Workers at an auto plant in Alabama recently rejected a push to unionize by the United Auto Workers (UAW). The Wall Street Journal explains that the workers don’t want to associate with the union’s progressive political priorities. The editors of the WSJ write:
Unions and their political allies claim the glory days of union organizing are back, especially in the South. One problem: workers. So it went last week in Alabama, where employees at two Mercedes-Benz plants rejected the United Auto Workers in a vote that wasn’t close, 56% to 44%.
Shawn Fain, the tough-talking UAW president, accused Mercedes of intimidating workers and engaging in illegal behavior, which is the classic excuse after a union loses an election. “This loss stings,” Mr. Fain said. “There are more than 2,000 workers at Mercedes in Alabama who want to join our union. They aren’t going away.” But neither are the 2,600 Mercedes workers in Alabama who didn’t want the UAW.
There’s no blaming poor turnout or worker apathy, since about 4,700 ballots were cast, out of 5,100 eligible employees. The UAW could and no doubt will try again, as it did with the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., where the union succeeded in April on its third try in a decade.
Still, it’s apparent that many workers aren’t interested in what the union is selling, which is less about job security than progressive priorities that extend well past the workplace. Mr. Fain presents himself as the vanguard of left-wing politics, as when he denounced Israel’s effort to destroy Hamas in Gaza. The UAW “has been calling for a ceasefire for six months,” he said recently. Why should line workers in Tuscaloosa pay dues for that?
Unions keep losing labor-market share, and official figures show the downward slide hasn’t stopped. Last year 10% of workers were union members, down from 10.1% in 2022. In the private economy, the rate was unchanged at 6%. But among public workers it fell to 32.5%, from 33.1%. Such annual changes might look small, but that’s how erosion works, a little at a time. In 2000 the private workforce was 9% unionized, and for public employees it was 36.9%.
This trend is why union leaders increasingly rely on their political allies to tilt the negotiating rules to make it easier for unions to organize while limiting how employers can fight back. It’s why unions dislike right-to-work laws in the South that let individual workers have the choice of whether to join a union.
But when employers are able and willing to make the case against putting Mr. Fain in charge of their workplaces, workers who like their jobs will listen.
Action Line: Just like ESG, unions are a tool to use your money to push someone else’s political agenda. No thanks. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
