It took the United Auto Workers three tries to unionize the Volkswagen facility in Chattanooga. After failing to secure the support of a majority of workers at the plant in 2014 and 2019, the UAW finally won out in 2024. Despite this eventual victory, lawmakers should enact and defend policies that protect workers from forced unionization.
(IN THE NEWS: Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga approve union contract)
It didn’t take long for the union to threaten a strike once the plant was unionized. This hardline tactic has been the UAW’s modus operandi at other plants across the country, often halting production for weeks to force concessions. These shutdowns are incredibly disruptive to workers, especially those who wish to keep working. Strikes also harm those who work downstream for suppliers to the auto manufacturers who aren’t represented by the UAW, and therefore have no say in whether they get to keep working or not.
The unionization of the Volkswagen plant is indeed historic for the UAW, which is seeking to bolster its influence in the South. The UAW strategy is understandable: That’s where all the jobs are going. Both employers and employees are fleeing states with high taxes and heavy-handed regulatory environments for friendlier pastures. With right-to-work protections, lower taxes and stronger free-market philosophies, Southern states are attracting jobs from elsewhere across the country. The UAW knows this and is following those companies, but not necessarily with shared policy preferences.
(READ MORE: Free Press Opinion: UAW needs Chattanooga more than workers need UAW)
Unions have played an important role in our history, but the unions of today — including the UAW — aren’t your granddaddy’s unions. They have evolved into political behemoths that fund and elect politicians who will in turn strengthen unions’ grip on power with friendly government policies. These range from eliminating right-to-work laws, which protect individual workers from being forced to fund the union if they don’t want to join, to “card check,” which essentially allows unions to openly intimidate workers into voting for unionization rather than holding a secret ballot election. Ironically, the very policies that created the job opportunities for their members are the ones that unions will attack.
Are voters sympathetic to unions like the UAW increasing their presence in the South? A recent Beacon Poll shows that public support for unions has grown in Tennessee. Even Republican voters — historically skeptical of unions — are more supportive of unions than they have been in the past. However, it’s not all rosy for the unions. Barely one in three voters would choose to join a union in their own workplace if given the choice to do so.
And Tennesseans still overwhelmingly support policies like right-to-work, despite union efforts to ban these laws. An astonishing 82% of Tennesseans believe that employees should be allowed to choose whether or not to join the union and pay dues when their workplace unionizes. Just 12% think that workers should be forced to pay the union in order to keep their job. This is consistent with the fact that Tennesseans voted overwhelmingly in favor of Amendment 1 in November 2024, which enshrined right-to-work protections in the Tennessee Constitution.
Unions have indeed tapped into the recent rise in populism, even among conservative voters right here in Tennessee. But voters are clearly reluctant to buy into everything the unions stand for, especially when it erodes their individual rights.
Everyone should have the right to join a union if they wish. But states should always protect workers first and foremost, and they should never make workers simple ATMs for the unions’ political operations. Even as unions like the UAW find success organizing individual workplaces, it’s incumbent upon state leaders to reinforce worker freedoms.
They should actively protect right-to-work laws and the sanctity of secret ballots. They shouldn’t capitulate to union demands to raise taxes and increase government spending that strengthens the unions’ political power.
There is a reason everyone is clamoring for the South. It’s because of — not in spite of — our low taxes, business-friendly environment and worker protections. If state leaders in Tennessee and other Southern states jealously guard these strengths, the jobs will keep coming.
Justin Owen of Nashville is president and chief executive of the Beacon Center of Tennessee. Michael Reitz lives in Michigan and is executive vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
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