Will unions sweep the American South?

Last July automotive elements as heavy as a small horse fell on Renee Barry. Three surgical procedures later she has metallic rods, bolts and screws up her arms and can’t carry her two-year-old grandchild. In her 14 years engaged on the meeting line on the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she discovered the manufacturing unit ground to be disorganised and unsafe. Ultimately she joined a union drive to influence her colleagues to take motion. When employees voted in late April to make Volkswagen the primary international carmaker within the South to unionise, Ms Barry fell to the ground in pleasure, raised her palms and referred to as out: “Thanks, Lord, you heard our cry.”

The United Auto Staff (UAW) union hopes that the Volkswagen victory will set off a domino impact throughout the sunbelt, a area that has lengthy been hostile to labour organisers. However was the win a fluke or a bellwether? That query will quickly be examined: subsequent week 6,100 employees on the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, are because of vote on whether or not to unionise. There, issues look much less beneficial for the UAW.