Auto workers in Tennessee nixed joining the United Auto Workers union at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga this week, in a vote one Reuters news story characterized as having “wide ranging implications for the auto industry in the South.” The Wall Streeet Journal headlined the vote online: “Union Suffers Big Loss at Tennessee VW plant.”
The final vote was 712 to 626 rejecting the union. Because the UAW had the cooperation of VW management and a powerful German union, it is considered a huge and significant loss for the UAW.
Count it also as a loss for the president’s prognostication abilities. In a Friday Reuters story, President Barack Obama’s opinion was characterized thus:
Obama said everyone was in favor of the UAW representing Volkswagen except for local politicians who “are more concerned about German shareholders than American workers,” according to a Democratic aide who attended the meeting with Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
I guess those 712 workers who voted against the union just aren’t on the president’s ideological radar screen.
See also: Tennessee VW Workers REJECT Unionization Bid by UAW
