Volkswagen workers might be booting the UAW:
The UAW’s first election victory at a Southern auto plant didn’t lead to raging success, and that victory might be over soon, too.
Workers at Chattanooga’s VW plant were unionized in April 2024. The UAW has been dragging out contract negotiations, always holding out for a “better” deal. In October and after enduring those stalling tactics, VW made public their “last, best, and final” offer, which included a 20% wage increase over four years, $4,000 ratification bonus, and first-ever COLA benefit.
This was a signal of transparency that put the onus on the union, which has done nothing in response but wave an authorized strike threat around.
Well, some VW workers have had enough and are gathering signatures for a decertification petition, partially in an effort to convince the UAW to accept the VW offer already. A local ABC affiliate spoke to several frustrated union members who requested anonymity out of fear of being fired, which is understandable considering how Shawn Fain is allegedly Mr. Retaliation.
Any decertification process is an uphill battle and begins with 30% of union workers signing a petition before an election requiring a majority vote. Still, if these VW workers do oust the UAW, that will likely signal the end of Fain’s stalled-out quest to win the South.
Another indicator that the NLRB’s Cemex standard could fall:
The lengthy Cemex litigation road continues.
This week, Sixth Circuit judges seemed “leery” during oral arguments about the Cemex standard while suggesting that the Board got carried away while overruling the 40-year-old Gissel precedent from the Supreme Court. In this Sixth Circuit case, Brown-Forman Corporation v. NLRB, the court side-eyed Cemex while considering whether whiskey-maker Brown-Forman should have to bargain with a union that lost an election.
Other noteworthy moments in this saga:
– In Oct. 2024, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on Cemex Construction Materials Pacific LLC, and those judges expressed skepticism on applying Cemex, which lowers the standard for remedial bargaining orders versus the Gissel standard.
– In Sept. 2025, the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in NP Red Rock LLC vs. NLRB with judges leaning toward using Gissel rather than Cemex to issue a bargaining order for a Vegas casino.
– In Nov. 2025, the NLRB pushed for a resolution with acting GC Bill Cowen asking to uphold the Cemex standard even though a GOP-majority board will likely overrule it. (Stay tuned for more after quorum arrives.)
OpenAI made quite the sprint this week after that “code red”:
Last week, we discussed how OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was directing workers to focus on improving ChatGPT amid rapid improvements from Google and Anthropic’s AI models. The Wall Street Journal even reported that Altman called a “code red” over the situation, which led The Atlantic to publish a doom-and-gloom column about how Google’s Gemini 3 was winning converts from ChatGPT, followed by this dig: “OpenAI seems like just another chatbot company.”
Well, not so fast? This week, OpenAI introduced GPT-5.2 and announced integration with powerful Adobe tools including Acrobat, Photoshop, and Express, which will allow users “to edit photos, enhance designs and transform documents without leaving ChatGPT.”
That’s not all. Disney also entered into a 3-year licensing agreement that will allow OpenAI’s Sora and ChatGPT to integrate Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney characters. Additionally, Google received a cease-and-desist letter from Disney to shut down the same in Gemini.
In other words, get ready to watch Thor take his hammer to Tony Stark’s luxury car collection in a ChatGPT window near you.
Unions are hypocritically steamed over a possible Netflix-WB merger:
Streaming TV fans are surely aware of the bidding battle between Netflix and Paramount to acquire the troubled Warner Bros. Discovery.
Previously, Netflix excitedly announced an $82 billion “definitive” agreement, and Paramount countered with a hostile takeover bid offering a $108 billion counteroffer. Who will win this war? Nobody knows, and the same goes for whether any merger will pass governmental muster.
What is certain, though, is that unions are not thrilled. Those include WGA insisting that a merger “must be blocked,” and “[t]he problem is the acquisition and pending consolidation of two media giants, not who the buyer is.” Likewise, Hollywood Teamsters chief Lindsay Dougherty claimed that the proposed deal “not only kills jobs but also raises prices and hurts the U.S. entertainment industry.” DGA and SAG-AFTRA denounced as well.
Meanwhile, progressive publication WSWS called out these unions as enablers of “the corporate consolidation they now claim to oppose” through the 2023 contract “betrayals.” That takes us back to how actress and director Justine Bateman called out SAG-AFTRA’s MOA as something that actors should only ratify “if they don’t want to work anymore.”
Same ol’ union duplicity? Sounds like it.
The Supreme Court won’t get involved in NLRB vs. SpaceX, yet:
The highest court’s justices shut down a union’s motion to stand in during a lawsuit for the NLRB, which had decided not to appeal the Fifth Circuit ruling that sided with SpaceX’s argument on how the Board’s structure could violate separation of powers and therefore be unconstitutional.
This finding effectively froze ULP cases against SpaceX, along with other employers challenging the Board’s structure, until their lawsuits are resolved. It was a finding that brought implications to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Well, the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) requested to take the Board’s place in a lawsuit, and the Supreme Court said nope. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the court won’t someday decide to review any of several employer challenges to the Board’s constitutionality.
After all, a deepening circuit split exists regarding statutory job-removal protections for Board members and ALJs, but the Supreme Court is not here for a union attempting to insert itself into the NLRB’s shoes.
