Conservative Activists to Oppose VW's Chattanooga Union Vote; Group Linked to Grover Norquist Plans Billboard and Radio Campaign

By Neal E. Boudette

4 February 2014

The Wall Street Journal Online

Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A conservative activist group based in Washington is preparing to weigh in against the looming union vote at Volkswagen AG's Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, in a bid to stop the United Auto Workers from organizing the factory.

On Monday, February 3rd, Volkswagen workers concerned about the possibility that the United Auto Workers is getting an unfair advatnage in its efforts to unionize their Chattanooga plant, delivered two letters to upper managemnt in which they requested the opportunity to share with their co-workers the other, anti-UAW side of the argument.  It was the second set of such letter that the workers, led by Mike Burton, purveyor of www.no2uaw.com, had delivered.

The text of the two Feb. 3 letters read in part as follows:

Mr. Frank Fisher

Tennessee isn’t known for being the most progressive place in the country. They love their communities, guns and especially their faith. Being the 5^th most religious state in the country, according to Pew Research, you can probably say that their religious moral values are integrated into everyday life in Tennessee, including their politics.

It finally arrives.  From the Chattanooga Times-Free Press:

Chattanooga Volkswagen workers will vote in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board on Feb. 12 to 14, the United Auto Workers announced today.

Writing for the Washington Examiner, CWF's Matt Patterson unveils the trickery and decipt used by the UAW at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant:

Nor is the union content merely to let government and company officials silence opposing voices; they are perfectly willing to do it themselves the old-fashioned way.

Big Labor is making big gains in the South.  Tennessee especially has seen alarmingly robust union growth, with more than 31,000 Tenneseeans added to union rolls in 2013, according to estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). CWF's Matt Patterson reflected on the news in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press:

Bob King, President of the United Auto Workers union, said in a press conference on January 15^th that the union plans to raise dues.

The Center for Worker Freedom’s educational campaign to warn Chattanooga about the dangers of UAW representation at the town’s Volkswagen plant is receiving national attention.  CWF Executive Director Matt Patterson was interviewed for a New York Times report in which he was asked about the origin of the Center and why Americans for Tax Reform is interested in this labor fight: