Union organizers launch corporate smear campaign against Toyota

 

 

The UAW is telling us that they won’t file a petition for an election until 50% + 1 of TMMK Team Members have signed union authorization cards.

 

This doesn’t make sense! They know that they could call for a National Labor Relations Board certification election a cards signed by 30%. They claim to already have more than they need.

 

They also know that if they only get 50% signed cards they will lose the election. They had 70% signed cards at the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee back in 2001, mostly achieved through HITs (Harassment, Intimidation, Threats) and lies, just as they have done here at TMMK. The team members at Nissan voted down the UAW by a 2 to 1 margin.  According to a professor at Cornell University the union needs to have 70% signed cards to have a 50/50 chance of winning an election.

 

So, what’s the point? Why 50% + 1?

 

In recent years organized labor, realizing that it will lose a secret ballot vote on union representation, has resorted to what they call “card check” elections.  They get cards signed by 50% + 1 of the employees and then demand recognition on the basis of the signed cards, rather than allowing employees to vote by secret ballot.

 

This is a dirty, underhanded tactic because unions use all sorts of tricks and intimidation to get people to sign cards who would never vote for a union if they had a secret ballot. That’s why unions lose so many elections where they file petitions with a majority signing cards.

 

How many Team Members who don’t want the UAW have signed cards because the VOC told them that it was “just to have an election?”

 

How many Team Members who don’t want the UAW have signed cards just to put a stop to the constant harassment from union supporters?

 

Maybe the real point to 50% + 1 is that the UAW intends to demand recognition on the basis of signed cards rather than to petition for an election. 

 

But, they know that Toyota would never agree to that.

 

Many of us have suspected all along that the UAW was more interested in weakening Toyota than it was in representing TMMK Team Members.  The UAW is, after all, representing its members and most of its members work for the Detroit 3, not for import nameplates like Toyota and Honda.  The UAW’s members are hurting because we make a better product and are more productive.  Anything the union can do to change that helps its members.

 

There is a plenty of evidence to support this claim:

     1.  In a June 11, 2007 Lexington Herald-Leader article, the union organizers criticized the Kentucky Reinvestment Act which provided tax incentives to Toyota in return for adding a new model at TMMK.  The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions recommends that Kentucky cut taxes and pass right-to-work legislation rather than handing out tax incentives.  Guess who fiercely opposes right-to-work legislation?  Labor unions such as the UAW!

 

     2.  In a Nov 03 UAW publication, a UAW Local President urged people NOT to buy Toyotas or Hondas.  Remember that the UAW represents workers at NUMMI that build Toyotas.  The UAW also refused to stand up for one of its members who was fired for driving a “foreign” car and not parking in the FAR CORNER of the parking lot.  The far corner of the lot is designated for “foreign” cars.  The UAW considers Toyotas to be foreign even if they are built in the US.  www.local600uaw.org/newsletters/UAW600_Nov03.pdf   (page 4)

www.web.ucrc.state.oh.us/abstract/Court/c0000103.htm           www.lsj.com/news/business/030907_cars_1e-6e.html

 

        3.  An article in a recent UAW Local 862 publication proves that the UAW just wants to weaken Toyota.  The article urged UAW members not to buy non-union vehicles and it urged UAW members to get rid of any non-union vehicles that they owned.     Nov/Dec 04   UAW Local 862 On Line Magazine

 

     4.  The UAW endorsed John Kerry for President despite the fact that historically 40%+ of its members will vote Republican.  Of greater concern is the fact that on April 22, 2004 John Kerry suggested that he didn’t want international nameplate automobiles (Toyota, Honda, etc) to be sold in the U.S.  So the union organizers want us to support the UAW who supports John Kerry who supports shutting down TMMK?

www.detnews.com/2004/politics/0405/01/politics-139145.htm           www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=8753

www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=10283&cat=Politics

 

     5.  The UAW recently ordered US Marines not to park in the Solidarity House parking lot if they were driving a foreign nameplate vehicle or if their vehicle has a President Bush sticker.  www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=8316   www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20050316.shtml  

http://info.detnews.com/poll/result.cfm?topic=UAW_reputation&va=yes    http://info.detnews.com/autostalk/lettersindex.cfm

www.freep.com/news/metro/dickerson16e_20050316.htm    www.detnews.com/2005/insiders/0503/16/D01-118509.htm

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001740.htm    www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0503/16/A10-118212.htm

www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/15/A01-117640.htm   www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/13/C01-115531.htm

 

       6.  The March 21, 2005 edition of The Outside Track, a paranoid delusional newsletter written by members of the VOC, stated that Toyota was the cause of GM’s financial difficulties.  The newsletter implies that Toyota’s cost structure needs to be increased in order to allow GM to be more competitive (and Toyota less competitive).  While Toyota’s highly touted quality vehicles have certainly taken sales from other vehicle manufacturers, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner, GM President Gary Cowger and GM Vice President Bob Lutz blame out-of-control health care costs for the bulk of GM’s dire financial situation. www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=11903  www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/24/A01-127736.htm        

Wall Street Journal  March 24, 2005

 

Because the UAW organizers have failed to get 50% cards signed, they have chosen to launch a “corporate campaign” against Toyota.

 

What’s a “corporate campaign?”

Here’s how the late Congressman Charles Norwood described it:

 

"Today’s union “shake down” method of choice is called the corporate campaign.  The corporate campaign is used to intimidate employers by undermining the company’s relationship with customers and investors and using their influence with politicians to harass employers with inspections and lost government contracts." http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/ga09_norwood/09_02_02column.html

 

The most recent stunt in their corporate campaign is the Toyota Workers’ Rights Hearing that was sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s Jobs With Justice program.  The Rights Hearing allowed pro-union workers to make public allegations against Toyota in front of a group of union picked panelists.  The hearing received media coverage which played into the hands of the UAW’s corporate campaign.  Why wasn’t the hearing conducted in front of a neutral panel in private?

 

Since the failure of the Jobs With Justice the UAW has launched another union front group called Toyota Owners for Fairness. The purpose of the Toyota Owners for Fairness is to pressure Toyota into handing over its team members to the UAW without a secret ballot election.

 

We could have Toyotas added to the AFL-CIO’s “Don’t Buy” list and have all sorts of Hollywood celebrities and union owned politicians parading around urging the public not to buy Toyotas because the company was “unfair” to its employees.

 

Is that what you want?

 

It is time to stand up and protect our future.  If you have signed a union authorization card IT IS TIME TO REVOKE YOUR CARD!