Autoworkers at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant are set to vote on organizing a German-style "works council," under the auspices of the UAW this week. The company is basically cool with it, regardless of how the vote comes out.
Detroit News: Frank Fischer, VW Chattanooga CEO and chairman, in a statement Saturday praised the idea of a works council.
“Our Works Councils are key to our success and productivity,” he said. “It is a business model that helped to make Volkswagen the second-largest car company in the world.
“Our plant in Chattanooga has the opportunity to create a uniquely American Works Council, in which the company would be able to work cooperatively with our employees and ultimately their union representatives,” Fischer said, “if the employees decide they wish to be represented by a union.”
However, Tennessee's politicians simply do not cotton to employers and employees making these decisions themselves. A VW works council might harm the government's ability to centrally plan the state economy.
The Tennessean: “We’re trying to be really clear: I think that there are some ramifications to the vote in terms of our ability to attract other suppliers,” [Gov. Bill] Haslam, speaking to The Tennessean’s editorial board, said on Wednesday. “When we recruit other companies, that comes up every time.”
Haslam, along with Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, former mayor of Chattanooga, has been an outspoken critic of UAW’s involvement in efforts to represent employees at what is the United States’ only Volkswagen plant.
Haslam confirmed he’s communicated to Volkswagen officials this week. “We’ve told the company that from our standpoint, we have concerns.”
Of course, one way Volkswagen and their workers could keep professional politicians and government bureaucrats from telling them how to organize their plant is to stop panhandling for taxpayer subsidies all the damn time.
Turn a profit without the welfare and then tell the governor to stick it in his ear.
