On Sat, 29 May 2004, an AP article in the Detroit News was quoted saying:
> AUTO WORKERS UNION LOSES TOYOTA BATTLE IN KENTUCKY
>
> In a much-watched battle, the United Auto Workers withdrew from a
> campaign to organize 7,100 workers at a Toyota plant in Georgetown,
> Kentucky. The defeat was a setback for the UAW, which is setting its
> sights on the rapidly growing auto sector in the South. (Detroit News,
> 5/18)
>
> Full at: http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0405/18/a01-156198.htm
>From a workers welfare view, much of this is a union victory:
Nonunionized auto plants in the South have been careful to pay workers
such as Jeremy Hill as well or better than unionized plants in the
Midwest.
It's an organizing defeat, because the UAW can't convince the workers there they'll need the union when things turn bad. But that doesn't seem surprising, nor a testament to union weakness, just human nature; it's hard to convince people of threats you just predict but they haven't experienced.
A story of companies defeating unions by pre-emptively giving in to their wage demands just doesn't seem that sad in the present labor context. Things could be better, but they could be a lot worse too. On its face, this seems like a prudent redeployment of resources. There are lots of workers worse off who need unions more and are more open to the idea.
Michael