They just can’t help themselves.
The news of Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voting to join the United Auto Workers union has spurred articles such as:
- “Could the Union Victory at VW Set Off a Wave?” from the New York Times
- “Volkswagen workers vote yes to unionizing, igniting UAW’s push to organize the South” from NPR
- “Volkswagen workers in Tennessee pass historic vote to unionize” from the Washington Post, copying President Biden’s language in calling the election “historic”
- “Volkswagen workers vote overwhelmingly to join the UAW, giving the union a groundbreaking win” from CNN
The reason the election is such a big deal is that this same facility in Tennessee voted against UAW representation in 2014 and 2019. Tennessee is a right-to-work state, and without the aid of government coercion to make workers join, the vast majority of Americans don’t want to be part of a union.
Despite wall-to-wall positive coverage of labor unions in the past two years, and constant press about the union “renaissance” and “resurgence,” the union membership rate in the U.S. declined to a record low of just 10 percent in 2023. It’s only 6 percent in the private sector.
Also within the past week, the media have taken scant notice of the following stories:
- Workers at Penske Truck Rental are seeking to decertify the International Association of Machinists union in Minnesota and Tennessee. They got a majority of workers to sign the petition demanding a decertification election.
- A majority of workers at Nissan in New Jersey petitioned to decertify the UAW, with an election scheduled for April 24. The union quickly settled a new contract with Nissan this week, which could have been an effort to fend off decertification.
- The National Labor Relations Board ruled that workers at a bus-manufacturing plant in Kentucky will have a chance to decertify the Communication Workers of America.
- A Kroger worker in Michigan has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the United Food and Commercial Workers union, alleging that the union was telling employees they had to join with automatic dues deduction or else they would be fired.
- A worker in the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit against the International Guards Union of America, alleging that the union illegally deducted dues from her paycheck to spend on political activities.
The media have also given scant coverage to the fact that, since the UAW’s “big win” after its strikes last year, automakers covered by those contracts have been laying off workers. Since the strikes last year, the Big Three have announced a total of 18,000 layoffs.
But no, we’re supposed to believe that a win for the UAW is a win for workers and indicative of a national trend in favor of union membership. The evidence is still lacking for both of those propositions.