Last Week in Southern Labor: 5/7 – 5/15

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. These are all the stories we could find from May 8th to May 15th.

New Campaigns

9 workers in 1 bargaining unit have gone public with their union campaigns, and 7 workers in 1 bargaining unit are trying to decertify their union

  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify the United Steel Workers (USW) Local 348 as the union representing 7 workers at Buckeye Pipeline Services Company in Sugar Creek, MO
  • 9 workers at The International Paper Company, Inc. in Cantonment, FL filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1937
    • Interesting since International Paper workers are usually organized with the USW

Election Results

26 workers across 2 bargaining units withdrew their petition for a union election, 331 workers across 9 bargaining units unionized, 83 workers decertified their union in 1 bargaining unit, and 122 workers in 1 bargaining unit voted against decertification 

  • 90 librarians at the University of Missouri voted in an election overseen by the Missouri State Board of Mediation (since these are public sector, not private sector workers) to unionize with the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 955. Local 955 already represents several groups of public sector workers in Missouri
  • An NLRB Regional Director dismissed the decertification petition filed (with help from the National Right to Work Foundation) against the United Service Workers Union (USWU) Local 74 – the union will continue representing 51 workers at Menzie’s Aviation in Orlando, FL
  • 5 workers at Florida Youth Action Fund in Orlando, FL withdrew their petition with The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America Local 3108 because they were voluntarily recognized by their employer 
  • 83 workers at The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company in Birmingham, AL voted 35 to 36 in favor of decertifying the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB). The decertification petition in this case was filed with help from the National Right to Work Foundation
  • 7 workers at Scholastic Book Fairs in La Vergne, TN withdrew their petition with the Teamsters Local 327
  • 19 workers at Starbucks Corporation in Columbus, GA withdrew their petition with Starbucks Workers United
  • 3 workers at Nouryon Functional Chemicals, LLC in La Porte, TX voted 3 to 0 in favor of unionization with the USW
  • 10 workers at the Kentucky Power Company in Ashland, KY voted 10 to 0 in favor of unionization with the IBEW Local 978
  • 13 workers at Amrize Cement Inc. in Bloomsdale, MO voted 9 to 4 in favor of unionization with the IBEW Local 1
  • 32 workers at Pepsi Beverage Sales LLC in Lithonia, GA voted 17 to 10 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 528 
  • 49 workers at CPC Retail Products, LLC in Jackson, MO voted 22 to 16 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 600
  • 40 workers at WeDriveU, Inc. in Saint Louis, MO voted 23 to 10 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 618
  • 122 workers at Kinetic in Gainesville, FL voted 98 to 24 against decertifying the Communications Workers of America (CWA)
  • 89 workers at Stratus Systems in Dallas, TX voted 43 to 27 in favor of unionization with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 68

Strikes & Bargaining

  • A 31% base pay raise by this summer and ¾ of a billion dollars in back pay – that’s what 30,000 flight attendants at United Airlines who are unionized with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) secured in their new contract that they just ratified. In addition to that nearly immediate 31% pay raise, they will get another 12% raise over the next 4 years of the contract. They were also able to secure for the first time compensation for boarding time (which the union says amounts to another 7 to 8% increase in compensation), along with 10 weeks paid maternity leave and more. The union members ratified the contract with 82% in favor and nearly 90% of eligible members voting. 
  • The REI Union is calling on customers to boycott the company’s anniversary sale – May 15 to 25 – to increase pressure on the company to come to the table and bargain a fair contract with workers at the 12 locations who have unionized. The union is lambasting the company for offering lower wages to union workers than workers at nonunion stores, as well as for proposing contract provisions that would prevent more REI workers from unionizing and forcing REI workers to sign NDAs so they can’t discuss their working conditions. 
  • Over 300 warehouse workers at UNFI in Lancaster, TX just ratified their first union contract with the Teamsters Local 745. In the contract, they secured a 23% wage increase, a defined benefit pension plan, and more. 
  • 50 workers at the Beverage Market in West Virginia – the only distributor for Miller Coors products in the state – just launched an unfair labor practice strike against the company. The workers, organized with the Teamsters Local 175, say the company is bargaining in bad faith and demanding concessions. 
  • Over 1,300 New Flyer workers across the country – including in Alabama and Kentucky – just ratified a new national collective bargaining agreement that the union says includes “language guaranteeing additional holidays, locked-in healthcare costs, clarity on seniority and transfers, better training, and stronger safety protocols.” The national agreement sits on top of local agreements like the one in Anniston, Alabama, where workers won a 25% pay increase over three years. 
  • UE Local 123 at Daikin Industries in Verona, VA ratified a new four year contract that includes a 6% wage increase for the lowest paid workers, increased shift differentials, increased vacation days and paid time off, and improvements to work rules
  • 100 drivers and warehouse workers at Breakthru Beverages in St Louis, MO launched a ULP strike. The workers – members of Teamsters Local 600 and 688 – are calling on the company to negotiate a fair contract and allege regressive and surface bargaining. In particular, the union calls out in their press release that “management is demanding that members waive their lawful right to not cross or work behind a Teamsters picket line at their work location.” They say that they “will never agree to a contract that fails to include this critical protection.”
  • 500 Waffle House workers, activists, and allies marched to the downtown Atlanta Waffle House location to demand $25 an hour, an end to mandatory meal deductions, and security on the job. 
  • Found a couple of cool things from the Louisville Labor Report, which you should subscribe to for more hyper-local labor updates in Louisville, KY: Louisville teachers extended their current contract and avoided pay cuts, and Teamsters Local 783 got a new contract of an unspecified length with a minimum wage increase of 15.7%. 
  • Atlanta, GA firefighters – members of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 134 – just secured the first ever collective bargaining agreement for city firefighters. IAFF International President Ed Kelly said the “agreement will give fire fighters a stronger voice on the job and help improve safety for every community they serve in Atlanta.”

Political & Legislative

  • Virginia Governor Spanberger, a Democrat, just betrayed her working class base and vetoed a major pro union bill. The bill would’ve given public sector workers in Virginia the right to collectively bargain – the same right that private sector workers already have. In a statement about her veto, she said that she would have liked to see changes to the bill to delay its rollout to “demonstrate efficacy” prior to full implementation, as if workers need to prove anything to a Governor to secure their rights to collective bargaining. The veto comes as a shock, as she appeared at an SEIU rally in support of this legislation as recently as February. That same union noted in response to this veto that the ban on public sector collective bargaining came in the 1940s “following an attempt by Black hospital workers to unionize.” The labor movement unanimously condemned her veto. The Virginia AFL-CIO said this is a “devastating betrayal to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who have spent years, and in many cases decades, fighting for a seat at the table.” It probably shouldn’t come as such a surprise though – we covered on this program how Spanberger, a CIA-spook-turned-politician said even during her campaign that she would veto legislation overturning right to work! 
  • The Trump administration is fighting to make sure folks who work overturn – who work more than 40 hours in a week – take home less money. Under the Biden administration, the Labor Department expanded – to bring the regulation into the more historical standard – the number of people eligible for overtime protections. Specifically by raising the salary floor at which you can be considered an overtime exempt management employee from $35,000 to $58,000 per year. The rule was estimated to impact millions of workers and secure tens of millions more in take home pay – along with reduced working hours. The Trump administration just rolled back that rule, bringing the floor back down to $35,000. Meaning that your employer can now, in 2026, call you a “management” employee, pay you as little as $35,000 per year, and force you to work more than 40 hours in a week without any more pay at all, much less time and a half. 
  • AFGE is opposing the Trump administration’s attempt to relocate USDA workers out of DC
  • AFGE held a rally in Ft. Hood, TX to fight back against management’s narrative that the union is gone
  • Anti-worker North Carolina lawmakers are trying to get “right-to-work” embedded in the state’s constitution, even though it’s already the law
  • The Trump administration is seeking to “realign” the US Forest Service in a way that the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) argues would destroy the service and be illegal