alternatehistory.com

Just learned that General Motors has turned a profit for the 100th consecutive quarter. Its largest factory is in Birmingham, Alabama. No surprise that half of the UAW membership lives in Alabama.

Surprised? The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) is most active in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Not only is the ILGWU rank-and-file working in the textile mills but you can also find their members working at Sears, Kohl's and Kmart. ILGWU Local 34, its largest chapter, is located in Charlotte.

Let's not forget about the shipyard workers in Mobile, New Orleans and Fort Lauderdale. They are in the Teamsters (and you thought only the UPS truck drivers were Teamsters).

All these union members form the bedrock of the middle class right here in Dixie. But right in Mississippi, the state legislature is discussing a right to work bill. If this passes, Mississippi will become the first state in the South to have such a law.

What would happen if right to work existed in the South, where labor unions are flourishing? What would have had to happen to bring right to work laws to the South?

Would non-union workers still be able to join the middle class and win such hard earned rights like the minimum wage, health benefits and retirement pensions? Or would we have the situation that is happening now in the midwest, California and Oregon?
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