Here we go again. The UAW’s plans are to worm its way into the Mercedes-Benz, U.S. International Inc. Tuscaloosa County Assembly Plant in Alabama. They have long been trying to infiltrate the foreign auto plants in the South, and they have failed miserably.
In July, during the start of negotiations with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler Group, UAW Vice President Nate Gooden promised Vance would be a union plant within a year.
“I will say that Vance, Ala., will be organized very, very soon. ... I would say less than a year,” said Gooden, who sits on DaimlerChrysler’s supervisory board. “The (contract) talks will have something to do with it.”
Gooden’s boasts prompted many observers to assume the UAW would pressure DaimlerChrysler to open up its American Mercedes unit to union organizing in exchange for closing several Chrysler parts plants.
The Birmingham area has become a de facto capital for auto manufacturers and suppliers since the 1990s. Work ethic and the lack of a union heritage in the South have something to do with that. Of course, a $253 million tax break from the state of Alabama, including huge state subsidies that paid for the company to train its employees, had something to do with that as well. According to The End of Detroit author Micheline Maynard, the state of Alabama even resorted to loans of $100 in pension money to make good on the promises.
I’m filled with joy to see the auto companies run from the union, but on the other hand, this stuff is evil when state taxpayers, that don’t benefit from the jobs, end up subsidizing them out of their pocketbook.
Jobs for sale. How much will a state government pay for them? Welcome to corporate welfare.
