ATR’s Center for Worker Freedom was happy to learn that the United Auto Workers has finally dropped its frivolous challenges to the results of February’s election at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, which the union lost 712-626.
The union had challenged the election outcome in an appeal to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claiming “outside interference” had tainted the election. CWF’s Matt Patterson, Tucker Nelson, and ATR President Grover Norquist had all been subpoenaed in connection with the NLRB hearing set for Monday, April 21st.
However, Monday morning the union announced that they were dropping their objections, and the NLRB has officially certified the election results. The UAW has lost.
“We congratulate the workers in Chattanooga for standing firm against union propaganda, and we applaud the community for rallying around them as the union launched this outrageous challenge, which amounted to nothing less than a full-scale assault on the First Amendment,” said CWF Executive Director Matt Patterson.
“The workers of Tennessee won and they chased the outsider union bosses back to Detroit. But make no mistake, if the union bosses can smell the union dues they just lost then they’ll be back to get them in the future,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Patterson detailed in a column for the New York Post on Monday how the UAW challenge to the election results constituted an assault on the freedoms of press, association, and speech. “[The union] needs new dues-paying members. It needs them at any cost, even if that cost is our freedom. It’s willing to ignore the expressed wishes of workers, even as it claims to speak for workers. ” Patterson wrote.
Patterson warned that Chattanooga may not be out of the woods entirely. “Assuming that Volkswagen doesn’t find a way to get them in there anyway, the union will try again as soon as it legally and possibly can.”
Patterson warns that the UAW will also continue its aggressive organizing drives in other Southern communities, like Mercedes in Tuscaloosa Alabama, and Nissan Canton, Mississippi. “We’ll be there, too,” Patterson vowed.
The Center for Worker Freedom is a special project of Americans for Tax Reform, dedicated to warning the public about the costs and consequences of unionization.
