Consider This from NPR - Want to understand America's labor movement? Head south

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

If you go by headlines, the last 12 months have delivered major wins to organized labor. But despite well publicized victories the rate of U.S. union membership fell to a record low in 2023. Just 10%. And in southern states, the push to unionize can still be a grinding, uphill battle.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you measure success in headlines, the last 12 months have been a major win for organized labor. There were strikes by Hollywood writers and actors. We are labor and we stand tall and we demand respect. And to be honored for our contribution, you share the wealth because you cannot exist without us. That was Actors Union President Fran Drescher. There was a deal for UPS workers that Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien called their most lucrative ever negotiated. I tell you straight, we got this deal without a single concession or give back from our members. We left nothing on the field. And last fall, the United Auto Workers waged a

strike against the big three automakers and won big. This contract is more than just a contract. It's a call to action to workers everywhere to organize and fight for a better life. That's union president Sean Fain, who signaled that he saw new contracts with Ford, GM, and Stellantis as just the beginning. He pledged to go bigger, to unionize non-union plants, Tesla, and foreign-owned plants in the South. When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won't just be with the big three, but with the big five or big six. We saw the first test of that plan last month with a vote to unionize a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was another union victory with 73 percent of workers voting to join the UAW. They said southern workers aren't ready for it.

They said non-union auto workers didn't have it in them. But you all said, watch this. But these splashy victories are not the whole story. The U.S. union membership rate fell to a record low in 2023, just 10 percent. And organized labor still faces especially long odds in the South, in states with right-to-work laws and governors who want to keep unions out. We will not let our state's economy suffer or become collateral damage as labor unions seek to consume new jobs and constrict new dues-paying members. That's South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster during his State of the State address.

He is one of six governors who signed a letter opposing the UAW's southern labor push. We will fight, ladies and gentlemen, we will fight all the way to the gates of hell, and we will win this battle. Consider this, if you want to understand where the labor movement in this country is headed, you want to head south. We are going to take a road trip along a 25-mile stretch of highway in Alabama that could make or break union hopes. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Consider This from NPR. Alabama workers have been at the center of three high-profile, fiercely fought labor campaigns in the past several years. They are in three different industries, but all in a state that

has anti-union attitudes enshrined in its constitution. Each of these fights can tell us something about the challenges that organized labor faces in America, and it's all been playing out along a stretch of Interstate 20 between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. So we're going to take a road trip with NPR's Andrea Hsu and Stephen Passaha of the Gulf States Newsroom as our guides. They'll take it from here. In a quarter mile, merge onto I-20 West. We're starting our drive at the latest union hotspot, Mercedes-Benz, where workers will vote on whether to join the UAW in just a couple weeks. This auto plant is massive.

More than 5,000 workers here build luxury SUVs. It's like a city. It is. It really is. Jeremy Kimbrels worked at the plant since 1999. Today, we're meeting him at a UAW outpost, where workers stop in to pick up red T-shirts, buttons. We have some hats, union yes. That was a hot item with the workers at the plant. Kimbrell's one of the lead organizers inside the plant.

And he's finding workers are not only open to unionizing, they're hungry for it. Man, unbelievable. They were like, where y'all been? And we're like, man, we've always been here. We want to know where y'all were. For years, some workers were scared. Jacob Bryan's been at the plant for a decade building toolboxes and working with robots. He remembers meeting pro-union employees when he started as a temp. They were handing out flyers in the lobby. I read it and ended up throwing it away before I got to my team room because I didn't want to be seen with a flyer. After all, unions are not exactly welcome in Alabama.

People here say the reason Mercedes and other carmakers came to Alabama was to avoid unions. And for years, this deal really paid off for workers, too. Mercedes was seen as this great employer, definitely paying a lot more than other jobs in the region. At one point, even as much as the union auto jobs up north. Given all that, Jacob Ryan worried that getting involved with the union might cost him his job. I was still a new worker, nervous. I was scared it could be bad. Are you still scared? No, not at this point.

In fact, Jacob Ryan's now the guy handing out flyers. So how did this shift happen? Well, first, things at Mercedes have changed. Workers say over the past five years, wages stopped growing. And in 2020, the company introduced a two-tier wage system. New hires would top out at a lower wage than their co-workers. And then there was the UAW strike last fall. Southern auto workers were inspired seeing the UAW win record contracts that set off an organizing blitz at Mercedes. At the same time, Mercedes has been trying to convince workers that they don't need a union. The company ended that hated two-tier pay system and announced raises. And they're warning workers that unions may be more

trouble than they're worth, citing something that happened just 10 minutes up the road. And that's where we go next on our Alabama union journey. Continue for half a mile. We cross I-20 for our destination, a coal mine owned by a company called Warrior Met Coal. This is a metallurgical coal plant, producing coal that's used not for energy but for steel. What you can see above ground is a steady stream of black coal pouring out of a chute. Yeah, how high up would you see that pile of coal is? It's probably around 100, 150 foot high. We're with Larry Spencer with United Mine Workers of America. About eight years ago, these

mines went bankrupt. Wall Street investors came in to save the business. And to save their jobs, workers agreed to big cuts to their pay and benefits. They thought that would be temporary. But five years on, the miners were still waiting to be made whole. In 2021, about a thousand of them went on strike. All they asked for was, hey, look, we've got you back on your feet. Just give us back what we had to start with. They stayed on strike for two years. For the miners and their families, going that long without their paychecks was really painful. But the company was fine.

Steel prices were skyrocketing, labor was brought in from out of state, and profits soared. Finally, the union called uncle and ended the strike. A couple hundred miners went back. Many others had already left for other jobs. And today, a year after the strike ended? We're still negotiating. We're not having much movement from them as far as getting a contract. Mercedes has been using Warrior Met as a cautionary tale. In videos they've been making workers watch, the message is, just because you have a union doesn't mean you get what you want.

Labor law is pretty weak, and companies have a lot of power and money to push back against unions. Disputes can drag on for years. Another example of this lies just half an hour east. In two miles, take exit 108. This here is our last stop off I-20 on our Alabama union tour. This massive Amazon warehouse in Bessemer. A union election at this place three years ago ignited union hopes across the country. Some workers inside this Alabama warehouse said they were tired of the constant monitoring, the constant fear of being

fired for going too slow, all for not enough pay despite the company's pandemic profits. The job at Amazon was hell on earth. Isaiah Thomas was a college student who worked on the docks at the warehouse. It was really exciting, especially like for me, to hear that workers were trying to unionize was a sense of hope. But then came the vote. The union lost overwhelmingly. J.C. Thompson was one of the no votes. Of course, I voted no. He'd started at Amazon in the spring of 2020, when COVID had shut everything else down. When people came to me to talk about it, I always asked

why, what was the need? And they, you know, always say, well, we need more money. I say, well, who don't need more money? Amazon's starting pay was 15 bucks. You're talking about way above minimum wage. And we didn't need a degree. That no vote would have been the end of the story. But labor officials found Amazon had illegally interfered in the election. So a rerun election was held a year later. This time, the election was held a year later. This time,

the election was too close to call. And again, there were complaints that the election was tainted. So a new hearing underway right now could lead to a third election. It's now been more than three years since that first vote. Still no union. But Michael Foster, who led the organizing at Amazon, says this work requires patience. This is not a rabbit race. This is a race for the turtles. He says look at everything that's happened since the first Amazon vote. Unions at Starbucks, Trader Joe's, REI, the strikes, the enthusiasm. I believe that's what our fight was for.

Not to necessarily maybe win because our win is coming, but our spark was to wake up a sleeping giant. Back at Mercedes, where we started our road trip, assembly worker Moesha Chandler says her team has definitely woken up. They're like, what's the next move? What's the next step? The momentum is great. And Chandler can't wait to start fighting for a union contract. I feel like I know that we're going to have to strike, but I'm ready for it.

So you're not just ready to sign and vote for a union. You're already thinking about striking. Absolutely. Ten steps ahead. When it comes to unions, the headlines tend to focus on the big moments, like Volkswagen just voting to unionize in Tennessee, and now possibly Mercedes in Alabama in just a couple weeks. But the real work needed to get to those moments? That takes years, with no guarantee they'll happen or that it'll pay off for workers after they do.

That was Stephen Basaja of the Gulf States Newsroom and NPR Labor and Workplace Correspondent Andrea Hsu. This episode was produced by Matt Ozog and Connor Donovan with audio engineering by Stacey Abbott. It was edited by Pallavi Gogoi and Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Sammy Yinnikin. And if you haven't heard, you can enjoy the Consider This newsletter. Just like on the podcast, we help you break down a major story of the day. You'll also get to know our producers and hosts, and we'll share some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.