United Auto Workers President Bob King’s abrupt decision Monday to abandon his effort to overturn his union’s defeat at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant raises the question of how sincere the whole effort was in the first place. Did he ever really think he could have somehow reversed his union’s rejection by Volkswagen employees? Or was his complaint to the National Labor Relations Board just an elaborate attempt to paint the UAW as the victim and save face?

That King withdrew the complaint before the board could actually hear the case — but after it had generated two months of news stories repeating UAW’s cries of “no fair!” — suggest that, yes, it was all just for show.