UAW's membership has plummeted to around 400,000 today. Volkswagen workers reject UAW

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., have rejected the United Auto Workers, shooting down the union’s hopes of securing a foothold at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South.

The vote was 712 to 626, said the UAW, which blamed the loss on “politicians and outside special interest groups.”


The vote, announced late Friday night after three days of balloting, is a devastating loss for the UAW, whose membership has plummeted from a high of 1.5 million in 1979 to around 400,000 today. Outgoing UAW President Bob King had staked his legacy on organizing a Southern auto plant for the first time.

But the decision is a triumph for Tennessee Republicans like Sen. Bob Corker, who lured Volkswagen to Chattanooga as mayor in the early 2000s. Corker and other Republicans warned workers that the UAW’s presence would irreparably harm the plant, and in recent days he claimed — with little evidence — that Volkswagen would choose not to expand the plant if workers unionized.

( Earlier on POLITICO: UAW's Tennessee surge brings Washington backlash)

“Needless to say, I am thrilled for the employees at Volkswagen and for our community and its future,” Corker said in a brief statement Friday night.

The D.C.-based Center for Worker Freedom, a division of conservative activist Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, also campaigned against the union drive by blaming unions for Detroit’s economic woes and saying the UAW supports liberal politicians who favor gun control.

In a statement, the UAW blamed the conservative groups and Tennessee Republicans for their stinging defeat, with UAW Region 8 Director Gary Casteel saying that “politically motivated third parties threatened the economic future of this facility and the opportunity for workers to create a successful operating model that would grow jobs in Tennessee.”

“While we’re outraged by politicians and outside special interest groups interfering with the basic legal right of workers to form a union, we’re proud that these workers were brave and stood up to the tremendous pressure from outside,” UAW Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Williams said. “We hope this will start a larger discussion about workers’ right to organize.”

The Center for Worker Freedom portrayed the loss as a setback for the UAW — and for President Barack Obama, who had criticized the Republicans’ anti-union campaign earlier Friday.

( Also on POLITICO: Full transportation and infrastructure policy coverage)

“The workers at Volkswagen looked at the history of this union and made the best decision for themselves, their jobs and their community,” Matt Patterson, the center’s executive director, said in a statement. “In spite of the UAW’s multi-million dollar propaganda machine, and with company and government officials at Obama’s NLRB aiding the union in every possible way, workers learned the facts and were able to make an informed decision.”

If the UAW couldn’t succeed in Chattanooga, it’s unlikely to find success elsewhere in the South.

The UAW had advantages in organizing the Volkswagen plant it probably won’t find elsewhere. For starters, Volkswagen — under pressure from the powerful German steelworkers’ union, IG Metall, which holds seats on the company’s board — decided not to resist unionization. The union’s presence would have also allowed the company to set up a German-style “works council,” in which representatives of both workers and middle management offer advice to executives on how to best run the plant.

“I don’t think this is a bellwether for future success for the UAW,” said Donald Schroeder, a management-side labor lawyer at Mintz Levin, before the results were announced. “The UAW almost has had a free run at unionizing.”

While the German union also has seats on the boards of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, those companies haven’t indicated they’d welcome a works council at their plants in South Carolina or Alabama. But the works council concept is still alive.

Other foreign-owned automakers in the U.S., like Nissan and Hyundai, are also likely to strongly resist unionization attempts.

In addition, Volkswagen’s workers were underpaid by industry standards, with wages topping out in the low $20-an-hour range.

The vote started Wednesday amid intense attention in Washington. Conservative groups, led by Norquist’s organization, had led the anti-union charge even as Volkswagen stayed officially neutral on the vote. The Center for Worker Freedom paid for a dozen billboards around Chattanooga, linking the UAW to Detroit, Obama, layoffs and gun control.

Meanwhile, GOP leaders in Tennessee warned that a union victory could jeopardize Volkswagen’s tax incentives.

On Friday, Obama voiced support for the unionization effort, telling House Democrats at a closed-door meeting that Republicans looking to block the union were “more concerned about German shareholders than American workers.”

Before the vote, the union had expressed interest in working with Volkswagen to form a works council, a type of union-corporate partnership that is common in Germany but unheard of in the United States. But some observers said they thought the UAW would have trouble adjusting to a more collaborative model, and that Volkswagen “does not necessarily understand the ramifications of allowing an American union.”

“The model that works in Germany can’t be replicated here,” Schroeder said. “It’s not going to be collaborative. It’s going to be a lot more antagonistic.”

The UAW had hoped a victory in Tennessee could be replicated elsewhere, and it’s unlikely to complete give up on either the works council concept or attempts to unionize in the South.

“If we don’t organize these transnationals, I don’t think there’s a long-term future for the UAW — I really don’t,” King said in 2011.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report incorrectly reported the name of the executive director of the Center for Worker Freedom. His name is Matt Patterson.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Jessica Huff @ 02/18/2014 11:52 AM CORRECTION: A previous version of this report incorrectly reported the name of the executive director of the Center for Worker Freedom. His name is Matt Patterson.