Last Week in Southern Labor: 11/7 – 11/14

Jacob Morrison

Here’s what workers in the US South and the colonies were up to in the weeks between Friday, November 7 and Friday, November 14

Union Elections

  • The National Labor Relations Board continues to be shut down, but workers are still organizing.  Food service workers at 4 DC venues – who announced their union campaign only weeks ago – secured voluntary recognition. Management said they will immediately begin bargaining in good faith with UNITE HERE Local 25. However, management has not said whether or not they will voluntarily recognize IATSE Locals 22 and 868, who are seeking to organize the production staff.

GRIEVANCES, UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES, & COURT CASES

  • A new study by the Columbia Labor Lab found that use of prison labor in Hyundai’s supply chain is decreasing wages for free workers. Following the release of that study, Jobs to Move America sued Hyundai in California, alleging the company violated California’s “Unfair Competition Law” through its “unconscionable labor practices.”
  • The Trump administration is firing a worker on the food stamps program in retaliation for an MSNBC interview during the shutdown where she talked about how much she and her coworkers want to be able to get back to work to help feed Americans. Yes, really. Ellen Mei, the worker in question, is also president of her National Treasury Employee Union (NTEU) Local and is fighting the firing. 
  • In more authoritarian Republican news, The Texas State Comptroller’s Office fired a worker for just promoting the No Kings rally a couple weeks back. Yes, really! That employee’s union – the Texas State Employee’s Union (TSEU) – protested the firing at a rally earlier this week
  • The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), which represents immigration judges, held an event with the National Press Club to explain how those judges are being fired without due process. 82 of them have been fired since January, all of them without stated cause
  • The United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 8, which represents staff at the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (AFPA), has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union of flight attendants, accusing the officers of bad faith bargaining
  • Costco Teamsters in Virginia filed grievances over violations of the paid sick/personal time provisions of the Costco Teamsters National Master Agreement, and an independent arbitrator ruled last week that the company violated the contract by shortchanging workers. Costco Teamsters represented by Local 822 in Virginia will now receive back pay, have unfair disciplines rescinded, and get the full 88 hours of paid time off guaranteed by their union contract

STRIKES & BARGAINING

  • 3,000 workers at Boeing in St Louis, MO – unionized with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) District Lodge 837 – voted 68% to end their three month long strike. Unfortunately, it seems like Boeing won this one, with this fourth offer being largely the same as ones that the workers had previously rejected.
  • Members of IUE-CWA Local 88502 greeted attendees at the annual Powdered Metal Management Summit in Chattanooga, TN, informing attendees about how their company – Metal Powder Products – is hurting its workforce. In particular, workers talked about the negative impact of private equity on the company, explaining how equipment repairs are delayed, heat and dust hazards go unaddressed, wages remain stagnant, and long-standing benefits have been cut, and that as a result, MPP now struggles to retain skilled workers that are needed to maintain the reliability its customers depend on.
  • 1,700 members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 1296 at Trane Technologies in Clarksville, TN, ratified a new four-year contract. The union says the collective bargaining agreement contains large wage increases – 9.3% in the first year, a boost in benefits, and rock-solid workplace protections
  • Union nurses at Palmetto General Hospital, Coral Gables Hospital, and Florida Medical Center, members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) held a rally to protest stalled negotiations by their employer  Healthcare Services of America (HSA) as contracts have expired since Sept. 30, 2025 
  • 850 members of UE Locals 228 and 728 ratified new 11-month agreements at federal contractor LDRM. The workers process visa petitions and provide petitioner support at the Department of State’s National Visa Center in Portsmouth, NH and the Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, KY, respectively. The new union contracts are the best in the history of the two locals, according to the union. UE says they contain no concessions and dozens of improvements to working conditions and compensation, such as: significant erosion of management control, granting workers increased agency in determining their working hours, weekly schedules, and the tasks to which they are assigned and substantial flat increases of between $1.90 & $2.80 per hour (depending on shift and location), equating to increases of between seven and nine percent
  • Over one thousand union baristas launched a “Red Cup Rebellion” unfair labor practice strike Thursday protesting Starbucks’ historic union busting and failure to finalize a fair union contract. The open-ended strike begins with 65 stores across 40+ cities and comes after six months of Starbucks refusing to offer new proposals to address workers’ demands for better staffing, higher pay, and resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges. Students at the University of Houston are launching an anti-Starbucks campaign on campus 
  • The NALC Executive Council met at NALC Headquarters in Washington, DC, this week to continue preparations for the next round of collective bargaining. Negotiations with the Postal Service will officially begin in February 2026, as the current National Agreement is set to expire on May 22, 2026.

POLITICAL & LEGISLATIVE

  • The shutdown came to a close last week. Trump was quick to point out in his signing of the legislation to re-open the government that many unions – including AFGE and the Teamsters – supported the legislation. IFPTE also expressed qualified support, but emphasized in its public comments on the bill that Congress is allowing its power of the purse to be taken away by the President. 
  • The United Steelworkers union (USW) along with labor allies this week called on the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to stand firm on Section 301 trade relief measures implemented to counteract China’s long history of predatory policies in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors. The administration announced that it would pause remedies USTR instituted earlier this year after its investigation found that Chinese illegal trade practices contributed to the decimation of U.S. shipbuilding capacity

INTERNAL UNION AFFAIRS

  • Union Base – a podcast about AI and the labor movement – has a new interview out with the guy who powered the unionization of minor league baseball players. Check it out here
  • Teamsters for a Democratic Union held their 50th annual convention, and voted to endorse Sean O’Brien for general president of the Teamsters Union