volkswagon seems interested in a german style council at the chattanooga plant. would think, great, workers are going to choose on their own, corporation's going to stay out of it which basically never happens in union election and it's a free country, right? we've got free market capitalism where the big bad government doesn't tell companies what to do? this would be a matter that would solely be between management and the workers. but no, no, big government has decided that it doesn't want to leave the decision to the workers or management of this private company. >> senator bob corker spoke out against the united autoworkers on tuesday. take a look. >> we're just concerned about the impact an outside entity. look at detroit if you want a comparison. look at the impact that they could have on our community. >> yeah, that's republican senator bob corker of tennessee who wants to tell executives at volkswagon how to run their company, conduct themselves and manage an election. he wants to tell the workers of his state to vote against the union. along with tenness

workers at a volkswagon plant deciding whether to join a union.athan martin is live outside the plant. and a lot of people are watching this vote. >> reporter: that's right, del, there has been a lot of political pressure, a lot of people campaigning from outside groups so much so that volkswagon is not allowing any visitors on-site today. this is being watched closely by a lot of politicians, business leaders, because if the uaw gets a victory, it could signal a change in other foreign-owned auto companies. john wright works in quality assurance, test driving cars at the volkswagon plant. he is happy with his pay and benefits but feels he has no voice in key decisions made by management. that's why he supported the united auto workers plan to unionize the plant. they would set up a council that give workers a say in things like work hours and training. >> it would help us have more open communication with management for improving anything on the lines or anything the employees may discern is important to them. >> reporter: 1600 hourly employees a

. >>> employees at a volkswagon plant vote on joining a union. >>> and you can buy just about anythingnline these days, now you'll be able to bid on a doctor. >>> in florida closing arguments are underway in the case of a teenager shot to death over loud music. these are live images right no coming out of jacksonville, florida. jordan davis was riding in a suv when they began arguing with dunn. >>> voelkers at a volkswagon plant in tennessee are voting on whether to join a union. some believe this could be a precedent changing the way the south does business. jonathan martin is live. jonathan for years the word south and union weren't even used in the same sentence. >> reporter: that's right, del. when this plant was built four years ago there was no talk of a union, but that's what is being talked about today. this vote is being watched by a lot of state leaders and union leaders. >> we're pretty confident that we will win the vote. >> reporter: this man works in quality assurance. he is happy with his pay and benefits, but feels he has no voice in key decisions made by management. th

. >> the volkswagon plant voted against joining the uaw. >> our man jimmy fallon is taking over. >> we are bringing you the tonight show back to new york. >> it is a big night. >> we begin with a new report on quote unspeakable crimes in north korea and unprecedented warning from the u.n. the u.n. investigators said that the leader and his security forces could face an international trial for ordering widespread and gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity based on state policies. detailed in a new 372 page report, the chair of the u.n. inquiry that wrote the report, compared the crimes to the nazi's atrocities in world war two. >> too many times in this building there are reports and no action, well, this is a time for action. we can't say didn't know. we know and anyone that wants to know can read the report. >> for more, i'm pleased to be joined by governor bill richardson a former new mexico governor and ambassador to the united nations. thank you for being on the show. >> thank you. >> we start by listening to something else that the chairperson had to say. >> at

they had a company, volkswagon, that was officially neutral.t was actually very accommodating, had agreed to let uaw organizers on the property, did not do what other companies in this situation have done like bring in anti-union consultants or candjole the workers. now, they can try again apparently in about a year at the vw plant, which they may do. it's just been a number of years since they had an election like this in a southern auto plant. those had not gone their way either. meanwhile, the total membership has been declining. >> the one and a half million numbers you just mentioned in 1979 dropped to close to 400,000 in recent years. auto makers paid the veterans $28 an hour. the new-hires make about $15 an hour. wisconsin, michigan have passed laws limiting union power. so, are we seeing the beginning of the end of the uaw? >> i don't know if it's the beginning of the end. the union, itself, has expressed concern about that. interesting. you mentioned the lower pay that some of the newer employees get at uaw plants where they are are or

volkswagon shares are trading lower on the news down around 6.5% there.ly, swedish automaker volvo up this morning after citigroup raised the stock to buy the mutual taking that share and stock up 3.5%. a quick look now at the foreign exchange markets. dollar under a bit of pressure this morning. we do see the euro/dollar rate higher and stronger than expected ephone rating at 1.3760. and the yen is lightly higher in trading today. on that note, we'll check in on the markets in asia with li sixuan. >> china shares are the worst performer today hitting two-week lows by the news reports saying a mid-sized lend er is there. and in hong kong it ended down .80%. in japan the nikkei lost a modest .20%. while japanese insurers underperformed after reports say the recent heavy snowfall could have resulted in damage payouts only soft 60 billion yet at three major casualty insurer groups. meanwhile, seoul shares finished lower by a half percent and the india session just ended higher by .60%. we'll look at the damage in the chinese property makers. the big four pla

. >> reporter: an increase in part attributed to foreign-based manufacturers like nissan and volkswagonthat's especially true in southern states like tennessee and mississippi where weaker unions and reduced labor costs have made manufacturing more attractive. >> it has shifted to some extent away from the detroit three. and there is more auto economy in the south than there used to be. >> reporter: an average u.s. auto employee spends more time at work than they did a decade, but american pay has dropped over the years. the worker costs about $48 in pay in the u.s. compared to about 60 in germany. >> it's still attractive, it's just not as attractive as it used to be. >> reporter: and yet any jobs are changing rapidly. a demand for high-performance cars and trucks require educatored workers. >> in many cases these plant workers have at least a couple of years of college on the line, and again, they are being trained in some pretty sophisticated math. >> we need people who can do coding for computers, and these have become much more important in the last ten years. >> reporter: tomorrow

workers at the volkswagon plant wrapping up the vote on whether or not to join the union.ents say unionization will be bad for business and make the area less attractive for companies. >>> in northern ireland local officials are asking for a referendum on frac-ing. lawrence lee reports. >> reporter: northwestern ireland, the farther reach of the united kingdom. remote, pretty, but nobody is much so why not frac for gas? but there are people here, and they rely on the land for tourism and air and water for life. when the g8 met this year, all of the security people got furious anti-frac-ers. >> it is going to spoil everything. it will completely change. it's also irreversible which is a huge worry for humans. >> reporter: so they are planning something here which hasn't been tried before in the uk, asking the people in a referendum if they want frac-ing or not. >> it's very, very important that we have an informed, we reach a conclusion, if the conclusion is that the people don't want it, then i expect everything would respect that. >> reporter: environmental groups which a

volkswagon is providing great jobs. we put together and sent a package for them and they're looking at expanding and they're saying they want to keep their costs down so it's an important piece. >> i think that was just clean rotten. that was wrong for the governor to interfere with the union election. we have ford, chrysler and mitsubishi which is organized with the united auto workers. all three of those companies, they've grown enormously. mitsubishi has a new product line. but for a governor to interfere with union election is just plain wrong. they don't think you were doing the right thing. >> the state is interesting. the other thing is volkswagon said to us what i costs to build a car and number two we want to attract a network closer. neither of those will be easier. suppliers everywhere said if it comes flat out we'll be a lot less interested. >> our state, i have ford and i have chrysler and i have mitsubishi and all of them and their suppliers want to have the workers organized. they like to work with people

look at cummins hitting a high yesterday, packar which makes all the trucks--and then overseas, volkswagon buy out the last of scania truck which it already owns...trying to pay 30 percent more than the closing price just to get that heavy duty truck maker completely onto its balance sheet. so it shows you there's a lot of underlying strength there. so if home depot comes out with a good report, i think the bulls are still gonna be in good shape for the rest of the week. > >is it too late to buy some of these trucking stocks? > >absolutely not. remember last year? biotechnology kind of took off in january and then it doubled from there. so i see the same thing in trucking because of new emissions regulations, there's gonna be consolidation in the industry. so those fleets that are like 2 or 3 billion can come together--this consolidation could be very profitable. > >matt, thanks for coming on the show today. > >you got it. that's it for today. coming up tomorrow the author of young money will be here an inside look at life on wall street for young people who went to work at big banks "afte

volkswagon if this passes volkswagon is going to see a work council slightly different than they've seenbe. the uaw is going to enter into an agreement as john articulated so well that they don't have those kind of operating agreements at other plants around the country. the beauty of this, chris, it could provide a model going forward for working, for unions and for that matter for innovation, workplace agreements to be structured and implemented across the country. >> i'm hopeful here. i'm very hopeful, john. i hope we get something done here. i want something new. a new paradigm where workers get represented by their people and have good relationship with management. we get good productivity. this could be good for everybody. i'm not singing a song here. i think that's where the direction has to go. thank you so much, harold ford. thank you, congressman, for coming on. thank you, john nichols. >>> let me finish tonight with the republican party's two big bomb throwers. one is worse than the other one. we'll be right back after this. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, when

. >> what an education delivered he could still bench press a volkswagon. >> thank you. >> join me tonight have to plug n the car maker going cordless at 9:00. ukraine on the brink of civil war. tonight local who's fear for their homeland >> we have marvel agents of shield. and it's a good line up >> if you're watching olympics tonight down load abc7 news app. details on abc7 news.com >> that is it for this edition of abc7 news. >> from all of us here, is in e. a good that comes in 25 flavors. from whole natural to wasabi and soy sauce. and once good gets going, there's no stopping it. good . get your good going. blue diamond. snack nut of u.s. snowboarding. this is the "jeopardy!" college championship. here is our second group of semi-finalists -- a senior from vanderbilt university, from huntsville, alabama... a senior at ucla, from woodland hills, california... and a sophomore at princeton university, from bridgewater, new jersey... and now here is the host of "jeopardy!" -- alex trebek! thank you, johnny, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. we could not have asked for a better kickoff

. >> what an education delivered he could still bench press a volkswagon. >> thank you. >> join me tonightg n the car maker going cordless at 9:00. ukraine on the brink of civil war. tonight local who's fear for their homeland >> we have marvel agents of shield. and it's a good line up >> if you're watching olympics tonight down load abc7 news app. details on abc7 news.com >> that is it for this edition of abc7 news. of abc7 news. >> from for over 60,000 california foster children, of abc7 news. >> from nights can feel long and lonely. i miss my sister. i miss my old school. i miss my room. i don't want special treatment. i just wanna feel normal. to help, sleep train is collecting pajamas for foster children, big and small. bring your gift to any sleep train, and help make a foster child's night a little cozier. not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. [upbeat music] hey, guys! four days till vacation week. where are we all going? nowhere. we don't get next week off. we gotta load out the sets, take 'em to storage. then at night, i gotta drive around newark

they are trying to organize at the volkswagon plant.aw could shift focus all together dropping the auto and moving on to government casinos and higher education. >> it is business 101. have a marketing problem? just change your name. now common core is doing just that. amihdhar-criticism for parents among educational standards states across the country are rebranding. iowa referring to it as iowa core. >> a lot of people agree with that. do you like your soda if you are in illinois they want to tax it. proposed bill would add 1 penny to every ounce of battled and canned sugary drink. a chicago lawmaker is behind the idea saying attacks on sugary drinks will save the state money by taxing people toward healthier juices. at this point it has not done any further. >> department of homeland security pushing a new plane to track drivers to combat crime. it is raising privy concerns. lori is joining us now. >> good morning to you. if the government gets its way you may know the next time you drive to the grocery store or pick your kids up at

volkswagon workers rejected the united auto workers union in tennessee because they would be paid lessthey said this about the vote to "fox & friends"." >> we make a living to provide for our families. i want to go to work and progress and make more and help my company be profitable. i don't want to go to work and make less and cost my company more money to produce a product. >> msnbc and liberals say that's not the issue at all. instead blaming rates for the blow. >> this is kind of a northern invasion a refighting of the civil war. apparently there are not a lot of black employees in this particular plan. so that kind of waiving of the con federfederate flag was an effective strategy. >> that would explain also the sign united obama workers. >> the election loss is considered a major blow to uaw southern expansions. >> savings accounts for all? they want to draft a regulation that would give every child born in the united states $500 to start their own savings account. >> this plan would put a dent in the poverty rate. it would rgrow tax free and can only be taken out for education p

the governor said a union win at volkswagon would hurt the state's ability to lure business, and if theyonize the company would lose some of its tax advantages in tennessee. so there was a third power at play. >> another set back for organizeized labor, not just in tennessee, but what does it mean for unions across the country? >> a lot of setbacks for organized labor. in 2012, 11.3% of salaried workers were unioned. and of the 11% who are unionized, almost half of all union workers work in the public sector. which means the number in the privateized sector is very, very low. unions have to regain their momentum within the private sector, they have to tap into fertile ground like tennessee. the vote was 53-47, but it was a resounding defeat. >> so this is a huge loss for the uaw, how does it rebuild its reputation especially where there are new plants working up. >> it's not a matter of a lot more pay. they have to convince these companies and in this case the states that house them that it is going to be advantageous to the workers. the wages are not much better in unionized plants. the

workers in the volkswagon plant voting against union misrepresentation. the jobs affect everybody.for the united autoworkers effort to make inroads in the south especially since vw showed support and invited representatives to the plant to make sales pitches to get them to join the union. mary is a member of the wall street junior will editorial board. mary, why did big labor fail when they had such advocacy inside of the company. >> i think the workers made a simple calculation. the rick of union otherwising outbuying the benefits. looking at what the unions did to detroit. union promises are all well and good when the company is making a profit but worth nothing if the company is bankrupt. >> it is interesting in ourrepo a gentlemen talking on behalf of the workers. they have jobs they like and if you have a job you like why do you want to give part of your income away. >> unions over the last throw or four decades have not given the workers the value they promised. the union representation is falling off of the cliff. this comes among incredible support for the unions in the vw

where about 1,500 workers from the local volkswagon plant are deciding whether to join the united autoworkers this one vote at this one plant is followed so intently because this is not just any union vote. it's a rare circumstance in which workers seem interested in joining a union and management seems content to let them. but republican senator bob corker and an assortment of state republican lawmakers are not at all content with letting the company and its workers handle this issue on their own. corker has been urging workers to vote against unionization and one state-level republican basically outright threatened to punish the company if its workers vote to unionize saying if the workers plant to choose uaw, financial incentives to help the plant expand would have a tough time passing the tennessee senate. well, today, president obama weighed in according to a democratic aide during a closed-door meeting with democrats in maryland accusing republican opponents of being more concerned about german shareholders than american workers. let's give senator corker some credit here. i don't think

volkswagon workers have spoken.w the uaw to represent them. shawn was there and is here with us this morning. what was your reaction when you heard the voter? >> i was incredibly relieved. it felt good. we have been working for a long time trying to educate the employees as to what they were voting on, and i was happy to see that our message got across. >> why were you so relieved? >> it was a lot of work, and if the uaw had been voted in, things would have changed in ways i don't think everybody realized. >> like how? >> well, first and foremost, once uaw gets in there, they do what they want. they are not legally obligated to listen to the demands of the employees. and they can do -- they can force a wedge in between one side and the other. and that -- it's pretty hard to work in an environment like that. >> sean, you know what critics are saying, you guys, this wasn't really your decision, it was outside groups that really swayed your sentiment here. in fact, here's a statement from the uaw that says, we are outr

. >> ironically while remaining neutral, volkswagon cooperated, but heavy lobbying against those moves by republican officials in the state may have swayed enough workers to vote no. the tennessee governor loudly claimed that a union win could damage the date's ability to attract business. 53% voted to reject the union bid. this is just the latest setback in union power. it's only part of the story. almost half of union members today are in the public sector. jobs paid for by local and state governments for unions to become relevant again they need to regain power. take texas for example, it has one quarter of the number of union workers that new york does despite having a similar-sized work force. the alcifo has its sites on texas and surrounding stat states -states -- [ technical difficulties ] >> to tap into a growing pool of auto workers. the union managed to hold on to plants owned or operated by the big three auto makers, but has not been able to crack into foreign-owned plants across the south. either way the portrait of an american auto worker is changing. restructuring and red