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Volkswagen employees may have made a huge mistake when they rejected union membership on Friday.

Employees at VW's Chattanooga plant voted against representation by United Auto Workers, leaving the
factory as the only Volkswagen plant worldwide without a formal mechanism for workers' representation.

The German "co-determination" model mandates works councils, which connect employees to
management, at all large German companies. Following the union vote, the head of Volkswagen's
works council told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the automaker would hesitate to
expand in the U.S. South.

"I can imagine fairly well that another VW factory in the United States, provided that one more should
still be set up there, does not necessarily have to be assigned to the South again," said works council
leader Bernd Osterloh.

"If co-determination isn't guaranteed in the first place, we as workers will hardly be able to vote in
favor" of building another plant in the right-to-work South, Osterloh added.

Quoted from Shadow

The workers in Chattanooga did what they thought was best for them. When they saw what the UAW had done to Detroit they said no thanks we like things just the way they are and besides we make more money than the union workers do.

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National Labor Relations Board expert Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, who is professor of labor
at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, said Corker was trying to intimidate workers into voting
against the union.

"I'm really kind of shocked at Corker's statement," said Dau-Schmidt. "It's so inconsistent with
what VW has been saying and VW's labor relations policy in general."

The Indiana professor also said Corker's comments "would be grounds to set the election aside
and have to run it all over again at a later date" because it could be ruled to be interfering to
the point that it is against federal labor law.

A spokeswoman for Corker did not respond when asked whether the senator also meant that a
vote for the UAW would mean that the plant would not get the new product, which could create
an estimated 1,500 new jobs.

Quoted from Shadow

The Chattanooga plant workers will get a cut in pay and have to pay union dues so the union can fund politicians that are not of your choosing. Let them vote again and if the results are the same they won't have any excuse for the defeat.

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  Workers at VW's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last Friday voted against
representation by the United Auto Workers union (UAW), rejecting efforts by VW
representatives to set up a German-style works council at the plant.

German workers enjoy considerable influence over company decisions under the legally
enshrined "co-determination" principle which is anathema to many politicians in the U.S.
who see organized labor as a threat to profits and job growth.

Chattanooga is VW's only factory in the U.S. and one of the company's few in the world
without a works council.

"I can imagine fairly well that another VW factory in the United States, provided that one
more should still be set up there, does not necessarily have to be assigned to the south
again," said Bernd Osterloh, head of VW's works council.

"If co-determination isn't guaranteed in the first place, we as workers will hardly be able
to vote in favor" of potentially building another plant in the U.S. south, Osterloh, who
is also on VW's supervisory board, said.

Quoted from Shadow

Imagine that workers that can think for themselves and not follow orders from others, they must be destroyed or be forced to join the collective.

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What large union did you belong to Box that makes you believe that everything the union does is good for the worker?

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This is from first hand experience as a union steward for 25 years with the AFL/CIO. Went out on strike on International Union request and ended up being out of work for 7 months. Were told that union dues funded a strike fund for workers, in 7 months we received $10 once a month for doing picket duty and a turkey for Thanksgiving. The union officials got full pay all the while we were out of work. To make matters even worse when we went back to work our dues were doubled until we got caught up with what we owed. Unions aren't always the best solution to the problem. The truth is the union can be bought by the company to convince the workers to do what the company wants not necessarily what's best for the worker.