Last Week in Southern Labor: 4/18 – 4/26

Jacob Morrison

Here’s what workers in the US South and the colonies were up to from April 18 to April 26

New Campaigns

  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify the union representing 12 workers at Restaurant Technologies in Dallas, TX (the union is unnamed on the NLRB site)
  • 5 workers at David Taylor Ellisville Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Ellisville, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) District Lodge 9
  • 36 workers at Compass Behavioral Group in Midlothian, VA filed a petition to hold a union election with the ABA Workers Union (an independent union for workers in Applied Behavioral Analysis)
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify the IAMAW Local Lodge 2947 as the union representing 2 workers at the Delaware Resource Group of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, OK
  • 17 workers at Republic Services in Church Hill, TN filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 519
  • 208 workers at the Washington Post in Washington DC filed a petition to hold a union election with the News Guild CWA
  • 23 workers at AGL Services Company in Atlanta, GA filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
  • 118 workers at Breakthru Beverage Missouri in Saint Louis, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with the Liquor & Wine Sales Representatives Union Local 3
  • The IAMAW is attempting to raid a unit of 8 workers at Neal R Gross & Co in Washington, DC who are currently represented by Court Reporters United

Election Results

  • 2 workers at the Wood County Electric Cooperative in Quitman, TX voted 2 to 0 in favor of unionization with the IBEW Local 728 (another unit of 4 at the same company won a union election only 2 weeks ago, also unanimous)
  • 18 workers at Siemens Industry in Ft Worth, TX voted 14 to 3 in favor of unionization with the IBEW Local 220
  • 96 workers at Nelson Tree Service in Pikeville, KY voted 30 to 49 against unionization with IBEW Local 369
  • 26 workers at Entergy in Jackson, MS voted 14 to 8 in favor of unionization with IBEW Local 605
  • Workers for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits in three different work groups in El Paso and Ft Worth, TX joined the Teamsters Local 745 in one day

Grievances, Unfair Labor Practices, & Court Cases

  • A US District Court in DC issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s illegal revocation of collective bargaining rights for federal workers. In the days leading up to the injunction being released, the judge questioned the administration’s motivation for the revocation, seeming to agree with the unions arguments
  • Every year the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH) releases a Dirty Dozen report highlighting companies that fail to protect workers on the job, with NCOSH saying this leads to “preventable injuries, illnesses, and deaths.” This year, of the 12 employers listed, 8 of them are in the South, including LCMC Health, which owns the University Medical Center in New Orleans, where nurses recently unionized and are fighting for a fair contract. Their union, NNU, put out a statement saying that nurses were unsurprised by the designation. Hamilton Nolan interviewed some of those nurses here. Other southern employers include Barnes Farming in North Carolina, where a worker died on the job, Egreen Transport in Georgia where workers won over a half million dollars in back wages through organizing and legal complaints, and Mar Jac Poultry in Mississippi, where 3 workers have died since 2020
  • The AFLCIO put out another annual report (both of these reports released to coincide with Workers Memorial Day), their annual Death on the Job report. Some lowlights from the report: 5,283 workers died on the job in 2023, and an estimated 135,304 died from occupational disease. That’s 385 workers dying every day from hazardous working conditions, and worker safety organizations continue to be underfunded and understaffed – in FY2024, OSHA only had 1 inspector for every 85,000 workers. These numbers are obviously much worse now
  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration held a Workers Memorial Day ceremony, but it’s difficult to listen to any of the official’s nice words when the administration is cutting OSHA and all the things that could save workers’ lives. Most recently the Miami Herald reported on how the administration is poised to scrap a proposed heat protection rule
  • Thousands of probationary workers filed complaints with the Office of Special Counsel – an office that is supposed to investigate prohibited personnel practices in the government that is supposed to be independent and yet the head of the office was fired by Trump – had their cases dismissed as lacking merit last week
  • The US Department of Labor is threatening its staff with criminal penalties if they discuss cuts to the agency with the media
  • The National Labor Relations Board is dropping its case against SpaceX
  • The CFPB workers union – NTEU – continues to fight the 90% staff layoff at the agency, saying that the agency did not conduct a required needs assessment before laying off workers

Strikes & Bargaining

  • Machinists Union members at United Launch Alliance (600 members in Alabama, Florida, and California) are voting on a tentative agreement on April 27th. The TA includes a 15% wage increase over 3 years. 
  • Mercedes in Alabama has unveiled a new policy to try to dissuade workers from unionizing – a team member advocate. You don’t need a union so you can advocate for yourself, you need a person who works for the company who can advocate for you!
  • Members of the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU-CWA) rallied for a $10,000 pay increase for all workers and a cost of living adjustment for retirees
  • 1,000 workers at UNFI – unionized with the Teamsters – in Florida, Georgia, and Illinois ratified a new 5 year contract that the union says includes significant wage increases and a pension
  • Starbucks union delegates voted by 81% to reject a proposal from the company because the raises were not high enough – the company was only offering 2% annually
  • Nurses at New Orleans’ University Medical Center have delivered another strike notice to the hospital. They will be striking against the hospital for the third time on Thursday, May 1st
  • Years after Starbucks workers in Birmingham decided to unionize, the company is still engaging in a hostile anti-union campaign. Chance Phillips at the Alabama Political Reporter profiled their fight here

Political & Legislative

  • Alabama’s teachers won’t be getting a pay raise in the education budget this year – even though it is the largest ever. They are getting some other significant job improvements though, like paid parental leave, no health insurance increases, and a new workers compensation program
  • Hospitality workers in Houston, TX – unionized with UNITE HERE Local 23 – are calling for a $23/hr hospitality minimum wage in the city
  • Max Alvarez spoke to Texas residents who live near a bitcoin mine about the negative effects it is having on their neighborhood
  • The Economic Policy Institute released a report on South Carolina’s economic boom – where it’s true that job growth has outpaced the national average, but the job quality has lagged, with workers earning less than the median salary even as they work overtime and in unsafe conditions
  • New guidance from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that researchers will have funds terminated if they boycott Israel
  • Currently, probationary employees for the federal government can only be fired for performance – Trump signed an executive order purporting to allow firing probationary employees for other reasons as well
  • A Trump judge says that a 2 year old US citizen – born in New Orleans – may have been deported without due process
  • The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) has a fact sheet about postal privatization, explaining why it’d be bad for workers and consumers
  • The Kentucky AFL-CIO is raising alarms about the cuts to NIOSH, and explaining how it will hurt workers in Kentucky
  • For some reason Nippon and US Steel still seem to be trying to make a buy-out happen, but the union is still “unalterably opposed,” and made this known to the Trump administration
  • Two teachers unions in El Paso, TX are fighting each other very publicly and nastily over differing endorsements in the local school board race

Internal Union Affairs

  • The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is laying off more than half its staff as funds dry up from the elimination of paycheck dues deduction by Trump, with National staff going from 355 workers to 150. The New York Times ran a profile of AFGE leaders across the country – including some who voted for Trump – who are trying to fight back against the administration’s attacks on federal workers
  • Jennifer Abruzzo, the former NLRB General Counsel, has returned to a staff position at the Communication Workers of America (CWA) as a Senior Advisor to the International President. She was previously Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives at the CWA