Three days ago a union was formed at the Chattanooga VW plant, UAW 42. Such a major turn of events should have been shouted from the rooftops. The press, internet, and broadcast media have been derelict in not reporting this most welcome outcome. I guess the biggest mystery is why. What has to be done to get our news organizations to pay attention when big things happen even if the reformers want to keep a lower profile? What do others think about this? How did this story miss front page coverage? Doing things right in the right way should have a place in what we hear or read about.
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The formation of the union, while reported in some outlets, should have been much more prominent in our local mainstream media. I guess that a deer rampaging through a Weymouth liquor store, or consumers choosing Walmart over a bank for financial services, was viewed as more pressing “news” by the Boston Globe.
The other shoe dropped yesterday:
The story notes the lies told previous by GOP lawmakers like Senator Bob Corker:
This is a lie because Volkswagen, in fact, supported the unionization effort so that it could create a German-style “Worker’s Trade Council”.
At least the latter story was reported in the New York Times. As far as I know, the Boston Globe has not published any analogous counterpart.
According to Businessweek, VW was under a lot of pressure from it’s own union in Germany to do this. It took some international solidarity, and I thank German workers for joining with us.
The German economic model, ordoliberalism, would be a great fit for the US. They still have a robust manufacturing and export based sector, strong unionization, strong management worker cooperative agreements, a great two tier health care system, and a strong globally competitive economy matched with a strong sense of social responsibility. To me, it is a better goal than the Nordic model.
… in the outlooks between Germany and the US. Businessweek would like to spin this a further adversarial management/union tiff… only the ‘pressure’ coming from the unions in Germany: sorta like looking at their union management relationships through the lens of our gladiatorial paradigm. It doesn’t work like that over there and they aren’t constantly at each others throats.
That paradigmatic difference, perhaps not coincidentally, might be why the Chattanooga plant might be such a disaster: the management cannot fathom why the workers don’t trust them and the workers can’t fathom why management would want them to…
I think it much more likely that both the workers at VW and the management would very much like to replicate their paradigm here but only the workers can say as much because management has to deal with idiots like Corker who, despite being complete mouth-breathing troglodytes, can make things even more difficult for them simply by opening their holes and letting the stupid out.
I’m not the least bit surprised the at Weymouth story took precedence over a Chattanooga story by the Globe. People like to know what is happening in their neighborhood and being a for-profit business that is what they cater to. The deer in the liquor store will elicit a reaction from some of “Hey, I know that place!” whereas for many Chattanooga will get the reaction of “where is that again?” NYT does bill itself as a quasi-national paper so I see that reporting more likely as well.
Though there was a time when the Globe had an international and national bureau….
These stories are about jobs, job creation, unions, and — amazingly — a corporate giant (Volkswagen) that has its head on straight about truly collaborating with its workers. That’s relevant to every voter during a campaign where “jobs” are the first words from every candidate’s mouth, and where “jobs” is one of the two only benefits claimed by casino proponents.
Tomorrow, we will no doubt read another Globe whine about how “dull” the campaign is, how “disinterested” Massachusetts voters are, and how low the turnout is expected to be.
I may not be “surprised”, but it’s a disgrace that the last “real” paper we have in this town doesn’t even mention either development.
It seems that if it doesn’t bleed, involve fire, or pertain to sports then it gets ignored. The Globe prefers to “entertain” us with “human interest” stories — who needs “news”?
I understand the news business just fine, I think. I’m just disgusted by how embarrassing the Boston Globe has become.
I totally agree that the media (mainstream and otherwise) ignored the formation of the UAW local in TN. They ignore most stories concerning workers and unionization unless it involves a strike or the ability to label workers acting together as a “special interest”.
And while I am encouraged by the UAW’s action they still have another step to take in this process. The newly formed UAW Local does not represent the VW workers for the purpose of collective bargaining. It is a voluntary start-up situation (the UAW having lost a representation election last year).
One hopes the workers have recognized the Republican Party lies regarding job loss and will, when another opportunity presents itself, vote in a secret ballot election for union representation.
Til then – a tip of the cap for the UAW for being willing to put the resurces into creating this Local Union and showing the VW workers the Union is here to stay.
Thanks, I did get what I wanted. Have you applied for a job at the Globe yet?
Right?
🙂
n/m
That pops up from time to time.
n/t
It’s this simple: Corporate Media needs to suppress labor unions. 99% of Media is Corporate or Corporate controlled. Sorry to sound like a guy who wears a tin foil hat to ward off the black helicopter mind reading machine, but it is really this simple.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s a bad thing the media isn’t all over this right now.
Keeping it away from the media’s glare may make it much, much easier to get the votes to make this a real union with collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining is to unions as evolution is to biology. It’s the foundation of the whole thing.
Having a big media story before the real hard work is done may feel good, but the ultimate goal has to be to get the votes to truly organize the plant.
Then the celebration (and media attention) will come.