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  3. In 1979 the United Auto Workers(UAW)had more than 1.5m members, and nine of the country’s ten bestselling cars were American bra

In 1979 the United Auto Workers(UAW)had more than 1.5m members, and nine of the country’s ten bestselling cars were American bra

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问题     In 1979 the United Auto Workers(UAW)had more than 1.5m members, and nine of the country’s ten bestselling cars were American brands. The Toyota Corolla came eighth; the first time a foreign-branded car had cracked the top ten. Today the UAW’s membership is around 400,000, and not all of those are car workers: over the years the union has sought recruits on farms, in casinos and at universities. And of the top ten bestselling cars in America last year, seven were foreign-badged.
    Americans are not only buying foreign-badged cars, they are also making them: seven of America’s 15 most productive assembly plants last year were foreign-owned. Although the UAW has had some success at organizing foreign-owned partsmakers, it has so far failed to organize workers at the carmakers themselves. Its attempts in recent years to get into Nissan’s plants in Tennessee and Mississippi have failed. Now it has set its sights on German carmakers: Mercedes and, especially, Volkswagen.
    At VW’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the UAW, with support from IG Metall, which represents workers in VW’s German plants, has been pushing for the creation of a works council. In German law, such factory-level bodies are distinct from labour unions: they cannot call for strikes, and their membership is limited to employees at the plant in question. Their relationships with management tend to be less adversarial than American unions’. But the UAW seems to see them as a foot in the door towards eventual union recognition.
    The status of works councils under American labour law—in particular, whether a company can have a works council without a union—is unclear. Managers are legally prohibited from "assisting" labour unions, and the National Labour Relations Board has tended to interpret that ban strictly. If VW workers do choose a works council, one way of satisfying the law might be to bring in an outside union to represent employees, thereby giving the UAW a way in.
    It is no coincidence that most of the foreign-owned plants have been built in "right to work" states in the South. Such states ban "closed shops" in which employees are forced to join a union at their workplace. This makes it harder for unions to gain influence, even if they have recruited some of the workforce at a plant. But the UAW’s boss, Bob King, has acknowledged that it must keep on trying to organize the foreign-owned assembly plants, otherwise it may not have a long-term future.
    When the foreign carmakers arrived, the UAW was strong enough to force them to pay the wages it had negotiated with the American car giants in Detroit. But as the number of jobs in the foreign-owned plants grew, and Detroit’s workforce shriveled, the union lost that price-setting power. Since the cost of living in the South is relatively cheap, the foreign carmakers could pay less than the American ones but still find plenty of willing recruits.
What kind of state is likely to be favored by foreign-owned plants?
选项 A、One that has foreign-owned partsmakers.
B、One that has friendly management-worker relationships.
C、One that is favored by their own countries’ unions.
D、One that has no favorable regulations for union powers.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。根据题干关键词state和favored by foreign—owned plants定位到第五段前两句。由这两句可知，外商选择建立汽车制造厂的地点是经过考虑的，这些州都禁止单位强制工人加入工会。由此可知，在外资汽车制造厂选择的地方，不存在对工会特殊照顾的法规，因此选[D]。该段提到大多数外资汽车选择在南部各州建厂，而第六段中提到外资汽车刚刚进入美国时，需要跟底特律的工会进行协商，可见，美国北部以前是汽车制造中心，故排除[A]；文章中没有提及友好的劳资关系是外资汽车建厂的依据，故排除[B]；虽然文章中涉及了德国工会IG Met-all，但没有说外国工会能够左右外资汽车的建厂选址，故排除[C]。
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