On February 12^th Mayor Andy Berke of Chattanooga signed an agreement with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The agreement called “ 2014 Memorandum of Understanding” stipulates that SEIU members employed by the city will be given 600 hours of “release time”, paid for by the Chattanooga taxpayer. Release time allows unionized workers to travel on union business and attend union training while on taxpayer dime.

It looks like the fight isn’t over for the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and its attempts to unionize the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The UAW narrowly lost its bid to unionize the Volkswagen plant back in February in a secret ballot election by a vote of 712 to 626. Under U.S. labor law the union has to wait one full year before they are allowed to hold another secret ballot election at the plant.

Volkswagen employees recieved a distrubing letter from Region 8 Director Gary Casteel on April 21st. To read the original letter please reference www.no2uaw.com. Below is the response formulated by some of the workers to Casteel.

Mr. Casteel,

Unifor, the Canadian union equivalent to the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the states, has run into a little problem in their attempts to unionize to Toyota plants in Canada. Two Toyota plants located in Cambridge and Woodstock Ontario are the target by Unifor to unionize.

 The union has had to temporarily delay the voting process in Ontario after it misjudged the company’s workforce.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press quoted CWF Executive Director Matt Patterson in regards to the Subpoenas issued by the NLRB on Wednesday. He was quoted saying “Our grounds are is that this is a fishing expedition and we don’t feel compelled to comply.” Tucker Nelson and Grover Norquist, both of Americans for Tax Reform, are also fighting the Subpoenas.

Read More here  

As if the United Auto Workers (UAW) hasn’t made enough headlines this week, they are making them again, this time in Kentucky.

This particular union, UAW Local 2164, located in Bowling Green, Kentucky represents about 800 employees for General Motors (GM). This GM plant assembles the coveted sports car, the Corvette. This is the only plant in the world that assembles the Corvette.

Matt Patterson of the CWF today talks about the UAW promoting failure. With job losses and membership decline what does the UAW have to offer members.