Why won workers join unions?
Here on Labor Day, it’s important to consider how labor is faring, especially in the South. The region’s reputation as an anti-union stronghold is usually chalked up to a supposed anti-union sentiment on the part of the region’s workers. Over at the AFL-CIO blog, Tula Connell (who has worked as a writer in Texas and Virginia) shows that one of the biggest reasons for the low unionization rates in the South and country is how much the decked is stacked against workers who want to organize: Those of us in the union movement hear this a lot: “If workers really wanted to join unions, they would.” But at Cingular Wireless operations nationwide, 40,000 workers have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in recent months—18,000 in just the past 12 months—because Cingular respects workers’ rights to make up their own minds about unions without threats and intimidation from the employer. It’s not because the technicians and call-center workers at Cingular are any different from most
