Feb. 15, 2014

Volkswagen's Chattanooga employees have spurned the United Auto Workers, rejecting two years of wooing by the Detroit-based union in a 712 to 626 vote.

 

The vote count came late Friday after three days of balloting by VW workers in the National Labor Relations Board-supervised election.

 

 Some experts said the result is a blow to the UAW and that the VW plant was its best chance to organize a foreign-owned auto factory in the South.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Mark Crosswhite used to work at making waves, literally. Now he's at the helm of Alabama Power Co. hoping for smooth sailing.

 

It's been a long and eventful path from working at the wave pool at Point Mallard in Decatur while in high school tobecoming the new chief executive officer of Alabama Power, a job made even more daunting by thesuccesses of Charles McCrary, who is retiring as CEO the end of this month.

 

Crosswhite said he feels ready.

 

"I've got huge shoes to fill," Crosswhite said in his first interview after being named McCrary's successor. "Charles has been a great, great leader for Alabama Power. He's been influential in the state. He's been a leader in economic development. It's going to be a daunting task following him, but I'm looking forward to trying."

By Patrick Rupinski

Business Editor | The Tuscaloosa News

The total was about 1 percent less than the record high of $19.6 billion in exports in 2012. U.S. exports grew about 2 percent in 2013.

 

Transportation equipment and parts accounted for the biggest share of Alabama exports - $8.3 billion of the total, an 8.6 percent increase over 2012. Of that total, auto exports accounted for $6.5 billion and automotive parts made up $1.1 billion.