A plan is underway to fight efforts to unionize the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga.
Paydayreport.com this week profiled Rick Berman, reportedly an anti-union lawyer from New York, tasked with defeating the United Auto Workers’ efforts to unionize at Volkswagen-Chattanooga.
The stakes, according to the website, are high.
“A win at the German-owned automaker would be the UAW’s first successful union organizing drive at the foreign-owned auto plant in the South,” Paydayreport.com said.
“A win there would give a massive boost to workers in the South who have sought unsuccessfully to organize the growing auto industry in the region.”
Berman told the website “we are looking at all of the misbehavior and the fraud practiced on the UAW members that have only recently come to light, and we are giving it some exposure,” Berman said.
Berman specifically referenced ads that Paydayreport.com said highlight “the conviction of 4 top UAW officials for accepting $4.5 million in bribes from Chrysler in exchange for taking concessions from the company at the bargaining table behind the backs of their members.”
“The ads, which first appeared in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press as well as in the Detroit Free Press this weekend, focus heavily on how the UAW has had to spend $1.5 million in union dues to defend itself against the federal bribery investigation according to Department of Labor records,” Paydayreport.com said.
“Berman says next he intends to focus on how the UAW paid for non-union construction labor to build a $1.3 million cottage for retired UAW President Dennis William at the UAW’s 1,000-acre retreat on Black Lake in Northern Michigan. The ads also highlight a website, which Berman has set up, UAWInvestigations.com, which links to news articles on the corruption scandals plaguing the UAW. The site also highlights a 2017 New York Times investigation into how UAW representatives at Ford plants in the Midwest routinely refused to file sexual harassment complaints on behalf of their female workforce.”
Berman said his specific aim “is to sow doubt in workers’ minds about whether the UAW really will represent them.”
As reported, Tennessee officials reportedly made concessions to Volkswagen to get the company to construct a new electric vehicle plant in Chattanooga.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Just say “NO”.
Can anyone cite an instance in which Unionization of the labor force resulted in improvement of the goods or service that are eventually delivered to the consumer? No wonder why unionized companies have difficulty surviving as consumers become more demanding of quality products at competitive prices.