VW bosses approve, but GOP threatens retribution if workers vote to organize

Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee this week are voting on whether to join the United Automobile Workers, and VW supports the move.
 
Republican lawmakers, however, are threatening to punish the plant and its workers if the workers exercise their legal right to vote to organize, with VW’s corporate blessing. The GOP legislators say they will vote against incentives to help the plant expand, effectively forcing VW to send SUV production to Mexico instead of awarding it to the Chattanooga plant.
 
A vote to organize will allow the plant to form “works councils,” which bring together management and workers to collaborate on plant policy. Works councils are in place at all other VW plants worldwide, except China. Republicans claim unionization will turn Tennessee into another Detroit.

Read more from the New York Times.