Auchtoon!Southern Governors and the UAW
This week — perhaps even by the time you read this — autoworkers at a Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, are voting on whether to join the United Autoworkers (UAW) union. This is the start of a drive by the UAW to get autoworkers currently in non-union plants (mostly in the south) to join them. Republican governors from six southern states (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas) put out a joint statement warning that doing so will put jobs in jeopardy and, by the way, you can’t trust them unionizers.
As Michiganders, we know well that there are compelling arguments for and against unions in general and the UAW in particular. But “disingenuous” is the most charitable way that I can describe southern politicians accusing the UAW of running campaigns “driven by misinformation and scare tactics.” Misinformation and scare tactics have been their favorite tools for union prevention (and union busting) for generations!
Careful readers will notice that there are six states but only five governors in the cartoon. Six was just too crowded, and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee was by far the least interesting to draw.
