Labor Day Report: Southern Edition – National & International News – MON 5Sep2022
Labor Day in the South: Alabama coal miners’ strike now in 18th month. Starbucks ordered to rehire “Memphis 7” after firing them for union activity. Louisiana Dollar General employees find unique way to organize.
A new report from the non-profit Oxfam America found that Mississippi is among the five worst states for workers in the US. It may come as no surprise the other four states are also in the South. Workers in these five states have the lowest pay and the fewest worker protections. They’re also unlikely to have any sick leave or family leave.
States with low pay and poor worker protections also experience the highest rates of poverty, food insecurity and infant mortality. Oxfam researcher Kaitlyn Henderson said, “The country is becoming a patchwork where where you live determines whether you are protected at work and if you can have a family”. The US is the only developed nation that doesn’t guarantee any sick pay and family leave for its workers.
It’s no coincidence that many of these states also have no protections for workers who organize or join unions. Despite the recent rise in union activity, union membership in the US is still at its lowest in 100 years. In the South especially, the word “union” comes with a lot of baggage. Workplace cultures in the South have conditioned workers to view unions as “outsiders” who just want their money or might get them fired.
In honor of Labor Day, I want to recognize a few recent stories about organized labor in the South that deserve more attention.
Warrior Met Coal workers strike
Coal miners working for Warrior Met Coal in Alabama have been on strike for 18 months.
In Brookwood, Alabama, hundreds of coal miners for Warrior Met Coal have been on strike for over 18 months. Workers say they’re motivated to continue the strike because the company failed to make good on a promise they made to workers six years ago. In 2015, Warrior Met Coal bought the company from Walter Energy, which was going bankrupt. Representatives from Warrior Met convinced workers to accept cuts in pay and benefits so that the company could get back on its feet. In five years, they said, we’ll offer you a better contract.
Warrior Met produces coal for steel making rather than power generation, which means their profits haven’t been heavily impacted by new climate legislation. So, five years after workers agreed to a massive pay cut, Warrior Met was doing very well. But still no more generous contract was forthcoming for the workers. After negotiations with management fell through, the workers called a strike in April 2021 and have been picketing from morning till night ever since.
Workers say the strike isn’t just about the money. Despite promises from Warrior Met, the workers still have no insurance to cover their families. Not only that, the plant has imposed strict attendance policies. Workers who arrive late due to family emergencies get strikes, which can add up to a dismissal. They also want Sundays off to spend with their families.
The striking workers credit their resilience to the support of their union, the United Mine Workers of America. Some of the workers are second and third-generation UMWA members. During the strike, UMWA has been helping their members stay afloat with monthly strike insurance checks. These checks don’t nearly match the workers’ salary, but donations have also come in from other unions in solidarity.
Starbucks’ Memphis 7
The “Memphis 7” rejoice after hearing a judge has ruled Starbucks must rehire them.
We’ve probably all heard about the hundreds of Starbucks stores that are unionizing across the country. In January, seven workers at the Bluff City Starbucks store in Memphis announced that they were petitioning the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote. The workers even invited a local television news crew to the store to talk about their efforts. In February, shortly after the news segment aired, Starbucks fired all seven workers, claiming they’d violated store policy.
Just last month, a federal judge ordered that Starbucks immediately reinstate the Memphis 7. The judge found that Starbucks had unfairly targeted the workers for their organizing activities. Starbucks is planning to appeal the decision.
Starbucks has been particularly aggressive in its union busting activities. Other workers claim they’ve been fired for organizing, and the NLRB recently ruled that the company had illegally blocked wage increases for union stores.
Louisiana Dollar General workers
Dollar store workers across the South are calling attention to safety issues and poverty wages in the industry.
Dollar stores are a growing business that has exploded during the pandemic, especially in the South. National chains have opened up thousands of new stores. In some communities they may be the only store. More stores means more Southern workers than ever are working in this industry. Despite rapidly growing profits, most of their workers in this industry have low pay and few benefits.
In Louisiana, workers at Dollar General locations have experienced health and safety issues and struggled with low pay. Some have reached out to Step Up Louisiana, a labor advocacy group, not a union. Step Up Louisiana supports unions and labor organizing, but isn’t itself a union. Not being a union means that they can’t engage in collective bargaining with employers. Instead, Step Up uses different tactics to advocate for better workplaces.
One thing Step Up does is bring direct media attention to workers’ issues. This is what they did in the case of Kenya Slaughter, a Dollar General worker in Alexandria, LA. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dollar General had done little to protect its workers. Step Up used its connections to get the New York Times to publish an opinion piece by Slaughter calling out the company.
The response was immediate. Soon after Slaughter’s story ran, Dollar General sent out protective gear to its stores. “(I) did not need a union to get that done and it got gone expeditiously,” Slaughter said. “I had all types of people calling my phone trying to see what they can do”.
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