How unions are stopped before they start

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for decades. But, in 2022, support for unions among Americans was the highest it's been in decades. This dissonance is due, in part, to the difficulties of one important phase in the life cycle of a union: setting up a union in the first place. One place where that has been particularly clear is at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Back in 2008, Volkswagen announced that they would be setting up production in the United States after a 20-year absence. They planned to build a new auto manufacturing plant in Chattanooga.

Volkswagen has plants all over the world, all of which have some kind of worker representation, and the company said that it wanted that for Chattanooga too. So, the United Auto Workers, the union that traditionally represents auto workers, thought they would be able to successfully unionize this plant.

They were wrong.

In this episode, we tell the story of the UAW's 10-year fight to unionize the Chattanooga plant. And, what other unions can learn from how badly that fight went for labor.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin. It was engineered by Josephine Nyounai, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Keith Romer. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Quick note. We mentioned Amazon in the show. Amazon is a sponsor of NPR and they pay to distribute some of our content.
0:07.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:11.0	In May 2011, hundreds of people dressed business casual, show up, have some more derves and witness the grand opening of a brand new 2 million square foot auto manufacturing plant.
0:26.0	This is my target. This is the good stuff.
0:29.0	It's like a fun party. Some of the guests are cars.
0:33.0	The crowd is invited to an enormous room with rows and rows of chairs facing a stage.
0:44.0	The overhead lights dim and the video screens flash the Volkswagen logo.
0:50.0	That's auto is finally back in the States.
0:54.0	The future for Volkswagen begins here in Chapeluga.
1:01.0	I got to say, this is such a weird announcement.
1:04.0	Yeah, it kind of gets weirder as part of the opening ceremony.
1:07.0	There is an interpretive dance by people in white bodysuits.
1:11.0	It kind of appears like they're assembling a Volkswagen.
1:14.0	Afterwards, there is a more just straight ahead press conference.
1:18.0	Right, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is there and he's emotional.
1:22.0	The greatest moment in my public career was receiving the call from the Volkswagen group that they were coming to Chapeluga.
1:30.0	And I want to thank all of you for making that decision.
1:35.0	The opening of this Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chapeluga, Tennessee was the culmination of years of negotiation.
1:43.0	The company had shut down its only American plant back in the 1980s.
1:47.0	And this was their comeback.
1:49.0	And the competition to win Volkswagen's new plant was fierce.
1:53.0	Around that time, Southern States were desperate to lure in big companies.
	...

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