Last Week in Southern Labor: 3/6 – 3/13

Jacob Morrison

Every week in the south, workers organize new unions, they bargain for new contracts, they fight for good legislation and against bad legislation, and they put the boss in their place. Here are all the stories we could find from the week between Friday, March 6 and Friday, March 13:

New Campaigns

539 workers in 8 bargaining units went public with their union campaigns, and 67 workers in 2 bargaining units are trying to decertify their union

  • 60 workers at US Foods in Salem, VA filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 171
  • 416 workers at Molson Coors in Elkton, VA filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 29
  • 15 workers at Starbucks Corporation in Springfield, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with Starbucks Workers United, as did 19 more workers at a location in Johnson City, TN
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer – and helped by the National Right to Work Foundation – filed a petition to decertify Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU-CWA) as the union representing 8 workers at Wells Fargo Bank, NA in Spring Hill, FL
    • There was a decertification petition filed against WFWU at a Wells Fargo location in NC only last week – not good 
  • 15 workers at Hooten Equipment Company in Charleston, WV filed a petition to hold a union election with the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) Local 625
  • 5 workers at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC filed a petition to hold a union election with the District of Columbia Nurses Association (DCNA) 
  • 7 workers at Howards Mechanical Inc. in Amarillo, TX filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 49
    • A few weeks ago 5 workers at a business by the same name in the same city filed for a union election with the same union, and then last week they withdrew their petition. Maybe there was a paperwork error that necessitated refiling the petition? Not sure exactly what the deal is here
  • 2 workers at Majestic of Beckley in Beckley, WV filed a petition to hold a union election with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) as the union representing 59 workers at First Student, Inc. in Dalton, GA

Election Results

291 workers across 7 bargaining units unionized, 267 workers in 3 bargaining units voted against unionization, 10 workers in 1 bargaining unit withdrew their petition for a union election, and 131 workers in 3 bargaining units decertified their union 

  • 5 workers at Current Affairs Magazine in New Orleans, LA secured voluntary recognition for the unionization with the Chicago News Guild Local 34071
  • 17 workers at Potawatomi Training, LLC in Sheppard AFB, TX voted 12 to 0 in favor of unionization with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) 
  • 139 workers at Weyerhaeuser NR Company in Heaters, WV voted 114 to 14 in favor of unionization with the IAMAW 
  • 9 workers at Sofitel Washington DC in Washington, DC voted 4 to 4 in a decertification election with the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 99, and ties go to the employer, so IUOE Local 99 was decertified
  • 69 workers at Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square in Washington, DC voted 29 to 31 in favor of decertifying UNITE HERE Local 25
    • The National Right to Work Foundation aided the anti-union campaign in this election and the one right before this one
  • 246 workers at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Worth, TX voted 110 to 115 against unionization with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 540 
  • 36 workers at the American Chemical Society in Washington, DC voted 24 to 1 in favor of unionization with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035 
  • 30 workers at Casey Trees in Washington, DC voted 22 to 6 in favor of unionization with the IAMAW 
  • 54 workers at Technica, LLC in Jacksonville, FL voted 25 to 4 in favor of unionization with the IAMAW
  • 10 workers at Oklahoma Natural Gas in Tulsa, OK withdrew their petition with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1002 
  • 8 workers at Brown and Root Industrial Services, LLC in Palmyra, MO voted 1 to 7 against unionization with the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 1 
  • 13 workers at Republic National Distributing Company in Lubbock, TX voted 6 to 6 in a union election with the Teamsters Local Union 577 – and ties go to the employer
  • 53 workers at Diversified Gas and Oil Corporation in Buckhannon, WV voted 19 to 30 in favor of decertifying the United Steel Workers (USW) 
  • 10 workers at Crumbs & Whiskers KL L.L.C. in Washington, DC voted 4 to 0 in favor of unionization with the Workers United

Grievances, Unfair Labor Practices, & Court Cases

  • An arbitrator ruled that the Social Security Administration violated its contract with the American Federation of Government Employees when it revoked telework and told the agency that it must reinstate the policy. However, and SSA spokesperson says this will not have any immediate impact on their operations and that the agency will appeal the decision to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA – the federal sectors version of the National Labor Relations Board), where a majority of the appointees are Trump nominated. Meanwhile, yet another report has come out that finds that “organizations that commit to highly flexible models, including remote-first, report strong output, healthier engagement, and faster growth than mandate-driven peers”

Strikes & Bargaining

  • 11,000 workers in more than 5 unions were able to secure an immediate 18% raise and a total pay raise between 35% and 47% over the next five years at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS. Members just ratified the new contract at the largest manufacturing employer in the state, and it will run through March 8, 2031. One of the unions – the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 442 said that they used the contract campaign to organize, getting dozens of new members and bringing their density up to 80% of the bargaining unit that they represent. They also said in addition to the huge general wage increases, they secured a 10% increase in the shift differential. 
  • Tenants in Kentucky just won the first collectively bargained lease in the South. Last week, the Kentucky Tenants Union announced that they had ratified their first contract with Texas-based OSPM – a company that owns 1,200 units across Kentucky, Indiana, and Texas. The contract covers 2 buildings in the company’s portfolio with 115 units total, officially recognizes the union and promises to recognize future unions at buildings in the company’s portfolio, and provides a list of benefits to renters like a 10 day grace period for rent payments and a schedule for major repairs. Renters began organizing last year amid complaints of disrepair in their units, like mold, broken ACs, and pest infestations.
  • A few weeks ago, Ford announced that it would be laying off 1,600 workers at BOSK, ending the plannedEV battery production plant. The company said they would still use the facilities, but now to produce grid batteries instead of EV batteries. Workers there had voted to unionize with the UAW, and the UAW argues that representation should follow workers to the grid battery plant, and that BOSK workers should get the first pick of those jobs, but Ford sees this as an opportunity to get rid of the union and is arguing as much at the NLRB. The New York Times sent reporters to the town where the plant resides, and surprisingly few people blamed Trump for the loss of jobs, even though his clawing back of incentives is directly responsible for the loss of employment. A new study tries to answer a question similar to this one: why didn’t Biden get credit for the jobs the IRA created? They found that “people closer to new renewable energy and green manufacturing facilities are more likely to notice these investments but are not more likely to credit the Biden Administration. Instead, the public sees governors as most responsible” in part because “governors more frequently claim credit than the White House and companies spread recognition broadly across political actors.” They argue that “for policies to affect politics, voters need to be able to trace them back to the responsible political actors, which is challenging in a complex information environment. Green spending channeled through private firms alone is unlikely to build ground-up coalitions for climate policy.” A convincing argument for public ownership and production! 
  • OpenAI and North America’s Building Trade Unions (NABTU) just cemented a major partnership that NABTU says will “ensure that the construction of AI-related infrastructure supports union careers, strengthens union-registered apprenticeship programs, and creates economic opportunity in the communities where this infrastructure is built”
  • In sports union updates, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) said in a recent statement that “members of the United Soccer League Players Association (USLPA-CWA Local 7211) signaled their willingness to strike if the USL continues to stymie contract negotiations for USL Championship players.” Right after kickoff, in every match during the season’s opening weekend, players stood still on the field for a full 60 seconds in protest. The union says that players are “demanding better workplace protections, livable wages, and league-wide professional standards for issues including travel, housing, and medical staffing.” In women’s basketball, the League is saying bargaining needs to be done by Monday (the 16th), but the player’s union said that the League’s deadlines are “arbitrary.” They are saying that movement is happening at the bargaining table though, so that’s a good sign
  • The Teamsters have a strong statement against Krogers, attacking the new CEO – who they note is a former Walmart executive. The union says that Kroger is moving forward with plans “to replace hardworking, skilled union workers with low-wage, nonunion labor supplied by third-party contractors, many of the same companies long used by Walmart to drive down wages and undermine labor standards”
  • REI plans to cut pay of new hires and reduce employee benefits. You’ll remember that several stores have organized over the last few years, but none have a contract yet. The company plans to implement these changes at union stores too, but the union said they are committed to fighting that

Political & Legislative

  • Florida’s anti-worker Republicans passed another anti-union bill last week, building on the one that passed three years ago. Under a bill that quickly moved through both houses of the legislature after looking like it was dead early on in the legislative session, and now heads to the Governor’s desk, public sector unions will continue to have to recertify their union every year if their membership falls below 60%, but they must in an election now secure votes from at least 26% of the bargaining unit, rather than a simple majority of voters. Many elected officials don’t meet that threshold in their own elections due to low turnout, but they want unions to do that – even though union members who went to testify against the bill said that the body which is charged with running elections is not consistent in its running of those elections, reporting voters not receiving ballots and the like. 
  • Somehow, after getting rid of nearly 10% of the federal government and creating all sorts of problems because of exactly that, the Trump administration is still saying that it is “priority number one” to shed more federal workers
  • Billionaires made nearly 20% of all federal campaign contributions in 2024 according to the New York Times. In 1996, that percentage was 0.3.