Get ready to hear more squawks - and ads - from Tennessee and Georgia lawmakers and big business leaders about the vastly overstated evils of labor unions.
Why? Tennessee, which in 2020 was the third least unionized state in the country, led the nation in 2021 labor union gains - up 23.9% by bringing the number of unionized workers from 117,000 to 145,000.
And Georgia ranked No. 7 in union jobs gains - up 8.8% by moving its number of union workers from 194,000 to 211,000.
This despite a nationwide drop of 241,000 in labor union membership overall. Today only 10.3% of all workers are union members
Yes, it's true that Tennessee's and Georgia's combined growth of 45,000 union jobs is a drop in the bucket, and the total union jobs of both states is still a few thousand short of the total population of Hamilton County.
But in this time when the pandemic has shaken the working world out like a dust mop, unionization has a new outlook in Tennessee - especially with Ford Motor Co.'s autumn announcement of new electric vehicle and battery plants in Tennessee, and Volkswagen's new expansion in its Chattanooga plant,
It was those announcements that had the Tennessee General Assembly buzzing in an October special session last year when it met to approve more than $900 million in incentives for Ford, which alone will create about 5,800 jobs - some of which arguably will go to workers who will choose to join a union.
On the heels of this headline - "Tennessee lawmakers to consider $900 million package for Ford project" - came this one: "Tennessee Republicans push to enshrine right-to-work laws as unions gain strength amid worker shortage." By "enshrine," they mean add the right-to-work law language to the state's constitution.
The timing was not coincidental. Most of us recall the incredible brouhaha here some years ago when Volkswagen invited two worker votes (unsuccessfully) to allow its employees to join the United Auto Workers.
With Ford's announcement, the burning question was: Would the Ford jobs be union jobs? The answer, according to the Detroit Free Press, was: "Maybe. It all depends on the UAW (headquartered in Detroit) and its organizing skill."
(READ MORE: Tennessee lawmakers OK $900 million incentive package for Ford plant)
That same week AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond was addressing the Tennessee AFL-CIO annual convention in Nashville about our state's existing right-to-work laws and how they continue the South's history of trying to take advantage of workers and hurt their ability to make a fair wage.
"Right-to-work is a direct descendent of Jim Crow and it should have no place in our society, much less in the state Constitution," Redmond said. "Workers are fed up and America is taking notice of our collective action. Working people are waking up and understanding the value of labor unions."
This page has not always sung union praises. Specifically, we still oppose the Tennessee Education Association's fight against state testing to track student learning gains as a yardstick of teacher effectiveness. Of course teacher effectiveness should be a factor in teacher pay and even employment!
But we wholeheartedly agree with Redmond's assessment that many workers of all stripes are fed up with low-paying jobs and skimpy, if any, raises as too many employers take advantage of any excuse not to improve pay and working conditions. We also agree that workers are taking notice right now, especially in the wake of the pandemic, that they have more collective power than they have had in many years.
More than 10,000 John Deere & Co. workers successfully went on strike in 2021 in the first major walkout in that company in 30 years. Another 1,400 Kellogg workers, including hundreds in Memphis, did the same over forced overtime as the company posted rising profits.
Despite the national drop in union membership, a Gallup poll of American workers last year showed union approval is at its highest level in over 50 years, with 68% supporting organized labor, including 77% of young people. What's more, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that some 60 million Americans "would join a labor union if they could."
All of this is driving Tennessee's Republican elected officials - the same ones who won't let Tennessee have a minimum wage - crazy.
In addition to the constitutional right-to-work amendment, Republican members in the Tennessee legislature are also pushing a bill from Chattanooga's Rep. Robin Smith and Sen. Bo Watson to ban state financial incentives for businesses moving to Tennessee if the companies don't allow workers to vote in secret on union representation.
This brings us back to our lawmakers wanting to "enshrine" into the state constitution our right-to-work law, which makes it illegal for workplaces to require mandatory labor union membership for employees as a condition for employment. Our lawmakers already have approved such a constitutional amendment, but whether it flies is up to us. We voters will decide it in November.
Make your own decision and be ready to vote. This is one thing Tennessee lawmakers can't shove down your throat unless you let them.