Last Week in Southern Labor: 1/23 – 1/30

Jacob Morrison

Here’s what workers in the US South and the colonies were up to during the week between Friday, January 23, and Friday, January 30

New Campaigns

About 100 workers in 7 bargaining units have gone public with their union campaigns, and 223 workers in 3 bargaining units are trying to decertify their union

  • 50 workers at Chemical & Engineering News in Washington, DC announced their unionization with the Washington Baltimore News Guild CWA Local 32035, and are seeking voluntary recognition (the number of workers is only a guess, I couldn’t find a number online)
  • 13 workers at Republic National Distributing Company in Lubbock, TX filed a petition to hold a union election with The Teamster Local Union 577
  • 15 workers at Starbucks in Prospect, KY filed a petition to hold a union election with Starbucks Workers United
  • The employer filed a petition to hold a union election after a majority of the 12 workers at Fort Worth Report in Fort Worth, TX demonstrated support for unionization with the NewsGuild CWA Local 39521
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer – and helped by the National Right to Work Foundation – filed a petition to decertify the Communication Workers of America (CWA) Locals 3683 and 3716 as the union representing 119 workers at Windstream Carolina, LLC in Rural Hall, NC
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer – and with help from the anti-union National Right to Work Foundation – filed a petition to decertify the International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC-UFCW) as the union representing 51 workers at Parker O-Ring & Engineered Seals in Lynchburg, VA
  • 6 workers at Alstom Transport in Atlanta, GA filed a petition to hold a union election with the Transportation Communications Union (TCU-IAM)
  • 3 workers at Penske Truck Leasing in Moberly, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with an unnamed union
  • 7 workers at Tricont Trucking Company in Fort Lauderdale, FL filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 769
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify the United Steel Workers as the union representing 53 workers at Diversified Gas and Oil in Buckhannon, WV

Election Results

763 workers across 11 bargaining units unionized, 19 workers in 1 bargaining unit voted against unionization, and 170 workers in 2 bargaining units withdrew their petition for a union election

  • 280 workers at Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, MS voted in a card check election to unionize with the Teamsters Local 667 
  • 126 workers at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC voted 74 to 45 in favor of unionization with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU-IFPTE) Local 70
  • 44 workers at Pepsico in Atlanta, GA voted 30 to 12 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 528
  • 59 workers at Pepsico in Lithonia, GA voted 43 to 9 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 528
  • 8 workers at Build-A-Bear Workshop in Saint Louis, MO voted 8 to 0 in favor of unionization with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 655
  • 8 workers at Mission Conversion Services Alliance, LLC in Kevil KY withdrew their petition with the United Steel Workers (USW) 
  • 19 workers at Momentive Performance Materials in Friendly, WV voted 9 to 10 against unionization with the International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC-UFCW) Local 698C
  • 70 workers at Super Asphalt Pavement Corp. in San Juan, PR voted in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 901
  • 7 workers at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, WV voted in a card check election to unionize with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 1440
  • 2 workers at Amberwood Estates Nursing and Rehabilitation in Saint Louis, MO voted 2 to 0 in favor of unionization with SEIU Healthcare Missouri/Kansas
  • 35 workers (ticket sellers and treasurers) at It’s My Party in Washington, DC voted 25 to 0 in favor of unionization with the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE), Local 868
  • 81 workers (stagehands, technicians, and riggers) at It’s My Party in Washington, DC voted 48 to 11 in favor of unionization with IATSE Local 22
  • 51 workers at Airport Aviation Services, Inc. in San Juan, PR voted 24 to 0 in favor of unionization with the Union Independiente de Trabajadores del Aeropuerto (Independent Union of Airport Workers)
  • The Regional Director closed a case involving 162 security guards at Moncks Corner, SC who had been seeking to unionize with the Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA), presumably for lack of signatures or something

Grievances, Unfair Labor Practices, & Court Cases

  • The ACLU is appealing the ruling of an administrative law judge in a case that – if the ACLU got their way – would significantly restrict workers’ ability to criticize their working conditions. The case stems back to their decision to fire a worker who had criticized the way that managers treated employees, ostensibly because this worker – who is not white – was being racist. This despite the fact that the criticisms in question contain no racial content. The ACLU has employed a scorched earth legal strategy to attempt to avoid reinstatement and back pay, but lost in front of a private arbitrator and an administrative law judge. Now, they are trying to overturn precedent at the National Labor Relations Board that allows workers to more freely criticize working conditions, so that they can retroactively say that firing this employee for criticizing her working conditions was justified
  • A private arbitrator told the Department of Health and Human Services that they violated federal law when the department terminated the collective bargaining agreement they had with their union and forced them to come back to the office. Representatives of the Department said they had to because of Trump’s executive order, but the arbitrator pointed out that federal law makes it illegal to “enforce any rule or regulation … which is in conflict with any applicable collective bargaining agreement if the agreement was in effect before the rule or regulation was prescribed.” HHS has 30 days to appeal the ruling of the arbitrator, which they will almost certainly do. 
  • A city councilman from East Baton Rouge, the Capital Area Transit System (CATS) Administrator, and CATS Contractors have been indicted for bribery, money laundering, contract fraud, and more. The group conspired to steal public money from the transit system. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1546 – which represents workers for the transit system that was being stolen from – say they are not surprised. In an interview with WBRZ2, ATU Local 1546 President George DeCuir said “this is just the tip of the iceberg” and noted that the union has “been sounding the alarm on this for the past five or six years”

Strikes & Bargaining

  • Oil workers rejected the latest offer from the oil refineries – their bargaining committee rejected it unanimously. The union – the United Steel Workers (USW) – represents 30,000 oil refinery workers and the contract expires on February 1st, with no indication that there will be a deal reached before then. The union is aiming to get language “barring A.I. from displacing, monitoring, or automatically disciplining members,” according to Labor Notes, along with traditional asks like wage increases
  • Texas hospitality workers have won a $20/hr minimum wage – at least at the Hyatt Grand Regency Hotel in San Antonio, TX. The workers – organized with UNITE HERE Local 23 – ratified a contract containing that higher minimum wage unanimously. The contract also includes reduced healthcare costs, more paid time off, and reduced workloads. Mary Saucedo, a housekeeper at the Grand Hyatt for 16 years, expressed relief and optimism about the new contract in an interview with Fox San Antonio, saying, “with the wage increases, I’ll be able to actually save and not have to worry so much every month about all of my expenses”
  • Amazon Teamsters in Kentucky are already making their workplace better, saying that immediately after they announced their unionization, management began negotiating with them, repairing dilapidated equipment, and more
  • Transit workers for the Regional Transit Authority in New Orleans, LA – unionized with the ATU Local 1560 – finalized a new collective bargaining agreement with their employer. In a joint statement, the union and the employer said the agreement includes higher wages and more say for workers in the way the workplace will run
  • 40 security guards for hospitals and clinics in the US Virgin Islands – unionized with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) rallied outside the governor’s State of the Territory address to demand a union contract and raises. The guards have been working without a contract and without a raise since 2021
  • International leaders from the IAM visited Puerto Rico last week to congratulate Lufthansa Technik workers on defeating the decertification drive last year and to begin preparing to resume negotiations
  • IAM District 776 began preparations to negotiate a new contract for 5,000 workers at Lockheed Martin in Ft Worth, TX who make F-35s. The contract expires on June 14, 2026

Political & Legislative

  • Conservatives lied about telework in the government. That’s the conclusion you have to come to by reading a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the practice in the DOD. In the report, the organization says that the Department of Defense hasn’t had really effective formal evaluations of telework and remote work programs, and even that whether or not an employee was teleworking wasn’t effectively tracked, citing inconsistent government reports about the number of people teleworking, and how in some cases that data was only the number of people eligible for telework or remote work, not people who were actually taking advantage of those programs. Nevertheless, they did cite data and testimonials from management in select components of the DOD, with officials from all components saying that telework and remote work “maintained, and in some cases improved, mission productivity and efficiency.” Previous GAO reports on telework have also found positive effects from more general studies about telework in other industries. 
  • Boeing has killed again. That’s where it looks like the investigation into last year’s Louisville, KY crash by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is headed. In November a UPS cargo flight crashed shortly after take off and killed the 3 on board along with 12 on the ground. The preliminary report has recently come out, and while the NTSB isn’t officially citing a cause, they are pointing towards structural flaws in the plane that Boeing knew about as potential reasons. Boeing, once known for quality, has shifted its priorities much more towards profit in recent decades, taking cues from GE’s Jack Welch. In 2018 and 2019 problems with Boeing aircraft killed hundreds of people. In 2024 the emergency door of a plane flew off mid flight, injuring several passengers. Whistleblowers have tried to shed light on systemic problems in safety and quality control in the company, and unions have tried to temper the company’s lust for profits in contract negotiations, but it seems so far that nothing has worked. 
  • More people live in states with a $15/hr minimum wage than live in a state with only the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for the first time ever – this after 19 states raised their minimum wages in January, giving 8.3 million workers across the country a raise, putting $83M more dollars in the hands of workers. Unfortunately, basically none of those workers are in the south. Virginia is the only southern state that raised its minimum wage this year (and I know some people would say that’s a dubious characterization of the state).
  • Legislation has been re-introduced in the Florida legislature – after failing to pass last year – that would further weaken public sector unions in the state. In 2023 they passed SB 256 which, according to reporting from McKenna Shueler, has dissolved more than 120 unions across the state. This legislation – HB 995 / SB 1296 – would require a majority of workers in the bargaining unit (rather than the majority of voters) to vote in favor of unionization for the union to win. It would also eliminate voluntary recognition and increase five fold the financial penalties for public sector strikes. Schueler also reports that this legislation is coming at the behest of anti-union out of state lobby groups
  • With Alabama’s legislative session starting, we’ve seen some good bills proposed – like a bill to raise the minimum wage, to clawback incentives from companies who violate child labor law, and to mandate companies who get incentives not force overtime. We’ve also seen some bad ones, like one to exempt aircraft from taxes for corporations
  • Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico held their first debate for the Democratic nomination for US Senate in Texas at the TX AFLCIO’s political convention. The labor federation declined to make an endorsement in the primary. 
  • State and municipal workers in North Carolina who are unionized with UE Local 150, along with other unions and community groups, successfully pushed the Republican State Treasurer into divesting the significant majority of Israeli bonds from the state pension fund