Virginia is seeing a significant and remarkable expansion of its small but wily labor movement. In a labor movement urgently in need of new union organizing experimentation it would certainly be of value to consider the situation in Virginia.
After a victory in Tennessee and a loss in Alabama, the UAW is pressing onward in its fight to organize the notoriously anti-union South. The fate of Southern workers — and all workers — depends on the movement’s willingness to think big.
After nearly a year of organizing for raises, an end to mandatory meal deductions & safer working conditions, thousands of Waffle House workers at over 1,500 stores across the South have won an increase in base pay of more than $3/hour plus more.
Nearly 200 rank and filers who are developing a movement of workers in the South gathered in Charlotte, NC on May 17 – 19 for the 2024 Southern Worker School.
Rather than using traditional organizing committee structures, the UAW relied heavily on digital meetings, a light staff approach from the international union, and getting workers to sign union cards via QR codes. It was a gamble but worth it.
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