Auto Workers Union Official Admits: If Volkswagen’s Chattanooga Employees Hear Both Sides of the Story, Most Will Oppose Unionization
Gary Casteel, who is overseeing the United Auto Workers union hierarchy’s campaign to secure monopoly-bargaining power over employees at Volkswagen’s assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., has admitted a majority of employees will “probably” oppose a union takeover as long as any group with significant financial resources is allowed to oppose the UAW bosses. Image: uaw.org
Why is it that top bosses of the United Auto Workers union are pressuring Volkswagen executives to recognize the UAW as the “exclusive” bargaining agent over employees at the firm’s facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., solely on the basis of union “authorization” cards signed by employees while they were under the watchful eyes of Big Labor organizers?
Unfortunately, mainstream media outlets that are covering UAW officials’ ongoing Chattanooga campaign never seem to ask union spokesmen this obvious question. However, Gary Casteel, the Lebanon, Tenn.-based director of UAW District 8, inadvertently gave an answer last month when he was being interviewed by G. Chambers Williams III of the Nashville Tennessean.
Casteel told Chambers, according to a news story published September 13 (see the link above): “We know that if we go for a traditional election where the outside organizations could campaign against us, we’d probably lose.”
As Casteel acknowledges, Volkswagen and its managers are not opposing the UAW hierarchy’s bid to become the monopoly-bargaining agent of employees at the Chattanooga plant. On the contrary, some VW executives in Germany are actively (and, very arguably, illegally) pushing for unionization. So the campaign Casteel wants is one in which the UAW, with over a billion dollars in assets (overwhelmingly derived from forced union dues and fees), can inundate employees with pro-union propaganda, but no organization with any significant resources can present the opposing viewpoint!
This is an extraordinary admission. Normally, in supporting “card-check” forced unionism, Big Labor claims this system, as ugly as it appears, is necessary to prevent employers from engaging in purportedly “unfair” labor practices. In Chattanooga, however, Volkswagen executives are on the UAW brass’s side. Nevertheless, Casteel wants a “card check” to prevent any organization of any size from sharing any more information with Volkswagen employees about why a UAW union takeover could be contrary to their interests.
Just what kind of a union is it whose officials believe they can successfully organize employees only if the opposition is effectively gagged?