UAW’s King: Secret Ballot Elections Not In Best Interest of UAW

Mississippi Governor Haley Barber exposes UAW’s anti-worker stance:

Anyone curious about the actual motivations behind the United Auto Workers’ attempt to unionize southern automakers need only look to Chattanooga, Tenn., where the union is actively campaigning to organize the local Volkswagen plant.

The UAW’s own “Principles for Fair Union Elections” state that “the democratic right of workers to freely and collectively choose if they want to form their UAW local union is the workers’ First Amendment right,” adding that “a secret ballot election incorporating these principles is an acceptable method of determining union representation.”

In Canton, Miss., site of the UAW’s ongoing campaign to organize Nissan’s manufacturing plant, UAW president Bob King and his allies have gone even further. They have tried to equate the UAW’s drive for new members with historic struggles in the state by saying the right to a secret ballot election is a “civil right.”

Yet in Chattanooga, King now says, “An election process is more divisive.” He added, “I don’t think that’s in Volkswagen’s best interests. I don’t think that [is] in the best interests of Tennessee.”

In a more candid moment which reveals concern for low employee support levels for the UAW, Gary Casteel, the UAW southeastern representative, told the Tennessean newspaper this month, “We know if we go for a traditional election where the outside organizations could campaign against us, we’d probably lose.”

Casteel offered a similar comment concerning a possible vote in Canton saying, “Why would we file for an election that we know we’re going to lose?” Instead of a democratic election following the organization’s own principles, the UAW believes Volkswagen should simply throw open its doors and recognize the union because it claims a majority of VW workers have signed non-binding union cards.

Hypocritical? You bet.