After seeing the confidential documents, UAW organizer Gary Casteel argued that they show the Haslam administration was part of a coordinated anti-union campaign doing exactly what they had denied — using hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers as leverage.
“I think since this document is public, and I appreciate you bringing it forward, that it’s obvious that the state was threatening or at least intimidating Volkswagen [that], to get the incentives, they had to change their business model,” he said.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Casteel, “Is this incentive document a game changer?”
“To me,” he answered, “it puts pressure on the state to do what they should have done in the first place — and that’s give the incentives with no strings attached, just like they would any other company, union or non-union.”
The Haslam administration declined to provide anyone to go on camera to answer questions about the documents.
But we also obtained emails that show that Senator Corker’s chief of staff was in direct contact with anti-union organizers who were brought in to fight the UAW. He then shared those emails with people in the Haslam administration who were in charge of the incentives.
The union has asked the National Labor Relations Board to order new elections, citing interference by Tennessee political leaders.
Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News 