On Tuesday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, along with the governors of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, issued a joint statement amid a coordinated organizing drive across the southern US by the United Auto Workers (UAW).

On Monday report UAW head Sean Fain made ambitious comments about the organization's potential to leverage a unionization vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. After previous failed attemptsand his first visit to the Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant in Vance, Alabama.

“I really believe we're going to see big changes this year. I think we're going to win in the South,” Fain was quoted as saying.

Ivey, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the move “threatens our jobs and our values” and was “spurred by misinformation and scare tactics brought to our states by the UAW.”

“The reality is that companies have a choice about where they invest and create jobs and opportunity. We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good paying jobs to our state – jobs that are part of our auto manufacturing industry. Unionization would undoubtedly put jobs in our state at risk. In fact, already this year every UAW-affiliated automaker has announced layoffs,” the governors coalition wrote.

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“In America, we respect our workers and we shouldn't have to pay a third party to dictate who can lift a box or flip a switch. No one wants to hear it, but this is the ugly reality. We've seen this play out every time a foreign automaker's factory has unionized. One of those factories has continued to operate. And in the aftermath of the Detroit Triple strike, we're seeing automakers rethink their investments and cut jobs. The last thing we want is to put companies in our state in that position.

“In our state, a more positive work environment is created when employees have a direct relationship with their employer. Employees can advocate for themselves and the things that matter to them without outside influence. The UAW made big promises to our voters and has failed to deliver. We have serious concerns about whether the UAW leadership can represent our values. They proudly call themselves democratic socialists and seem more focused on helping President Biden get re-elected than on autoworker job cuts in the plants they already represent.

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“We want to preserve good-paying jobs and continue to grow America's auto manufacturing sector. A successful unionization campaign would halt this growth and harm American workers.”

The UAW announced Early this month A “super majority” of workers at Mercedes-Benz's Vance plant have signed petitions for a union election, with the goal of holding a vote in early May, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has yet to set a date for the election.

Grayson Everett is the state and politics editor for Yellow Hammer News. You can follow him on Twitter. Grayson