Julie Su touts UAW’s win within the South: ‘That alternative belongs to the employees’

“That choice belongs to the worker, free from intervention, either by the employer or by politicians, free from retaliation and threats,” Su instructed The Related Press in an interview Thursday in Atlanta. “And what we are seeing is that workers who were thought to be too vulnerable to assert that right are doing it, and they’re doing it here in the South.”

The United Auto Staff union vowed a broad marketing campaign to organize southern auto assembly plants after successful profitable new contracts in a confrontation with Detroit’s automakers. Final week, 73% of those voting at a Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee selected to join the UAW. It was the union’s first in a Southern meeting plant owned by a overseas automaker.

Staff at Mercedes factories in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will vote on UAW illustration in Might, and the corporate has additionally focused vegetation in Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.

However political and enterprise leaders in southern states have lengthy fought organized labor. Forward of the Volkswagen vote, six Southern Republican governors criticized the UAW’s organizing drive, arguing that autoworkers who vote for union illustration would jeopardize jobs. Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee on Monday known as the union vote “a mistake” and “a loss for workers.”

Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley mentioned in February that his company will “think carefully” about the place it’ll construct new automobiles after the UAW’s strike final 12 months. If the UAW organizes different automakers, it may elevate their prices, main them to construct extra automobiles exterior america. However Su mentioned President Joe Biden’s administration is targeted on supporting jobs within the nation, noting grants to automakers to assist a transition to electrical automobiles.

“So the auto industry is an iconic American industry,” Su mentioned earlier than chatting with the African American Mayors Affiliation. “We want to make sure that employers who do right by their workers, who come to the bargaining table in good faith, who negotiate fair contracts, can also thrive and profit by using U.S. workers.”

Biden is backing unions in different methods. Su famous the administration in January finalized a rule mandating unionized labor on all federal building initiatives costing greater than $35 million, regardless of complaints from nonunion contractors that the rule reduces competitors and will increase prices.

“That’s one way that we ensure that you’ve got good union workers on jobs,” Su mentioned, saying union labor agreements are rising sharply on building initiatives.

Southern states are additionally pushing legal guidelines that will claw back economic incentive dollars if firms acknowledge unions with out requiring a secret poll election. Each main southern auto plant has acquired state financial improvement help.

Federal legislation additionally permits employers to acknowledge unions if a majority of employees return signed playing cards authorizing unions to signify them, a course of often called card test. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed such a legislation Monday; Lee signed one in Tennessee final 12 months. Alabama lawmakers are advancing such a measure.

Supporters consider unions can unfairly stress employees into signing playing cards, whereas employers have a greater likelihood of defeating unions in secret poll elections. However those that assist unions argue the legal guidelines violate the Nationwide Labor Relations Act, which permits voluntary recognition. In addition they say that employers use secret poll elections to scare employees away from unions.

Su mentioned she’s unsure if the Labor Division will search to problem the legal guidelines, noting the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, which oversees union affairs, has major accountability. However she mentioned that “there are federal standards beneath which no worker should have to live and work.”

Su additionally decried union busting exercise by employers, calling it “unacceptable.” She cited a 2017 survey that confirmed almost half of American employees would vote to unionize if they’d the chance.

“This is part of President Biden’s promise to center workers in the economy,” Su mentioned. “He has said he’s the most pro-worker, pro-union president in history, and we are going to make good on that promise. And that includes making sure that workers have the right to join a union.”

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