Over a year ago, the president of the United Auto Workers, Bob King, announced a campaign to ‘shame’ foreign automakers with plants here in the U.S. into allowing his union to unionize them–the details of which would be released at a later point in time.
Earlier this year, when King finally released his new manifesto on what he expected the automakers to agree to, it was met with well-deserved derision.
The union was silent, though, when in June Bloomberg ran this headline: Hyundai Teaches UAW Best Factory Job Doesn’t Need a Union.
However, in early August, knowing that his union’s future is looking bleak, King stated that the union was in “confidential” talks with the foreign automakers.
“The vast majority of the assemblers here in the United States have at least agreed to confidential discussions,” UAW President Bob King said at an industry conference in Traverse City, Michigan. “We’ve had productive discussions. The last thing we want is confrontation.”
This seemed to confirm the buzz that was created in July when it was reported that the UAW was talking to the Volkswagen AG’s works council and the German union IG Metal to launch an attempt at unionizing the employees at VW’s new Tennessee plant.
