Last Week in Southern Labor: 7/3 – 7/10

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 July 3rd to 10th.

New Campaigns

404 workers in 12 bargaining units have gone public with their union campaigns, and 3 workers in 1 bargaining unit are trying to decertify their union

  • 71 workers at Herzog Transit Services, Inc. in Kansas City, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 955
  • 31 workers at Heritage Center in Huntington, WV filed a petition to hold a union election with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 WV/KY/OH 
  • 85 workers at Lockheed Martin Corporation in Fort Smith, AR filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW)
  • 54 workers at Menzies Aviation MCO in Orlando, FL filed a petition to hold a union election with the Transportation Workers Union (TWU)
  • 17 workers at Brenntag Mid-South, LLC in Richmond, VA filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 592 
  • 11 workers at MV Transportation Inc in Augusta, GA filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 528
  • Workers likely pushed by their employer filed a petition to decertify the IAMAW District 75 as the union representing 3 workers at General Dynamics Information Technology in Panama City, FL
    • There is, strangely, a union election petition filed for what is described as the same class of workers (field technician 3) at the same company in the same town by the same union on the same day
  • 9 workers at American Electric Power in Uvalde, TX filed a petition to hold a union election with the International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 738
  • 10 workers at ABM INDUSTRIES in Louisville, KY filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local 89
  • 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 
  • 94 workers at Bradley Technologies Inc. / American Eagle Protective Services in Birmingham, AL filed a petition to hold a union election with the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) 
  • 14 workers at Clean Harbors (dba, Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc.) in Independence, MO filed a petition to hold a union election with the Teamsters Local Union 541

Election Results

37 workers in 1 bargaining unit withdrew their petition for a union election, 79 workers in 1 bargaining unit voted against unionization, and 954 workers in 10 bargaining units voted in favor of unionization

  • 131 workers at Gloster Forest Products, LLC in Gloster, MS voted 59 to 51 in favor of unionization with the United Steel Workers (USW)
  • 201 workers at Highline Warren LLC in Glen Dale, WV voted 108 to 70 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 697
  • 28 workers at Green Energy Origin Tennessee, LLC in Memphis, TN voted 22 to 2 in favor of unionization with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM)
  • 25 workers at Starbucks Corporation in Greensboro, NC voted 14 to 3 in favor of unionization with Starbucks Workers United 
  • 79 workers at Oak View Health & Rehabilitation in Conway, SC voted 21 to 37 against unionization with the USW
  • 11 workers at IMI Kentucky LLC in Bardstown, KY voted 10 to 1 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 89
  • 37 workers at Mid-South Electric Cooperative Association in Navasota, TX withdrew their petition with the IBEW Locals 66 and 738 
  • 46 workers at Proper Brands in Rock Hill, MO voted 25 to 21 in favor of unionization with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 655 
  • 70 workers at Southern Readymix, LLC in Locust Grove, GA voted 41 to 22 in favor of unionization with the Teamsters Local 528 
  • 227 workers at GardaWorld Security Services in North Charleston, SC voted 40 to 6 in favor of unionization with the SPFPA
  • Dozens of Transportation Operations Management (TOM) Team drivers at Amazon in Liberty, MO joined Teamsters Local 41, presumably through sending a request for voluntary recognition to the employer which went unanswered, rendering them automatically unionized under the Cemex rule at the NLRB
  • 191 workers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Engineering Laboratory in Washington, DC voted in favor of unionization with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3403

Grievances, Unfair Labor Practices, Court Cases

  • The federal government is infringing on the speech of its workers. That’s what the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is alleging in a lawsuit. Specifically, they say that management has instructed workers to “remove any and all NTEU materials” in IRS facilities including at employees own desks (where other personal effects are allowed, such as family pictures) using “whatever steps are necessary” short of vandalism of government property. In their suit, they say that “In cases involving a broad ban on group speech, ‘the government must show that the interests of both potential audiences and a vast group of present and future employees in a broad range of present and future expression are outweighed by that expressions’ necessary impact on the actual operation of the government, this is an exacting standard. Here, NTEU materials remaining in common space and employee workstations at IRS facilities have no ‘impact on the actual operations of the government.’ Indeed, those types of signs and posters have been in IRS workplaces for decades.”

Strikes & Bargaining

  • Ashland Specialty Chemicals wants to steal earned benefits from their workers. 70 workers at the company in Texas City, TX have been on strike since June 24th. Workers there – organized into several unions and bargaining under the umbrella of the Texas Metal Trades Council – decided to strike because the company is attempting to force concessions on the workers, including eliminating union jobs through outsourcing and slashing paid sick time. Houston Public Media spoke to one worker who has worked for Ashland for 3 decades and has accumulated 13 weeks of paid sick leave. Under the contract proposed by Ashland and voted down by workers, his sick leave bank would be reduced to 48 hours. The workers are also lodging complaints about being forced to work outside their crafts – and without proper training – which is creating safety issues on the job. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) reached out to both the unions and the company to offer mediation services. The unions have accepted, but there has been no word yet from the company.
  • Workers at WLRN – a public radio station in Miami, FL – just ratified their first union contract. Their union, SAG-AFTRA, said the contract includes guaranteed raises every year of the four year contract, with some workers seeing an immediate 20% pay increase, doubles the paid parental leave they get, and more. The workers organized in 2024
  • North Carolina library workers in Wake County – organized with UE Local 150 despite a ban on public sector collective bargaining in the state – are organizing against cuts to staff hours. While they were unsuccessful in reducing budget cuts at the county commission this year, they have included nearly 50% of the 600 person unit in some of their actions, and have turned their eye towards organizing for next years budget to get the reductions reversed
  • BF Goodrich said they are going to close a Tuscaloosa tire plant, which will impact approximately 1,000 members of the United Steel Workers (USW) Local 351L. This is another huge plant closure in Alabama affecting the USW under a Trump presidency (in 2019/2020, Goodyear closed a Gadsden plant that was represented by the USW)

political & Legislative

  • More money for the wealthy paid for by less healthcare for everyone else, higher prices, and fewer jobs. One year out from the passage of the so called “Big Beautiful Bill,” we can start to evaluate its real world impacts. The AFL-CIO has the receipts: $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1%, 3 million people kicked off their health insurance, ⅔ of $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, 58% increases to premiums, record high deductibles, virtually zero job growth in 2025, and higher utility bills while gutting new energy investments from the Biden administration. President Liz Shuler reminded us that this was “made possible by every senator and representative who voted to sell out working people and pick their pockets to hand another payday to corporations and billionaires”
  • The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act was introduced in the House, to broad opposition from federal unions and veterans groups. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said that the legislation “would undercut earned benefits for our nation’s military veterans, strip workplace rights and protections from thousands of psychologists at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and push more veterans outside the VA for their health care”. In particular the union raises concerns about the fact that under this bill, psychologists would be converted to Title 38 employees. They explain that “the collective bargaining rights of Title 38 employees are limited by statute. In practice, this means that VA does not allow them to negotiate over routine workplace issues like scheduling or raise grievances over things like staffing shortages that undermine patient care or in situations where the VA fails to provide promotion and advancement opportunities that would attract health care workers to the VA. Title 38 employees also not allowed to utilize the negotiated grievance process to challenge management’s failure to pay them correctly or when the VA violates its own policies.” Disabled Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) also oppose the legislation. William Attig, previous executive director of the Union Veterans Council (which also opposes the bill), announced that he was renouncing his American Legion membership because they have supported the bill – being one of the only major veterans group to do so
  • The Tennessee Valley Authority – the public utility provider for all of Tennessee and a portion of 6 other surrounding states – is tightening up on data centers, saying that any new data centers requiring more than 100MW of energy will require direct approval from the full board, and they must come to the board with a plan to pay for the infrastructure upgrades themselves
  • Assaults on transit operators at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in Atlanta have apparently attracted federal scrutiny, but workers told Georgia Public Broadcasting that they’ve been trying to raise the alarm for a long time without results. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 732 say that assaults have gotten worse and more frequent while police response times have decreased
  • Transportation Communications Union (TCU-IAM) members at Ft Worth, TX based BNSF railroad ratified a new 5 year agreement that increases pay by 17.5%, increases paid time off, and preserves healthcare benefits
  • Oliver Larkin, a union organizer and DSA member convinced delegates at the Florida AFL-CIO not to endorse Jared Moskowitz, the person he is running against. We interviewed Larkin here, and covered the FL AFL-CIO’s refusal to endorse here.