By Herbert White for the Charlotte Post, with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for North Carolina News Service reporting for the Charlotte Post-Public News Service Collaboration.

Unions have impacted every American worker.

From laws that curb the use of child labor to the 40-hour work week and holidays off, organized labor demanded - on occasion forced - governments and corporations to provide benefits and protections most people take for granted. In more practical terms, Charlotte's transit system last week averted a work stoppage that could've made it more difficult for commuters to move across the city.

Bus drivers and mechanics - represented by SMART Local 1715 - ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the company that manages Charlotte Area Transit System's bus system by a vote margin of 20 to 1. The contract calls for a wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2022, double-time for work during holidays and adds Juneteenth to the holiday schedule. It also provides night differential pay and increases workers' pension cap.

"I would like to thank the negotiations committee ... for their hard work and tireless effort to deliver a package that the members would accept," SMART Transportation Division Bus Department Vice President Calvin Studivant said in a statement. "The negotiations took more than nine months to complete, but the committee stayed focused on the task at hand and they delivered."

Although North Carolina law prohibits state, city or county government or taxpayer-funded agencies like CATS to negotiate with labor unions. RATPDev, the contract management company for CATS, handles collective bargaining with unionized workers.

"I am very thankful for the hard work that has gone into reaching this agreement, said Brent Cagle, CATS's interim CEO. "This agreement aligns with our values at the City of Charlotte. It focuses on the employee, which is our most valuable asset. This new contract calls for significant wage increases, making our operator positions among the top paid on the East Coast."

Even with greater awareness of unions and their activism, membership rates are near historic lows.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, membership as a percentage of the national workforce fell to 10.1% in 2022, which continued a slide from 2021, when the rate was 10.3%. The number of hourly and salaried workers who belong to a union increased by 273,000 to 14.3 million, a 1.9% bump over the previous year, but the overall workforce grew by 5.3 million, or 3.9%, which accounts for the overall rate drop.

Employers, and every state government in the South, contend unions hurt businesses and stifle economic growth. Every state in the region has "right to work" laws that allow employers to hire and fire without repercussion.

Capitalism, business owners and advocacy groups contend, is better prepared to take care of workers and point to lower union participation as proof of their satisfaction.

"Unions are monopoly institutions that raise wages through collective bargaining, not productivity improvements," Richard Epstein, Peter and Kirsten Bedford senior fellow adjunct at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, Calif., wrote in 2020 on the institution's website. "The ensuing higher labor costs, higher costs of negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and higher labor market uncertainty all undercut the gains to union workers just as they magnify losses to nonunion employers, as well as to the shareholders, suppliers, and customers of these unionized firms. They also increase the risk of market disruption from strikes, lockouts, or firm bankruptcies whenever unions or employers overplay their hands in negotiation. These net losses in capital values reduce the pension fund values of unionized and nonunionized workers alike."

Government workers make up a greater percentage of union members at 33.1%, more than five times higher than the private sector, which slid to an all-time low of 6%. The overall number of unionized workers is higher in the private sphere at 7.2 million than public (7.1 million).

Black workers are more likely to be union members (11.5%) than whites (10.3%) and 12.5% of Black men are members while 10.6% of Black women belong.
Unionization in the South, though, is all but an afterthought, which directly impacts compensation, benefits and workplace protections in a region where more than half of the nation's Black population live.

Racism vs. organizing

Throughout the 20th century, low-wage southern workers - especially Black people - were systematically excluded from labor protections and union rights extended to their northern peers.

During the 1930s and 1940s, when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act and National Labor Relations Act as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies, southern lawmakers crafted legislative exceptions for agricultural workers, service employees who rely on tips and domestics - where Black people were more prevalent.

As a result of racist hostility upheld through slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, the South has the lowest union density of any region in the U.S. at 6%. Accordingly, southerners are historically paid the lowest wages.

"Workers in the South face unique challenges tied to the legacy of racism that require a unique solution," said Eric Winston, a restaurant cook from Durham and a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers which formed last November in Columbia, S.C. "We are building a union despite the fact that the rules are rigged against us as Southern workers. We are building a union by any means necessary and building it in a way that makes sense for us."

Through collective action, USSW members pledge to confront the historic racism that excludes Black and brown workers from labor and minimum wage laws. Racial attitudes have also impacted attitudes on unionization. Throughout the 20th century, Business, political and bureaucratic leaders conflated labor with the civil rights movement, which were supported in large measure by unions.

During the Cold War, U.S. government agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation openly suggested Black activists with national followings such as labor leader A. Philip Randolph and civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr. were in cahoots with communists to undercut their advocacy.

Still, labor advocacy is part of Black history.

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union, a fusion of Black and white cotton workers, fought for higher wages and better treatment from landowners. Fannie Lou Hamer was a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union. Black hospital workers in Charleston, S.C., unionized and carried out a strike despite state law that forbids collective bargaining.

"You have this group of working-class women who are challenging this notion that they can't organize," said O. Jennifer Dixon-McKnight Ph.D., assistant professor of history and African American studies at Winthrop University whose researched the 1969 strike. "Their union can't be recognized, but they have these issues. As working-class Americans, they're trying to get equal pay, right? They're trying to get just the basic respect.

"When we talk about that, and the value of workers being able to organize, but realizing that in the South ... we still have a resistance to that sort of broad approach to labor and to labor organizing and labor unions.

"The question continues to be who do Black workers turn to? What is the resource, where are they supposed to get assistance? And when you think about this legacy of slavery, something that we don't often grapple with [is] the legacy of Jim Crow."

Calling on Congress

Because southern states are bastions of right-to-work law, labor activism in the region sometimes leads to demands for federal intervention.
In December, service workers contracted to Charlotte Douglas International Airport lobbied Congress to pass the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act to ensure living wages and benefits like paid time off and healthcare.

During the holiday season - the most congested and chaotic time to travel in the U.S. - airport workers complained that staffing shortages, difficult workplace conditions made basic duties like cleaning aircraft cabins, collecting trash and handling baggage more difficult.

The Charlotte workers joined protests in 15 other cities organized with the Service Employees International Union, whose 175,000 members in 12 states include 18,000 contracted airport workers.

Without healthcare, paid leave and workplace protections, airport service workers-who say their wages have been near poverty level for 20 years- are at a breaking point.

"We're working in 90-degree weather, carrying bags of trash that can weigh 70 pounds," Shawn Montgomery, a cabin cleaner for Charlotte Douglas contractor Jetstream, said in December. "I've injured both of my knees coming down the steps and now I have to wear knee braces. Sometimes we don't even have easy access to water. It can be dangerous when you're walking in the heat out on the asphalt."

JetStream cabin cleaners said they often encounter vomit, blood, and human waste on the job but are expected to do their work quickly despite understaffing.
According to a 2017 University of California study, wage hikes encourage employee retention and airport security. The airport contractors say the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act will help stabilize airports' workforce, security and move travelers on time.

"We're short staffed because the pay and benefits are not enough for what we do," said Shonda Barber, a JetStream trash truck driver who also fills in as a cabin cleaner. "I work 60 hours a week and am just barely surviving. We don't get enough paid time off, even during the pandemic. I lost two weeks without pay when I had to quarantine."
Even with increased advocacy by Black workers and awareness of labor demands, Dixon-McKnight believes change in the South will be incremental at best.
"We're heading in the right direction, but I don't think we will see meaningful change in our lifetime," she said. "I think we're still too close to Jim Crow. ...When we talk about the sort of racist campaigns of the '50s and '60s and '70s, we're only 50 years out, so that means that there are still people who carried out those kinds of things that are in power now."

Herbert White wrote this article for the Charlotte Post.


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Support for programs providing direct cash would benefit families in need in Washington state, a new report showed.

About one in four Washingtonians struggle to meet their basic needs because of low income. The Washington State Budget and Policy Center analyzed two programs currently implemented in the state: the Working Families Tax Credit and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and guaranteed basic income, which is being piloted in some parts of the state.

Leila Reynolds, campaign communications manager for the Washington State Budget and Policy Center and the report's co-author, laid out principles to ensure the programs benefit the most people possible.

"Those principles include making sure that cash programs are targeted to people who most need it; that cash is recurring so that people can depend on it," Reynolds outlined. "Usually monthly; that it's unrestricted so that families can use it in whatever way they need."

The Working Families Tax Credit provides rebates up to $1,255 to low and middle income families. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program is a federal benefit administered by the state. The Growing Resilience in Tacoma program is one example of a guaranteed basic income program in the state. It received nearly $2 million from the state legislature in 2023.

Reynolds argued restrictions are holding the programs back, such as the 60 month limit for TANF and age restrictions on the Working Families Tax Credit, which keep young adults without children from benefiting. She noted the public benefits system addresses secondary needs like housing and food assistance but doesn't target the core issue of poverty, which is a lack of cash recipients could be used as needed.

"Research has shown that overwhelmingly recipients of cash transfer programs use that money for essential needs, like food, financial emergencies," Reynolds stressed. "We know that these programs work and we just want to make sure that they're expanded."

Reynolds also notes direct cash programs have ripple effects benefiting society.

"You see health impacts," Reynolds observed. "There's been research that's shown increase in brain activity in babies, improved maternal health outcomes, improved educational outcomes, reducing recidivism, improving employment outcomes."


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State officials in Maine said they are working to expand the number of registered apprenticeship programs to help counter a persistent worker shortage.

The state hopes to add 75,000 workers to the economy over the next five years by growing career pathways in clean energy, health care, and construction.

Joan Dolan, director of apprenticeship and strategic partnerships for the Maine Department of Labor, said the number of available programs has doubled over the past few years and all are currently full.

"There is huge interest and huge need," Dolan observed. "We've been working hard for years to expand our programming and it's really started to take hold and take off."

Dolan said 90% of apprentices who complete their programs are still working for their employer a year after graduation. Studies show they'll earn at least $300,000 more over their lifetimes compared to their peers.

The majority of apprentices in Maine are in the construction industry as federal dollars continue to boost the clean energy sector. The state has worked to recruit more women into the trade along with a growing number of new Mainers. Dolan pointed out even high schoolers are taking advantage, including in the town of Skowhegan, where a group of students is earning income and skills through electrical apprenticeships after class.

"We also have developed bank teller apprenticeship programs," Dolan explained. "There's banks right in the school, so the kids are getting high school graduation credit as well as earning a paycheck and learning a job skill."

Dolan stressed apprenticeships offer lucrative career pathways for students not interested in attending college or for the many rural students who simply cannot afford it. She added anyone can become an apprentice as long as they're at least 16 years old and are committed to furthering their education both in the classroom and on the job.


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Ohio is among the many states where a majority of workers lack access to paid family leave. A new report by Groundwork Ohio finds three in four Ohioans are employed in jobs without the possibility of paid family leave. This means many parents of young children face difficult choices between work and family. Even other conservative states, like Florida and Texas, have developed voluntary systems allowing private market benefits.

Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, said the need for policies that support families and their workforce participation has never been clearer.

"There is currently a mismatch in policy, and the desires of both policymakers and the people of Ohio, when it comes to both the needs of their young children and families and the workforce," she explained.

The report was supported by grant funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. While some people may take advantage of accrued vacation or short-term disability benefits, access to these options remains uneven. Nationwide, only about half of full-time employees have short-term disability benefits, and only one in five part-time employees.

The report also highlights the economic and developmental stakes for young children in families without paid leave. Research shows that nearly 23% of new mothers in the U.S. return to work within 10 days of giving birth, driven by financial need and limited options that support newborn care. Gutierrez stresses the impact on childhood development when families lack adequate support.

"We know that one in four children under the age of five across the state of Ohio live in poverty; they're among our most vulnerable. And so, the more support we can get to children and families in that unique period of time really sets a foundation for their lifelong success," she continued.

Ohio is one of 29 states without a state-administered paid family leave law, but public support for a national policy is high. The report says 94% of Democrats, 83% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans favor a federal paid family leave policy.


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