Almost every story about the attempt by Unifor to organize two Toyota plants in Cambridge, as well as one in Woodstock, raises the specter of a failed organization drive by United Auto Workers (UAW) at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
However, Cambridge and Woodstock are not Chattanooga.
This became more apparent in the wake of the news that Unifor has decided to withdraw its certification application to represent the reported 7,500 workers at the three plants. The Union had underestimated the number of workers it needed to sign union cards. Unifor plans to resubmit its application.
The Financial Post noted that the Unifor decision was even more important “in the aftermath of a failed attempt by the United Auto Workers this year to organize Volkswagen‘s plant in Chattanooga“
The New York Times quoted McMaster University labour studies professor Charlotte Yates on the connection, where she noted “it‘s tough times for unions“
I’m guilty of it myself, in an article comparing the UAW drive to Unifor’s inaugural campaign at Toyota’s Cambridge and Woodstock plants.
The comparison is an easy one to make because it relies on what has become a familiar narrative in the media at large: unions are dying. Each time a plant goes unorganized or a certification is not obtained, it is spoken about as another nail in the union coffin.
Whether or not you believe that to be true, to compare the two organizing drives directly ignores the complexities behind each situation.
Chattanooga: morale, outside political interference and the southern psyche
The UAW drive in Chattanooga was motivated by a demoralized workforce who were eager to put German style work councils in place, which would give employees a chance to chime in on work rules. Volkswagen, in an unusual move for management, actually seemed to be in support of the idea, likely because a majority of their workforce outside of North America uses work councils or belongs to unions.
Morale was not the only issue. The Volkswagen plant was a physically punishing place to work, and workers felt pressure to keep up. In a report from Mike Elk at In These Times magazine, one worker recounted vomiting blood while on the assembly line as a result of ulcers caused by painkillers he was taking to alleviate the pain from an injury he got while working at the plant.
The campaign sparked a debate that extended past the gates of the Volkswagen plant and became a civic issue. Several Republican lawmakers in Tennessee implied or threatened that if a union set up shop at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, then the factory would lose subsidies and other auto part suppliers would be less inclined to open in the area.
UAW argues that government interference led directly to them losing the unionization vote and are using it to make a case for another vote to take place at the plant.
And as Elk details extraordinarily well in his article, the debate was also influenced by a deep-rooted sense of Southern masculinity. The 712 workers in Chattanooga who voted against certification didn’t want a union because they come from a culture where pulling yourself up by your metaphorical boot straps and working hard are important values. Unions are viewed as the antithesis of these values.
Toyota: deteriorating relationships, wages and benefits
Over 1,500 km north, this is the situation:
Unifor is attempting to organize three plants that unions have previously failed to penetrate because workers, according to reports, were happy with the work situation they had. But over the years, as more contract workers were introduced at the plant, concerns grew over wages and benefits, as well as what some workers called a deteriorating relationship with plant management.
The union has made no secret that it is pouring significant resources into its Toyota campaign, and even launched a PR blitz, including a well-designed website, to help educate workers and the public.
But, until the news broke about the certification vote last week, it’s not likely that many people in Cambridge and Woodstock knew that there was an organizing drive at the three plants. Since then, while a few scattered editorials and letters to the editor have appeared in local media sources, politicians have stayed mum.
As a result, there is no interference on the scale of that seen in Chattanooga in Cambridge or Woodstock.
However, Ontarians as a whole seem uncomfortable with the idea of impeding the rights of unions. When Tim Hudak announced he was going to make right-to-work legislation a key part of his election campaign, it was met with derision, eventually forcing him to back off of his promise.
It could be argued that the public perception of the Unifor drive is as Canadian as the perception of the UAW organizing drive was a reflection of the southern U.S. We’re polite and we don’t like to cause a fuss. So when it comes to Toyota and Unifor in Cambridge and Woodstock, we’ll just mind our own business.
Chattanooga and Cambridge aren’t one and the same
That said, parsing out what makes these two organizing drives different can also help identify important commonalities that point to the reasons why the campaigns may or may not be successful.
The common thread in these two situations is a management method known as “The Toyota Way,” a business philosophy followed at Toyota workplaces that emphasizes building a team environment and intense loyalty to leadership.
According to In These Times, managers who had previous experience with the Japanese automaker imported the Toyota Way to the Volkswagen plant. It almost goes without saying, but the Toyota Way is definitely present at the plants in Cambridge and Woodstock — a recent letter in The Waterloo Region Record by a pro-union Toyota worker noted that he felt that management at the plant was no longer following the Toyota Way.
This is an important point that has been lost in how we tell the story about what is happening at Toyota. One of the reasons that the organizing drives face challenges is because the management has very effectively created a culture where a union is not seen as necessary. And that is a narrative that we see repeated over and over, whether the employees are making cars on an assembly line or folding shirts at Wal Mart.
And, while a direct comparison between the situations in Chattanooga and Cambridge-Woodstock can’t be made, these two drives can shed important light on what it means to organize a unionization drive in North America in 2014.
These organizing drives exist on a spectrum — on one end, the Volkswagen plant where organizers were faced with organizing in a culture where forming a union was always going to be an uphill battle, and at the other, the Toyota plants, where the goal is to stop the Canadian auto industry, and Canada in general, from sliding into the low unionization rates and hostile environments that are found throughout the U.S.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
