{"id":30824,"date":"2023-05-28T18:13:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T16:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=30824"},"modified":"2023-07-06T12:21:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T10:21:35","slug":"united-states-workers-rising-in-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=30824","title":{"rendered":"United States: Workers Rising in the South"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .<\/p>\n

A blog from the United Steel Workers<\/a><\/p>\n

Workers at Blue Bird Corp. in Fort Valley, Ga., launched a union drive to secure better wages, work-life balance and a voice on the job.<\/p>\n

The company resisted them. History defied them. Geography worked against them.<\/p>\n

But they stood together, believed in themselves and achieved an historic victory that\u2019s reverberating throughout the South.<\/p>\n

About 1,400 workers at the electric bus manufacturer voted overwhelmingly this month to\u00a0join the United Steelworkers (USW), reflecting\u00a0the rise of collective power\u00a0in a part of the country where bosses and right-wing politicians long contrived to foil it.
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\n\u201cIt\u2019s just time for a change,\u201d explained Rinardo Cooper, a member of USW Local 572 and a paper machine operator at Graphic Packaging in Macon, Ga.<\/p>\n

Cooper, who assisted the workers at Blue Bird with their union drive, expects more Southerners to follow suit even if they face their own uphill battles.<\/p>\n

Given the South\u2019s\u00a0pro-corporate environment, it\u2019s no surprise that Georgia has\u00a0one of the nation\u2019s lowest union membership rates, 4.4 percent. North Carolina\u2019s rate is even lower, 2.8 percent. And South Carolina\u2019s is 1.7 percent.
\nMany corporations actually choose to locate in the South because the low union density enables them to\u00a0pay poor wages, skimp on safety\u00a0and\u00a0perpetuate the system\u00a0of oppression.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 study,\u00a0\u201cThe Double Standard at Work,\u201d\u00a0the AFL-CIO found that even European-based companies with good records in their home countries take advantage of workers they employ in America\u2019s South.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve \u201cinterfered with freedom of association, launched aggressive campaigns against employees\u2019 organizing attempts and failed to bargain in good faith when workers choose union representation,\u201d noted the report, citing, among other abuses, Volkswagen\u2019s union-busting efforts at a Tennessee plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey keep stuffing their pockets and paying pennies on the dollar,\u201d Cooper said of companies cashing in at workers\u2019 expense.<\/p>\n

The consequences are dire.<\/p>\n

States with low union membership have\u00a0significantly higher poverty, according to a 2021 study by researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of California, Riverside. Georgia\u2019s\u00a014 percent\u00a0poverty rate, for example, is among the worst in the country.<\/p>\n

However, the tide is turning as workers increasingly see union membership as a clear path forward, observed Cooper, who left his own job at Blue Bird several months ago because the grueling schedule left him little time to spend with family.<\/p>\n

(article continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nQuestion related to this article:<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n 
\nWhat is the contribution of trade unions to the culture of peace?<\/a><\/p>\n

The right to form and join trade unions, Is it being respected?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

Now, as a union paper worker, he not only makes higher wages than he did at Blue Bird but also benefits from safer working conditions and a voice on the job. And with the USW holding the company accountable, he\u2019s free to take the vacation and other time off he earns. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s story helped to inspire the bus company workers\u2019 quest for better lives. But they also resolved to fight for their fair share as Blue Bird increasingly leans on their knowledge, skills and dedication in coming years.<\/p>\n

The company stands to land\u00a0tens of millions\u00a0in subsidies from President Joe Biden\u2019s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and other federal programs aimed at putting more electric vehicles on the roads, supercharging the manufacturing economy and supporting good jobs.<\/p>\n

These goals are inextricably linked, as Biden made clear in a statement congratulating the bus company workers on their USW vote. \u201cThe fact is: The middle class built America,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd\u00a0unions built\u00a0the middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worker power is spreading not only in manufacturing but across numerous industries in the South.<\/p>\n

About 500\u00a0ramp agents, truck drivers and other workers\u00a0at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina just voted to form a union. Workers in Knoxville, Tenn., last year\u00a0unionized the first Starbucks\u00a0in the South.<\/p>\n

And first responders in\u00a0Virginia\u00a0and utility workers in\u00a0Georgia\u00a0and\u00a0Kentucky\u00a0also formed unions in recent months, while workers at Lowe\u2019s in\u00a0Louisiana\u00a0launched groundbreaking efforts to unionize the home-improvement giant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t hesitate to tell any worker at any manufacturing place here that the route you need to take is the union. That\u2019s the only fairness you\u2019re going to get,\u201d declared Anthony Ploof, who helped to lead\u00a0dozens of co-workers\u00a0at Carfair into the USW earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Workers at the Anniston, Ala., company make fiberglass-reinforced polymer components for vehicles, including hybrid and electric buses. Like all workers, they decided to unionize to gain a seat at the table and a means of holding their employer accountable.<\/p>\n

Instead of fighting the union effort, as many companies do, Carfair remained neutral so the workers could exercise their will. In the end, 98 percent voted to join the USW, showing that workers overwhelmingly want unions when they\u2019re free to choose without bullying, threats or retaliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t take much here,\u201d said Ploof, noting workers had little experience with unions but educated themselves about the benefits and quickly came to a consensus on joining the USW.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s reaching out from Carfair,\u201d he added, noting workers at other companies in the area have approached him to ask, \u201cHow is that working out? How do we organize?\u201d<\/p>\n

As his new union brothers and sisters at Blue Bird prepare to negotiate their first contract, Cooper hopes to get involved in other organizing drives, lift up more workers and continue changing the trajectory of the South.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really need to keep putting the message out there, letting people know that there is a better way than what the employers are wanting you to believe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Nation of Change <\/a> for calling our attention to this article.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . . A blog from the United Steel Workers Workers at Blue Bird Corp. in Fort Valley, Ga., launched a union drive to secure better wages, work-life balance and a voice on the job. The company resisted them. History defied them. Geography worked against them. But they stood together, believed in … Continue reading United States: Workers Rising in the South<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,91],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-30824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracy","category-human-rights","category-north-america","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}