I expressed some hope last week that the workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee would see through the bullshit being propagated by the state republicans and outside tea-bagger groups and vote to join the United Auto Workers union.   I expressed this hope against the backdrop of a Southern state that still suffers from a majority of brainwashed, republican voters, who regularly vote against their own best interests.  Sadly, ignorance prevailed, and the workers voted no against joining the union by a vote of 712 to 626.  It should be noted though, that unprecedented public bullying and threats from elected republican state officials played an unethical, and perhaps illegal part, in this loss for labor and workers, and will undoubtedly have a ripple effect throughout the South for years to come.

Let’s address the ignorance first.  As I wrote in my last blog concerning this union vote, the general public, and in particular the republican voters in Tennessee, have misguided notions on labor unions, and social and economic policy in general.  They demonstrate this ignorance and brainwashed belief system by consistently voting for the greediest, biggest asshole politicians they can find, notably the republicans.  Then they complain about how screwed up the “system” is, a system which is governed by the assholes they chose to represent them, assholes who are funded and sponsored by the industries and corporations that actually design the screwed up system.  I’ve written extensively in the past and noted many examples of how the average citizen votes against their own self interests, so I won’t rehash all of that here, but I will point out a quote in the news from one of the dumb asses at the plant that was opposed to joining the union:

“Look at what happened to the auto manufacturers in Detroit and how they struggled. They all shared one huge factor: the U.A.W.”

The New York Times cites this quote from a dumb ass named Mike Jarvis, a three year employee at the plant.  Last week in my blog, I said that occasionally you would hear an argument from an anti-union idiot working stiff  such as “unions are the reason these companies moved to Mexico and China in the first place, they make it too expensive for the company to survive here.”  And, as the after the fact vote and quote above shows, I’ve heard this ludicrous line of bullshit from dumb asses like Mr. Jarvis many times before, and predictably, it is heard and repeated again and again.

Well, you can lead a red state jack-ass to water, but you can’t make him drink it.

There were just too many billboards, 13 in all,  bought up from scumbag tea-baggers like Grover Norquist and his group Center for Worker Freedom (which of course the title means the opposite) that appealed to the emotions, fears, and prejudices of employees and their friends and relatives over logic and reason.  In addition to the billboard like the one I pictured at the top of my last blog that sought to play on the negative opinions and racism against President Obama in the state, other billboards played on Southerners’ fears and prejudices of becoming another Detroit – that is, a dying and crime ridden city of decay, brought about by labor unions and liberalism.

Overcoming propaganda and workplace intimidation is always a challenge in getting the working class to vote for their own best interests, and at least there are federal labor laws that protect  workers from company sponsored intimidation and retaliation tactics.  In this case, however, the German Volkswagen company appears to have not been involved in either.  They publicly asked third party and outside groups to stay out of it and let the workers decide.

And then came the guardians of the Plantation Party:  Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam,  Senator Bob Corker, and State Senator Bo Watson.  These three pieces of possum shit were in the media actually making threats to the workers and the Volkswagen company, should they vote for unionization.  The governor warned that auto parts suppliers would not come to Chattanooga if the union won, and that future job creators would avoid Tennessee. Bob Corker claimed to have spoken with Volkswagen executives who promised expansion at the plant to make SUV’s, if the workers voted no on the union.  Executives deny saying this to him.  State Senator Bo Watson upped the threat more directly, warning that Tennessee legislators, ruled by the republican majority, would withhold future subsidies (corporate welfare) to Volkswagen, should the factory go union.

Not only are these acts of republican officials unprecedented, appalling, and unethical, they may be illegal.  I’m not a lawyer or expert on labor law, but it seems logical to me that threats of intimidation and retaliation that are illegal for companies to make towards their workers during a union vote, would also be illegal, if not especially illegal, for a politician to make.  The U.A.W. president has said that their team of lawyers are looking at legal action options, but offered no details as of yet.

What is also pathetic on the political side of this is the deafening silence coming from President Obama, the Justice Department and Labor Board, and other national democrats holding office.  Vaguely, I remember a presidential candidate named Barrack Obama once telling a group of supporters at a rally that if elected president, he would put on his walking shoes and join the picket lines with the workers on strike (I forget what workers or strike).  Needless to say, that didn’t happen after he was president and republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin managed to dismantle collective bargaining for unions in that state. I haven’t heard anything from President Obama on this current case either, and very little from democratic leaders in Washington.  This is inexcusable, and the President and silent democrats should be ashamed at of their lack of inaction and commentary.  The future of unions and workers in the country are going to be greatly affected by this loss in the Volunteer White Slave State of Tennessee.  And a message is being interpreted by republican scumbags across the states, that although employers are barred from illegal threats to unionization, that they can gladly step into the debate and use their political power and legal authority to circumvent labor law protections. And even if the politicians didn’t violate the laws in this instance, and it remains to be seen if they did,  the message is that they will go unopposed in the arena of public debate.

Republicans are always willing to lie and intimidate in order to maintain the power and wealth of the top .01 percent, and in the Tennessee case this means that the Governor, and his Senators, are willing to do and say whatever it takes to make sure that Tennessee workers will have no say at the bargaining table.  And that is just the way the plantation style republicans want to rule America: a top down system of extremely wealthy owners, ruling over the working poor, who are still stupid enough to vote for them.