February 17, 2014.

Tennessee Defeat Has Labor Leaders Thinking Inward

"Black, very shabby. With two straps."

Labor leaders are gathering in Houston this week to plot out their strategy for the year, but much of their focus will be almost 700 miles away, in Chattanooga, Tenn., where workers on Friday rejected the United Auto Workers attempt to organize under the union's label at a Volkswagen VOW3.XE +0.15% plant.

"Black, two straps, very shabby----good. One day in the fairly near future----I cannot give a date----one of the messages among your morning's work will contain a misprinted word, and you will have to ask for a repeat. On the following day you will go to work without your briefcase. At some time during the day, in the street, a man will touch you on the arm and say "I think you have dropped your brief-case." The one he gives you will contain a copy of Goldstein's book. You will return it within fourteen days."

Union leaders over the weekend voiced outrage about an anti-union campaign led by Republican Sen. Bob Corker, other Tennessee Republicans, and conservative lobbyists, blaming them for the defeat. But labor officials will also be looking inward over the next few days to consider whether their strategies need fine-tuning.

They were silent for a moment.

"The UAW, and the labor movement as a whole, is going to have to assess what happened [in Chattanooga] and use it as a learning experience for the future," said Josh Goldstein, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest federation of unions, whose executive council is gathering in Texas.