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Offer not sponsored and is subject to change without notice prior to reservation. Except in the states of MD, NY and DC, where the gift card offer is limited to $25. Offer not available in the states of CA, IN, PA and MI. Expires NASHVILLE, Tenn. As he stood be- fore jubilant Volkswagen workers after they overwhelmingly welcomed the United Auto Workers into the Chatta- nooga plant on April 19, the hard-charging new president Shawn Fain hailed the victory as a rebuke to ev- eryone who said labor could not win in the South.
After the results were the UAW and VW said in a statement they were committed to a strong and successful for the plant in Chat- tanooga. Many have called the win in Chattanooga historic, a strong signal that workers in the South are now open to unionizing as U.S. automakers ex- pand into the region. But experts who study the American labor movement cautioned that one win at one plant, even with a large margin of victory, is not enough evidence to say la- fortunes have changed in the South, a region that has long resisted or- ganized labor. think said David Anderson, a Louisiana Tech University history professor who studies labor unions.
think we have the per- spective to call it In mid-May, another referendum on unions in the South is lined up. Workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tusca- loosa, Alabama, will have their chance to vote on whether they want to join the UAW. The outcome of that election will be an important test: Has the South changed its attitude on labor? What forces have led to that shift? Is it a mis- conception that Southerners are inher- ently hostile to organized labor? Do numbers tell the whole story? Most Americans say they support unions of people reported a favor- able view of unions in a Gallup poll last year. Despite this sentiment, union mem- bership has fallen over the years. Only of U.S.
workers belong to a union, according to the latest data from the Bu- reau of Labor Statistics. South Carolina has the lowest unionization rate in the country, at 2.3% of workers. Unions, however, do have a presence and a history in the South. Rusty Adair, a professor at Auburn business school, had a long career in management with Interna- tional Paper. He noted that all three of the paper mills in Alabama are organized and that unions are com- mon across the South in the paper in- dustry.
automakers are getting the headlines right now because go- ing somewhere Adair said. Alabama Power has unionized work- ers, Adair said, and the union is strong. Alabama does have the second-highest percentage of union- ized workers in the South, after Ken- tucky. But its 7.5% rate of unionized workers is below the national average. Unions in the South harken back to the 1800s when Southern politicians and business leaders lured Northern companies with relatively low rates of organized labor.
But Anderson points out that many sectors in the South, like steel and But the Republican lawmakers have successfully pushed back against unions in the past. Across the South, right-to-work laws, which allow workers represented by unions to not pay dues, hamper the ability of unions to operate. Automakers also from lucrative state incen- tives. After pressure from Tennessee lawmakers in 2019, VW toughened its stance against the UAW. Who sits in the White House, experts said, can matter more in union drives than what local politicians want.
The president appoints the board and the general counsel of the Na- tional Labor Relations Board, which has a huge on how union cam- paigns are conducted. President Joe Biden has pushed hard to tilt the NLRB in favor of unions. is probably the most pro-labor president I have seen in my said Scott Baier, chair of the economics department at Clemson University. the last 30 to 40 years, I think had an executive branch that has been more pro-labor than this Republicans will have a chance to re- shape the NLRB if they retake the White House. What will the future bring? Some experts say another strong win for the UAW at the Mercedes plant in Alabama would convince them fortunes in the South have changed.
Others are waiting to see if the UAW can win over workers in Smyrna, Tennes- see, at the Nissan North America plant, the foreign-owned automaker in the South. Workers there in the past have repeatedly and resoundingly re- jected joining a union. Still other experts say the real test for the UAW in the South will be whether it can unionize the many manufac- turers across the region that supply the automakers. the parts sector in the South would be important, because those (businesses) are the supply Anderson said. anything, CO- VID taught us the importance of supply chains and what we call essential work- mining, were unionized throughout the 20th century at almost the same rate as in Northern states.
The relatively low rate of unioniza- tion has more to do with the ag- riculture-based economy, Anderson said, adding that the largest historic manufacturing sector in the South was textiles an industry where unions nev- er had much success. Pandemic reignited union support Last year, the UAW went on strike against the three largest U.S. automak- ers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the international conglomerate that in- cludes Chrysler. The union won a favor- able contract for the 145,000 workers at those companies. Workers at VW in Chattanooga said strong contracts for those companies motivated them to push again for a union after narrow defeats there for the UAW in 2014 and 2019.
The gradual resurgence of labor across the United States, however, can be traced to the upheavals of the CO- VID-19 pandemic, said sociologist and labor expert Daniel of Vander- bilt University. big concerns grow out of a long- term trend in the United States toward a widening income gap that has been un- relenting since 1968 or said. pandemic may have accentu- ated some of the frustrations for work- ers in the lower income tier of this econ- The recent to organize Star- bucks workers across the country are part of this trend, said. Workers have also seen their jobs be- come precarious as more companies re- ly on temporary workers, said. The use of temporary workers was a ma- jor issue in last UAW strike.
Right-to-work laws a challenge In the days leading up to the vote in Chattanooga, a coalition of six Southern governors, including Bill Lee of Tennes- see and Kay Ivey of Alabama, issued a statement urging workers to reject the UAW. The arguments failed to sway the VW workers in Tennessee. Too early to say whether momentum will persist Todd A. Price Nashville Tennessean USA TODAY NETWORK TENNESSEE People cheer the results of a vote to join the United Auto Workers union at assembly plant in Chattanooga, last month. SETH FILE Unions aim for more victories in South.
