It’s been the best of times in Louisville, where the city grew its manufacturing jobs 22 percent. Much of that success is due to the United Auto Workers-represented Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP), where Ford Motor Co. recently announced an $80 million investment for increased production of the F-Series truck, and the Louisville Assembly Plant, where workers will begin manufacturing a second vehicle this year.
While it hasn’t been the worst of times for workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant, perhaps it could be called the most unsettled of times. Thus far, the new product that a U.S. senator promised within two weeks of a ‘”no” vote on UAW representation has yet to appear.
In Kentucky, Ford is adding 350 jobs at KTP. One of the first things Gov. Steve Beshear did upon taking office was restore bargaining rights for state employees. Wages and salaries have increased in Louisville by 31.5 percent since the nation’s economic crisis, according to Louisville’s Business First. The entire UAW-represented Louisville complex, with nearly 8,500 jobs, is expected to add nearly $1 billion to Kentucky’s economy.
“The positive relationship forged between the UAW and Ford in Louisville should serve as a model of collaboration for the rest of the nation,” U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., recently wrote.
In other words, even though Kentucky is not a “right-to-work” state, its economy didn’t collapse, the moon didn’t fall and the Louisville economy continues to be a shining example of labor-management cooperation. Charles Dickens might call the joint efforts of labor and management “The Age of Wisdom.” Both parties realize they need each other.
Across the border in “right-to-work” Tennessee, “The Age of Foolishness” reigns. Right-wing ideologues prepared for battle when they learned Volkswagen workers were organizing. They readied their weapons of choice — fear and misinformation — despite Volkswagen’s desire to replicate labor-management success at its plants around the globe.
The opponents ignored the UAW’s record at the recently re-opened General Motors Co. plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., its rebirth a result of 2011 collective bargaining. The jobs of nearly 2,400 Tennesseans were saved; the UAW contract with GM resulted in a $350 million investment in the idled plant, bringing off-shored jobs back to the state.
They also chose to ignore UAW collective bargaining that saved the Zeledyne glass plant and the 600 jobs of Nashville citizens.
Those results trump politics and ideology. Good jobs make a difference, and good union jobs not only help build the middle class, but help set a higher standard for the type of benefits union and nonunion works can win.
While some politicians have put ideology and personal interests above those of citizens facing high unemployment, the UAW has helped create more middle-class jobs in Tennessee than any other single entity.
And that’s not a work of fiction.
Gary Casteel is director of UAW Region 8.
