UAW may have to turn to the South

The Chicago Tribune reports:

As Jeremy Kimbrell watches thousands of United Auto Workers lose their jobs to plant closings at General Motors and Ford, he finds a silver lining.

The workers aren't to blame, says Kimbrell, a pro-union activist at a non-union Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Ala. "Their customers took a different route and went for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

"Now, they're getting buyouts. They're getting pensions. They have guarantees, and we have none. I believe the union did their job," he said.

With foreign automakers like Mercedes, Hyundai and Nissan adding or expanding auto plants in places like Alabama and Mississippi, the South looks to be the best hope for the UAW and other industrial unions to reverse slides in membership and influence.

But unions face a serious uphill battle at Mercedes and other southern plants. Workers like Kimbrell make $27 an hour, the same as UAW members and about twice as much as the average factory worker in Alabama.

Unions are nothing more than an extortion racket.