This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1486796
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1486796
Union membership is a rising tide that lifts all boats. If Rs cared about the working class, they would be all over this.
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“…many of whom have expressed concern that UAW success would undermine the region’s carefully crafted approach to economic development.”
"Is “economic development” what we’re now calling bending over to give giant global companies every single thing they demand, obliterating your tax base and shifting that burden onto the very ignorant morons you claim to represent in exchange for massive campaign contributions so these “concerned” far right halfwits can stay in power forever? Asking for a friend.
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“United we bargain. Alone we beg.”
It’s just that simple.
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What great news! Not only is this a great economic win for working class Southerners, it’s a big deal politically! Hopefully. this will eventually sound the death knell of state “Right to Work” laws, which are actually laws that try to prevent any form of labor organizing. United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain is the best thing to happen to organized labor since the fall of Teamsters racketeering President Jimmy Hoffa!
Workers of the World Unite, and Up the Revolution!
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One industry that really, really needs organizing is the RV industry (here in Northern Indiana).
They pay high wages, but somehow they “seasonally” (?) have big layoffs just before most of the workers become eligible for sick pay/health coverage.
Maybe back in the olden days when RVs were a new thing, there was truly a seasonal demand that prompted laying off workers til “next year,” but my guess is that these days, it’s more like the auto industry.
Some people are so attracted by the high wages that they overlook that their annual pay is not really more than that of a lower-waged steady job and that they don’t have decent benefits.
Add to that the safety violations. One person I know said they (and others) don’t file OSHA complaints because they would be fired.
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Indiana is one Midwest state that has gone far down the path of what I call the NASCAR-ization of the Midwest: it has adopted the politics and the cultural mores of the old Confederacy. It’s gone almost as far in my native state, Ohio, which I now think of as Alabama with lake-effect snow. A shame, considering both states were part of the old Northwest Territories, created explicitly without slavery. For most of the country’s history, they served as engines of industrial and social progress (think of the original land grant colleges). Now, it’s mostly a knockoff of the Deep South.
As for the UAW in the South, that nauseating termagant Kay Ivey in Alabama basically threatened workers at the Mercedes plant in a statement. The message was essentially that the only way you can have a job in Alabama is with low wages and no rights (the Wall Street term for that is “a flexible workforce”).
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i.e. Pay workers less. Interesting economic theory. Workers making more money is bad for the economy.
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Hahaha!
And to be literal, that’s what I’m often thinking on my commute to the barn – Nascar-ization: an idiot driving as fast as they can, as loudly as they can, swerving in and out of lanes (too close) and/or tailgating…
Indiana - home of the Indy 500 [idiots per township].
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Worth a listen: Formerly Anti-Union Volkswagen Worker Explains Why He Switched to Pro-Union
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The more workers make, the more likely they are to engage in activities that elevate and educate themselves and their children. The last damned thing any local republican shithead wants is educated voters who might start asking questions. So keep their wages low and make sure their lives suck, meanwhile keep pointing at brown and black people as the problem keeping them down and stay in office forever.
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This is going to be interesting, because european car companies, at least, have a long history of working pretty well with unions in other countries. Not purely the politicians holding this back, but a lot of it.
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this was excellent. I’m so impressed with this guy and everything he had to say, especially once he got rolling! thanks, I’m so glad you posted it.
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Good lord, I hope he runs for office! What a well-spoken individual. Never once was there an “um” or an “uhhh” while he struggled for what to say next. His degree as a communications major was a good choice. Clear, logical explanations - of the workplace, managements failure to address issues, of the impact on the workers.
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The UAW has also recently enjoyed another organizing victory in the South:
Daimler Truck agreed to a new labor contract on Friday with over 7,300 hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) at six facilities in the U.S. South, averting a strike at the 11th hour.
“For months, we said that record profits should mean a record contract with no concessions,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a late-night appearance on YouTube from Charlotte, North Carolina, near where the company has plants.
“Our determination and solidarity has delivered,” he said of the tentative deal, which workers still must ratify.
Daimler Truck, which makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses, had faced the possibility of a strike beginning at midnight ET.
Daimler Truck said in a statement: “The UAW members… will now be asked to vote on the new contracts, and we hope to finalize them soon, for the mutual benefit of all parties.”
The deal at the German truck maker, which was spun off from what is now automaker Mercedes, comes just three weeks before votes on whether to join the UAW will be tallied at a Mercedes assembly plant in Alabama.
Fain’s speech on Friday started almost an hour later than scheduled as Daimler Truck made late concessions, Fain explained. Several times during the talks last fall with the Detroit Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Stellantis - the threat of a deadline led the companies to make concessions to avoid the strike’s expansion.
Under Friday’s deal, Daimler Truck workers will receive a minimum 25% general wage increase over the four-year contract, Fain said. That would match what workers at the Detroit Three received.
When the deal is ratified, Fain said members will receive an immediate 10% pay raise, followed by 3% increases six months and 12 months later.
They also will receive cost-of-living adjustments to offset inflation and profit-sharing, both for the first time at Daimler Truck, as well as the end of wage tiers that paid those building buses less than those building heavy trucks, he said.
The lowest paid workers at Thomas Built will see raises of more than $8 an hour and some skilled trades workers at that unit will see increases of more than $17 an hour, Fain said.
The deal also includes increased job security and improved health and safety benefits, he said.
About 96% of the Daimler Truck workers at four factories in North Carolina, and parts warehouses in Georgia and Tennessee had voted in March to authorize a strike.
The union had also filed unfair labor practice charges with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against the company, citing violation of workers’ rights and federal labor laws, and for failing to bargain in good faith.
Since the deals last fall with the Detroit Three, the UAW has turned its efforts to organizing non-union U.S. plants of more than a dozen automakers.
The UAW clinched a historic victory at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week, and workers at a Mercedes factory in Vance, Alabama, are going to vote on whether to join the union during the week of May 13.
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Wow! That was great. Having lived in the South for 15 years (outa NY) this guy said it all, perfectly.
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