Last Week in Southern Labor: 12/5 – 12/12

Jacob Morrison

Here’s what workers in the US South and the colonies were up to from the weeks between Friday, December 5, and Friday, December 12

We’ve got some exciting opportunities coming up in 2026 that we’ll be telling you more about next year. In addition to this being the last newsletter of the year, last week was our last live show of the year, but don’t worry, we’ve got great best-ofs and pretapes lined up for you this week and next, including interviews with Jaz Brisack, Flash Ferenc, and more. In fact, our pretaped program will be going live now with our interview with Sam Seder from back in February where we talked about DOGE and the Trump administration. I think the commentary has held up very well.

Between now and when we come back in the new year, we’d love to hear from yall. Why do you listen to the show? Why do you subscribe to the newsletter? What should we be covering in 2026? What would you like to see more of, less of, etc. You can send us those notes on TVLR.FM/Contact

New Campaigns

  • 155 workers at ATI Specialty Alloys & Components in Huntsville, AL filed a petition to hold a union election with the United Steel Workers (USW)
  • 39 workers at Charter Communications, LLC in Florence, KY filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 369
  • 57 workers at Pepsi in Lithonia, GA filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters
  • 9 workers at Build-A-Bear at Union Station in St. Louis, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 655
  • 3 workers at Amberwood Estates Nursing and Rehabilitation in St. Louis, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with an unnamed union
  • 42 workers at Pepsi in Atlanta, GA filed a petition to hold a union election with Teamsters Local 528
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify UFCW Local 28-D, which currently represents 43 workers at Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, KY
  • 10 security guards at Allied Universal Security Services in Washington, DC filed a petition to hold a union election with Union Rights for Security Officers (URSO)
  • 73 workers at Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, VA filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Association of Machinists (IAM)
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer or other business interests – and helped by a local attorney who defends corporations against discrimination cases – at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, TN have launched a petition to decertify the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the union representing thousands of workers there. All the news coverage says “a few dozen” employees are behind the effort, and only two have been quoted supporting it at all. This comes just after a super majority of workers at the plant authorized a strike

Election Results

  • Union Rights for Security Officers withdrew their petition to raid a unit of 11 security guards at KR Contracting Inc. in Washington, DC, currently represented by the Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA)
  • 5 workers at RATP-Dev USA in Asheville, NC voted 4 to 1 in favor of unionization with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 128
  • 25 workers at Starbucks in West Palm Beach, FL voted 15 to 10 in favor of unionization with Starbucks Workers United, as did 21 workers at a location in Bowling Green, KY – voting 13 to 5, and 16 workers in Paducah, KY who voted 12 to 4
  • 8 workers at IMI Tennessee LLC in Cookeville, TN withdrew their petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 519
  • 5 workers at Hillside Rehabilitation and Care Center in St. Louis, MO withdrew their petition to hold a union election with SEIU Healthcare Missouri Kansas
  • 183 workers at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits across five locations in Louisiana unionized with the Teamsters Locals 270 and 568 through card check. Workers at 68 locations have now organized with the Teamsters
  • 100 bus drivers at First Student in Missouri voted in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 838
  • 700 nurses at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bryan – College Station, TX voted in favor of unionization with National Nurses United (NNU) 
  • 165 workers at Microsoft video game subsidiary id Software in Richardson, TX unionized with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 6215 through a card check procedure. The CWA describes the unit as wall to wall.

Grievances, Unfair Labor Practices, & Court Cases

  • Dr. Tom Alter – a former Texas State professor with tenure who was fired for his speech at an online socialism conference – continues to fight to get his job back. He was recently interviewed on local news in Austin
  • The US Supreme Court refused to hear NLRB v. SpaceX, leaving in place a circuit split on the NLRB, and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling – which declares the NLRB unconstitutional and therefore unable to resolve disputes – remains in effect in its jurisdiction (the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) 
  • IFPTE Local 777 has launched a petition to have the Federal Labor Relations Authority amend its regulations to make it easier for federal workers to remedy problems as they arise in their workplace

Strikes & Bargaining

  • 200 food service workers at George Bush International Airport in Houston, TX – unionized with UNITE HERE Local 23 – ratified a new 3 year collective bargaining agreement. The union says workers will receive an immediate $4/hr raise, bringing the wage floor for most workers to $20/hr, with an additional $2/hr in raises over the next two years. 
  • Spirit Aerosystems – which had been spun off from Boeing years ago – has been re-acquired by Boeing. Members of the Machinists Union at Spirit Aerosystems in Kansas told local news that they are optimistic about the takeover
  • 136 workers at Real Alloy in Morgantown, KY – unionized with the Teamsters Local 89 – ratified their first collective bargaining agreement. The union says that the contract locks in strong annual raises, better retirement benefits, Teamsters healthcare, and more paid time off.

Political & Legislative

  • Analysts are raising the alarm about the impact on the Alabama education budget of the recent legislation that siphons money from public schools to private schools. The anti worker freaks at the Alabama Policy Institute say it’s not a big deal though, and that the legislature should just increase education worker healthcare costs by 5 to 25 times, and cut the state’s retirement contributions for education workers by 65%, and that’ll take care of the problem! 
  • Donald Trump signed a new executive order purporting to override state laws regulating AI, directing his Attorney General to sue states that have AI regulations, and withholding broadband funds from states that have AI regulation. As he signed the executive order, he was flocked by tech billionaires who increasingly seem to be running the show. The measure is obviously not without its critics – Republicans in Congress balked when a similar provision was snuck into the so called Big Beautiful Bill and threatened to kill the whole legislative package if it was not removed, so it was. It’s worth noting that the center of the Teamsters’ legislative agenda has been anti-automation work, including being supportive of California legislation that will likely be targeted. Will this be the beginning of O’Brien’s break up with Trump? For its part, the AFL-CIO said in a statement that “unregulated AI would further empower corporations to spy on us, steal our jobs and data, and even decide what medical care we get” and pointed out that “eighty percent of Americans want AI safety rules in place, yet Trump would rather reward the tech CEOs who are making billions off the backs of working people.”
  • The US House passed the Protect America’s Workforce Act to rescind Trump’s executive orders revoking collective bargaining rights for federal workers 231 to 195 – that number includes 20 Republicans voting in favor. The vote comes after a majority of House Representatives signed a discharge petition to force a vote – the same maneuver used to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. It’s an impressive feat to get so many Republicans in the House straightforwardly rebuking Trump, but the legislation will almost certainly die in the Senate, and will definitely not be signed by Trump. 
  • The Washington Post’s editorial board – owned by Jeff Bezos – wrote an insane op-ed where they argued against the US House passage of the Protect America’s Workforce Act. While recognizing that Trump’s national security justifications were nonsense, they said that instead of rebuking his executive order, Congress should instead “affirm Trump’s decision to strip collective bargaining rights while dispensing with his flimsy national security justification,” while using corporate, anti-union language like “labor union bosses” to describe elected leaders of federal workers, citing anecdotes of poor performance, and peddling fears of strikes as reasons for ending unions at the VA. US Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Nikki Budzinski wrote a letter to the editor defending federal workers, and noted that the “unionized VA workforce has consistently been an essential steward for patient safety and a voice against the executive branch’s potential despotism”
  • The National Defense Authorization Act – which, combined with other defense funding allocates one trillion dollars to “defense” – passed both houses of Congress and now heads to the President’s desk for signature. Unfortunately, there was an opportunity to include much of the effects of the Protect America’s Workforce Act in that legislation, and the US House actually included those provisions in its original version, but they came out during conference. The NDAA gives the military more money than Trump asked for
  • Senate Republicans blocked an effort to extend ACA subsidies, meaning they are all but certain to expire. Their proposal to deal with skyrocketing healthcare costs was a one time direct deposit of $1,500 into a health savings account.