GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) 鈥� Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Monday that he thinks workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga made a mistake by voting to in a but acknowledged the choice was ultimately up to them.
Ahead of the vote, Lee and five other Southern Republican governors spoke out publicly against the UAW's , arguing that if autoworkers were to vote for union representation, it would .
Instead, the union wound up pulling 73% of the vote at a facility whose workers had narrowly rejected the union in 2019 and 2014. The Volkswagen plant vote was the first to follow a series of strikes last fall against Detroit鈥檚 automakers that resulted in . Workers at , will vote on UAW representation in May.
Lee told reporters Monday that the Volkswagen vote was 鈥渁 loss for workers." He noted that he has a 鈥渓ong history with skilled workers" 鈥� workers are not unionized at his family's business, Lee Company, which employs about 1,600 people in home, facilities and construction projects.
鈥淚 think it's unwise to put your future in somebody else's hands,鈥� Lee said at an event in Gallatin. 鈥淏ut those workers made that decision based on the individual circumstances of that plant. I think it was a mistake, but that's their choice.鈥�
The Volkswagen win was the union's first in a Southern assembly plant owned by a foreign automaker.
President Joe Biden condemned the push by Lee and other Southern Republican governors to urge auto workers to vote against the union. The Democrat praised the success of unions representing autoworkers, Hollywood actors and writers, health care workers and others in gaining better contracts.
鈥淟et me be clear to the Republican governors that tried to undermine this vote: there is nothing to fear from American workers using their voice and their legal right to form a union if they so choose,鈥� Biden said in a news release Friday.
Jonathan Mattise, The Associated Press
