Tennessee

Tennessee Volkswagen workers to vote on union membership in test of UAW's plan to expand its ranks

Published

2 months ago

April 19, 2024

Tennessee Volkswagen workers to vote on union membership in test of UAW's plan to expand its ranks

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers’ ambitious drive to expand its reach to nonunion factories across the South and elsewhere faces a key test Friday night, when workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will finish voting on whether to join the union.

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The UAW’s ranks in the auto industry have dwindled over the years as foreign-based companies with nonunion U.S. plants have sold increasingly more vehicles.

Twice in recent years, workers at the Chattanooga plant have rejected union membership. Most recently, they handed the UAW a narrow defeat in 2019 just as federal prosecutors were breaking up a bribery-and-embezzlement scandal at the union.

But this time, the UAW is operating under new leadership, directly elected by its members for the first time and basking in a successful confrontation with Detroit’s major automakers. The union’s pugnacious new president, Shawn Fain, was elected on a platform of cleaning up after the scandal and turning more confrontational with automakers. An emboldened Fain, backed by President Joe Biden, led the union in a series of strikes last fall against Detroit’s automakers that resulted in lucrative new contracts.

The new contracts raised union wages by a substantial one-third, arming Fain and his organizers with enticing new offers to present to workers at Volkswagen and other companies.

“I’m very confident,” said Isaac Meadows, an assembly line worker in Chattanooga who helped lead the union organizing drive at the plant. “The excitement is really high right now. We’ve put a lot of work into it, a lot of face-to-face conversations with co-workers from our volunteer committee.”

The UAW’s supporters have faced stout resistance, though, from Volkswagen, which argues that union membership isn’t necessary. The company contends that its pay levels are competitive for the Chattanooga area and that it treats its employees well. The factory’s 4,300 production workers make Atlas SUVs and the ID.4 electric vehicle at the 3.8 million-square-foot (353,353-square-meter) plant.

Six Southern governors, including Tennessee’s Bill Lee, have lined up against union membership. They warned the workers in a joint statement last week that joining the UAW could cost them their jobs and threaten the region’s economic progress.

Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who studies the UAW, said there is a good chance that this election could bring the union a historic victory. Public opinion, Masters said, is now generally more aligned with unions than it was in the past.

To approve membership, though, the workers in Chattanooga will have to look past the warnings that joining the union, with the accompanying higher wages, would lead to job losses. Since the UAW’s new contracts were signed in the fall with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, all three companies have cut a relatively small number of factory positions. But Ford CEO Jim Farley has said that his company will have to rethink where it builds future vehicles because of the strike.

“While the UAW’s reputation has improved as a result of new leadership and contracts, it’s still associated with a decline in the auto industry,” Masters said.

Shortly after the Detroit contracts were ratified, Volkswagen and other nonunion companies handed their workers big pay raises. Fain characterized those wage increases as the “UAW bump” and asserted that they were intended to keep the union out of the plants.

Last fall, Volkswagen raised factory pay by 11%, lifting top wages to around $29 an hour, or about $60,000 a year, excluding benefits and an attendance bonus. VW said its pay exceeds the median household income for the Chattanooga area, which was $54,480 last May, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

But under the UAW contracts, top production workers at GM, for instance, now earn $36 an hour, or about $75,000 a year excluding benefits and profit sharing, which ranged from $10,400 at Ford to $13,860 at Stellantis this year. By the end of the contract in 2028, top-scale GM workers would make over $89,000.

Zach Costello, a worker who trains new employees at the Volkswagen plant, said pay shouldn’t be benchmarked against typical wages in the Chattanooga area.

“How about we decide what we’re worth, and we get paid what we’re worth?” he asked.

VW asserts that its factories are safer than the industry average, based on data reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And the company contends that it considers workers’ preferences in scheduling. It noted that it recently agreed to change the day that third-shift workers start their week so that they have Fridays and Saturdays off.

But Meadows, whose job involves preparing vehicles for the assembly line after the auto bodies are painted, said the company adds overtime or sends workers home early whenever it wants.

“People are just kind of fed up with it,” he said.

VW, he argued, doesn’t report all injuries to the government, instead often blaming pre-existing conditions that a worker might have. The union has filed complaints of unfair labor practices, including allegations that the company barred workers from discussing unions during work time and restricted the distribution of union materials.

Volkswagen said in statements that it supports the right to vote on union representation, and it denied the union’s allegations.

If the union prevails in the vote at the VW plant, it would mark the first time that the UAW has represented workers at a foreign-owned automaking plant in the South. It would not, however, be the first union auto assembly plant in the South. The UAW represents workers at two Ford assembly plants in Kentucky and two GM factories in Tennessee and Texas, as well as some heavy-truck manufacturing plants.

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Tennessee

How Tennessee baseball matches up against every College World Series opponent

Published

9 mins ago

June 14, 2024

Press Room

How Tennessee baseball matches up against every College World Series opponent

Tennessee baseball defeated Evansville in three games in the Knoxville Super Regional to secure their spot in Omaha. The Vols are the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and showed why they deserve the one-seed in their game three 12-1 win over Evansville to secure their spot.

The College World Series field was set after North Carolina State defeated Georgia in three games. Twenty-one conferences were eligible to earn a spot in Omaha, but the eight teams come from two conferences.

This year’s CWS is dominated by the SEC and ACC. Four of the 11 SEC teams that made the postseason tournament to earn a spot in Omaha secured their spot, and the other four spots belong to the ACC.

The Vols come into this year’s CWS as one of the most experienced teams in the tournament. Tennessee and Virginia are the only two teams to have multiple appearances since 2020. Both programs made two appearances in Omaha before this year, while Florida, Texas A&M, and North Carolina State had one appearance each.

Tennessee baseball has played three of the other seven teams in this year’s College World Series. The Vols hold a 5-2 record against the three other teams they played throughout the season, including a series win over Kentucky and Florida and an SEC Tournament win against Texas A&M.

In the Vols’ seven games against CWS opponents, they have outscored them 57-33. Tennessee scored 25 runs against Kentucky and Florida in each three-game series while outscoring Texas A&M 7-4.

Tennessee will make its 2024 CWS debut against Florida State on Friday night at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN. Tennessee is 0-4 in its last two appearances in Omaha but comes into this year’s tournament with a chip on its shoulder after head coach Tony Vitello gave a passionate speech in his post-game press conference after securing its spot.

Tony Vitello sounds off after Vols secure spot in CWS. dark. Next. Tony Vitello sounds off after Vols secure spot in CWS

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Tennessee

Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. submits Tennessee ballot petitions • Tennessee Lookout

Published

7 hours ago

June 14, 2024

Press Room

Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. submits Tennessee ballot petitions • Tennessee Lookout

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the independent presidential candidate and son of the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, has filed petition signatures in his attempt to qualify for Tennessee’s November ballot.

According to a campaign announcement, Kennedy’s team submitted 1,025 signatures to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office for verification.

Candidates affiliated with one of the two major political parties, Democratic and Republican, must collect 2,500 signatures from registered voters to qualify for the ballot while independent candidates need only submit 275 signatures.

“Ensuring Mr. Kennedy gets on every state’s ballot is important to me because I believe in the concept of freedom, which I fought for and many of my brothers died for,” said Tennessee campaign volunteer Tommy Aceto in a statement.

Kennedy is on the ballot in eight states so far and has submitted petitions in an additional 13.

In May, Kennedy and vice-presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan, a tech industry veteran, appeared at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium for a campaign event. He arrived four hours late, citing a family emergency, and did not address any campaign issues.

According to the campaign website, the environmental lawyer’s platform includes what he refers to as putting an end to “the chronic disease epidemic,” providing tax-free 3% government-backed mortgage bonds to address housing affordability and reducing abortions.

Kennedy has gained notoriety for promotion of scientifically disproven theories, including that childhood vaccines cause autism and for promoting conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and COVID vaccines.

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Sports betting generates $236M for Tennessee since legalization in 2019

Published

14 hours ago

June 13, 2024

Press Room

Sports betting generates $236M for Tennessee since legalization in 2019

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s been five years since Tennessee lawmakers rolled the dice and passed a bill legalizing online sports wagering, and since then, more than $13 billion gross wagers have been made with nearly $240 million of that money going back into the state.

Before the law passed making sports betting legal, lawmakers said an estimated $3 billion was being illegally wagered in the state. The law legalizing sports wagering established protections for consumers and a way for Tennessee to cash in on sports entertainment.

“We already have billions of dollars that leave the state going to other states that have casino gambling, so here’s a chance to do in-state sports betting that would capture dollars,” Rep. Rick Staples, (D-Knoxville) told News 2 in late 2018.

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After sportsbooks went live in Nov. 2020, there were already millions of dollars in wagers being made, according to the executive director of the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council, Mary Beth Thomas.

“Since that time, we have seen growth in both the number of participants and the volume of betting,” Thomas said. “Tennesseans are clearly enjoying sports betting.”

At last check, there were around 1.5 million open betting accounts in Tennessee, and more than $13.25 billion in gross wagers made.

Nearly $240 million of that money, called the privilege tax, has been reinvested back into the state. Eighty percent of the money funds the HOPE Scholarship, 15% goes to local governments for infrastructure projects and emergency services, and 5% goes to the TN Dept. of Mental Health for responsible gaming initiatives and treatment.

“That provides a lot of scholarship money and a lot of help to local governments that would like a boost to their funding for important projects that they have,” Thomas said.

While the economic impact of sports wagering is apparent, another goal in legalizing sports betting was to ensure consumers are protected and the sportsbooks licensed through the state are following the rules.

Thomas told News 2 the recent audit of the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council by the Comptroller’s Office was clean with no findings, which is proof the state’s regulations on sports wagering are working.

“I think that Tennessee has done a great job at balancing the interest in sports wagering and our need to regulate it in a fair and transparent manner so that Tennesseans have comfort that the sportsbooks that are licensed by the state of Tennessee are adhering to the law and doing the right thing,” Thomas said.

Sportsbooks that advertise are required to include gambling addiction resources in their ads. That could include the Tennessee REDLINE or 1-800-GAMBLER. In addition, the service, self-exclusion allows gamblers to voluntarily opt out of gambling, either temporarily or permanently, by filling out a form through the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council or through a sportsbook.

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Thomas added the University of Memphis Gambling Clinic is another option where patients struggling with gambling addiction can receive treatment through telehealth or in-person appointments.

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