Module 4 Critical Thinking
Case: Locating the New Recreational Vehicle Plant

Module 4 Critical Thinking
Case: Locating the Recreational Vehicle Plant The company GFMC wants to expand its U.S. operations and build a new plant to manufacture motorized recreational vehicles. The plant would employ 500 workers and GFMC would like to keep the new union-free. The United Automobile Workers (UAW) and other international unions may attempt to organize the workers after the first year. A planning committee is created and part of the committees’ responsibility is to provide advice about size, location, staffing, wages, and benefits to the company. This paper will outline what advice the committee could provide to GFMC to keep the new plant union-free and competitive. The first recommendation should be regarding the location of the plant. The plant should be located in a state with low union membership, so that unionization can be avoided. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), South Carolina is the state with the lowest union memberships at 3%. Therefore, South Carolina would be the ideal state for the plant. The next recommendation is to survey the area of the plant for local wages and benefits and make sure that wages and benefits are compatible with the local area. This would avoid the need of a union to come in to bargain wages and benefits. When a company leads the market in pay levels, implements merit pay policies, and uses performance measures to increase pay, the chances of employees wanting union representation becomes slim (Fossum, 2012). The third recommendation would be to build the plant with the newest safety features. Safety is one of the biggest concerns for unions and must therefore be considered at all times if the plant is to be kept union-free (Fossum, 2012). Once the plant is operating, management and supervisors must be taught to