ARTICLE

We are absolutely outraged that Volkswagen would send its loyal employees down the river without a paddle by ignoring their explicit decision to avoid unionization. Workers voted fairly and legally to reject the United Auto Workers (UAW) in February, and now their company is turning its back on them by allowing the union into its plant anyway. While it is somewhat comforting that VW will not formally recognize the union until it receives a commitment from a majority of workers, UAW will no doubt use this “camel’s nose under the tent” to pressure members to join its ranks. All this comes despite workers having clearly rejected the union at the ballot box in a legally binding election. 

This collusion between VW and the union is a threat to employee freedom and sets a dangerous precedent that legally binding votes are irrelevant, and that unions can run end roads around the expressed consent of employees to get inside their workplaces and create conditions that pressure them to acquiesce. Further, while our state should end corporate welfare subsidies altogether, VW’s hostility towards the interests of its own workforce would make another $300 million payout to the company a complete travesty. In light of the VW’s unwillingness to respect its employee’s freedoms, Tennessee leaders should unequivocally reject the company’s demands for more of our taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. The Beacon Center firmly rejects giving a penny of taxpayer money to VW and will do everything in its power to stop handouts to the company after blatantly ignoring these employees’ decision not to unionize.