- Mar 12, 2013
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BMW management wanted a UNION and Republican politicians objected. Republicans threatened, lied and intimidated auto workers into voting no. Republicans would rather have NO jobs than UNION jobs, friggin Republicans....
BIZARRO.....
BIZARRO.....
http://theweek.com/article/index/256496/the-tennessee-gops-union-thwarting-push-has-backfiredState Sen. Bo Watson (R) threatened to withdraw the state subsidies that helped bring VW to Tennessee in the first place (along with every other foreign automaker in the South and West). "Should the workers choose to be represented by the United Auto Workers," he told the Detroit Free Press, "then I believe additional incentives for expansion will have a very tough time passing the Tennessee Senate." Gov. Bill Haslam (R) made similar, if subtler, statements.
Then, at a news conference on Wednesday — while voting was going on — Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) played the Mexico card, noting that either the Tennessee plant or one in Puebla, Mexico, will be tapped to make a new line of SUVs. "I've had conversations today and based on those am assured that should the workers vote against the UAW, Volkswagen will announce in the coming weeks that it will manufacture its new mid-size SUV here in Chattanooga," Corker said.
VW, which has tried hard to stay neutral on the unionization issue, publicly contradicted Corker. "There is no connection between our Chattanooga employees' decision about whether to be represented by a union and the decision about where to build a new product for the U.S. market," said Frank Fischer, chief executive of VW Chattanooga.
Corker shot back that "after all these years and my involvement with Volkswagen, I would not have made the statement I made yesterday without being confident it was true and factual." Then he threw a personal jab: "Believe me, the decisions regarding the Volkswagen expansion are not being made by anyone in management at the Chattanooga plant."