This coming week the workers at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama will be voting on whether or not they will become a Union plant. The United Auto Workers Union is one of the strongest organized labor unions in the United States. They are homebased in Detroit, Michigan, and affiliated with the AFL-CIO. There has been a lot of controversy between the workers who support the Union and those who do not. There has also been a big pushback from state officials. Alabama is a “right to work” state and the Republicans want to keep it that way.
As some of the 70% of non-union workers in Alabama have signed cards in an attempt to set a union vote, a new bill was introduced in Montgomery that would prohibit companies receiving state economic assistance from voluntarily recognizing a Union. The current law is that an employer can recognize a Union if a majority of the employees sign the cards to join the Union. Economic incentives and “right to work” law has been crucial to Alabama drawing new non-union businesses and industries to the state. Decatur Republican State Senator Arthur Orr filed a bill that is modeled after a similar bill in Georgia. Orr’s bill will make employers ineligible for economic incentives if they recognize a Union based solely on signed authorization cards if that bargaining representative could be selected through a secret ballot process. Gov. Ivey has vowed to aggressively fight the UAW’s $46 million dollar campaign to unionize the South’s non-union car makers. By the way, it was a Democrat Governor, Don Siegleman who is responsible for Alabama becoming an automobile manufacturing state.
Why do the Republicans fight so hard to keep Unions out of Alabama? If you check the campaign donations of any Republican in Alabama, you will find your answer. The Republicans have gone to embracing the corporate agenda of destroying Unions and giving unrestricted power to the employers. The section of the Republican Party platform dealing with labor does not have the word “labor” or “union” in it. Instead, it’s called “Freedom in the Workplace.” It’s pretty clear that the Republican Party is not interested in liberating workers from oppressive bosses or low wages. Their goal is freeing bosses from having to negotiate with workers, answer grievances, and respect the employees’ rights.
If Unions are so bad, why do the Democrats support them? Simple. They are not “so bad.” The Democratic Party is on the side of the working people and supports the Unions in collective bargaining to secure higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions. That’s not all Unions do. They also have positive benefits on the worker’s life outside of the workplace. It gives the workers a voice to shape their communities to have more equitable economic structures, social structures, and democracies. States with the highest Union densities have a population of almost 5% lower than that of low Union-density states. They also have elected to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act that protects their residents from falling into the coverage gap. Alabama is one of the anti-union states that did NOT expand Medicaid that has resulted in hospital closings and thousands of citizens being without any healthcare coverage.
One big advantage of Unions is higher wages and decrease in income inequality. On an average, a worker who has a Union contract earns 10% more in wages. Unions also help to reduce gender and racial wage gaps. Hourly wages for women represented by a Union are almost 5% higher on average than for non-union women with comparable jobs. Furthermore, Union employers are more likely to offer retirement plans and contribute more toward those plans than non-union employers. Union workers are most likely to have paid sick days, vacation and holidays, more input into the number of hours they work, and more predictable schedules. Unions also improve the health and safety of the workplace by providing health insurance, requiring safety equipment and empowering workers to report unsafe conditions without fear of retaliation. The so-called “right to work” legislation that weakens Unions has been associated with a roughly 14% increase in the rate of occupational fatalities.
Unions are the key to the success of any policy intended to create and improve jobs for the working class. Congress must take steps to make it easier to join a Union through measures such as passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.
District 4 Representative Robert Aderholt has voted against bills such as the Collective Bargaining for Public Safety Officers that include our law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel. His campaign funding shows that his loyalty lies with his corporate donors and not with the thousands of blue-collar workers who work and live in District 4. This is the mystery as to why anyone who clocks in an hourly job would vote for representatives like Aderholt who do not have their best interests in mind. Of course, Aderholt is not alone in his distaste against Unions. It is shared by every Republican who serves the public in Alabama.
Lynda Kirkpatrick
Marion County Democratic Party Chair
Representative SDEC HD17