They just can’t help themselves.

The news of Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voting to join the United Auto Workers union has spurred articles such as:

The reason the election is such a big deal is that this same facility in Tennessee voted against UAW representation in 2014 and 2019. Tennessee is a right-to-work state, and without the aid of government coercion to make workers join, the vast majority of Americans don’t want to be part of a union.

Despite wall-to-wall positive coverage of labor unions in the past two years, and constant press about the union “renaissance” and “resurgence,” the union membership rate in the U.S. declined to a record low of just 10 percent in 2023. It’s only 6 percent in the private sector.

Also within the past week, the media have taken scant notice of the following stories:

The media have also given scant coverage to the fact that, since the UAW’s “big win” after its strikes last year, automakers covered by those contracts have been laying off workers. Since the strikes last year, the Big Three have announced a total of 18,000 layoffs.

But no, we’re supposed to believe that a win for the UAW is a win for workers and indicative of a national trend in favor of union membership. The evidence is still lacking for both of those propositions.