Organizing in the South

I recently had the good fortune to spend a year living in Montgomery, Alabama. Our family had a great time, met great friends, ate great food. Alabama has a couple of very strong unions - the Alabama Education Association, for instance - but generally, I didn't see much organizing. Around the time I moved there, Hyundai started building a plant south of Montgomery, and this was a very big deal. The reason the South is so tempting to these new auto plants is the reduced risk that they will be unionized. I am glad to report that trouble, at least for the automakers*, is already afoot.

The Teamsters** are organizing workers at an auto plant outside of Montgomery. The NLRB has just issued a complaint against the employer Daehan Solutions for threatening to close the plant if the workers chose the union in the upcoming election. The election will be held on November 30, and, if the union wins, it would be one of the first union auto plants in the area.

* Of course, the workers are probably going to face some troubles of their own. The Teamsters filed this unfair labor practice charge on November 2, and the Board already issued a complaint. That suggests that the Board got good evidence quickly (and that they don't have much else to do). It also suggests that management expects that they can act with impunity against pro-union workers since most "trained" managers know better than to come out and tell folks that the plant will close if they choose the union.

** I wonder whether the fact that the Teamsters are doing this organizing reflects a jurisdictional challenge to UAW, now that IBT are CTW, not AFL-CIO. I don't know whether the United Autoworkers are also organizing down there or not. Anyone?