is willing to forgo this tax increase for now because he wants to “work with Republicans.”

Investor’s Business Daily reports:

Since Obama’s “stimulus” took effect, job growth has been subpar, GDP gains are at record lows, median incomes have shrunk and the number of Americans on welfare has surged.

So we know that won’t work. But what about corporate tax cuts?

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation reckons a simple cut in the corporate tax rate to 25% would boost GDP more than 2% and wages by nearly as much. And capital investment would jump more than 6%.

Moreover, a corporate cut would increase federal revenues and help lower our deficits — assuming, that is, Obama doesn’t spend the new money.

Unfortunately, part of Obama’s “bargain” is to increase taxes on U.S. companies that operate abroad and to reduce business writeoffs for investments — the seed corn of future economic growth.

Even at 28%, Obama’s new tax rate would be higher than the 25% average paid by our main competitors.

So with one hand the president giveth, and with the other he taketh away. Worse, he seems intent on rewarding big companies with tax cuts while punishing small companies that account for 85% of all new jobs.

So what is going on here? The President wants to continue the tax and spend policies the Democrat party is known for while claiming to support tax reform and lower tax rates for corporations. Those tax and spend policies are what is causing the slow growth of the economy and also what got us into the fiscal mess we find ourselves in. However, depending on how the mainstream media reports this, the low-information voters may wonder why the Republicans won’t compromise. There is no compromise being offered here, but the media will probably neglect to mention that fact.

This proposal will kill any economic growth we may have in the near future. Hopefully the Republicans will not be drawn into the trap.

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Even The United Auto Workers Union Is Struggling !

Red Volkswagen Bug

Image via Wikipedia

A website called thetruthaboutcars.com posted a story on Thursday about the financial situation of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW).

The article points out:

In many ways, the UAW resembles the companies it opposed for so long. The UAW is America’s richest union. One of its biggest assets is its strike fund, which stood at $763 million at the end of 2010. If push comes to shove, a union is as strong as its strike fund. The trouble is: The UAW spends more than it takes in. Increasingly, the union has to dip into the strike fund, the Reuters report says. According to government filings, the UAW liquidated $222 million of investments from 2007 to 2009 to cover the shortfall between expenses and revenue.

The article has charts that illustrate the financial problems of the UAW in recent years. One thing mentioned in the article is the fact that the UAW membership fees have dropped to $30 a month. At the same time, the union is having to spend a great deal of money on organizing as some car manufacturers are no longer in Detroit and are no longer unionized.

A Reuters new story reports:

“Volkswagen AG is paying newly hired workers at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant $14.50 per hour. That is almost exactly what a second-tier UAW worker would make in Detroit. In a sign of demand for jobs at that pay level, the Chattanooga plant had 85,000 applications for more than 2,000 jobs. VW workers have been promised $19.50 after three years on the job. That is just above the $19.28 per hour maximum that entry-level workers at GM would make over the term of the four-year contract now before workers for ratification.”

That is not good news for the future of the UAW.

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