A few weeks ago I wrote about the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and how, with the co-operation of Volkswagen ownership, the plant was about to vote to join the U.A.W.--until anti-union Republican politicians led by Senator Bob Corker (R), forced themselves into the mix, threatening to withhold state support for the plant and making statements that, according to VW, were untrue. The vote failed by a small margin.
http://whateyethynk-politics.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-inside-out-logic-of-republican-job.html
It is beginning to look like the Republican plan may have backfired.
Shortly after the failed vote, Bernd Osterloh, head of VW's works council and member of the company's supervisory board, hinted that any new VW facility will be located somewhere where the company can "run its business without political interference."
Last week, the U.A.W. asked the National Labor Relations Board to order a new election arguing that VW workers' right to an election "free of coercion, intimidation, threats and interference" had been denied by statements like those made by Mr. Corker who claimed that the company would move its entire operation to Mexico if the workers voted to join the U.A.W. (VW has flatly denied this claim, pointing out that other VW plants in the U.S. are unionized.)
Volkswagen ownership is not stupid. As one writer pointed out, "Republicans didn't intervene at the behest of the company; they intervened out of an anti-labor animus despite the company's wishes. It wouldn't come as too big a shock if top officials at VW noticed and came away unimpressed."
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