September 2, 2013
Organize the South or Die

Why the South Matters to the Future of Labor by MaryBe McMillan
As the AFL-CIO and its affiliates contemplate the future of the labor movement, national labor leaders should look to the South for a glimpse of what that future might be. Workers in the South have the lowest wages, the fewest worker protections, and the least union representation. For decades, southern states have been “right to work for less” and have limited or denied their public employees the right to collectively bargain. Given the region’s culture and laws, unions have not invested heavily in organizing the region. And so, it’s no surprise that voters in the South keep electing state and federal officials who vote time and again against workers’ interests.
The anti-worker culture of the South has an impact far beyond the Mason-Dixon line. Southern Tea Party conservatives block progressive policies in Congress. Companies are increasingly moving to the South in order to lower labor costs and avoid union contracts. And more states are adopting the union-busting laws that originated in the South and now form the basis for ALEC model bills.
What happens in the South affects the nation, and the region’s influence will only grow as the South gains in both population and political representation. So what does that mean for the labor movement and for workers? Is our future one of greater worker exploitation, continued decline in union membership and increasingly hostile laws?
Or is there a brighter future? If we look closely at the South, we see all the strategies that national labor leaders now seek to embrace. We see a labor movement that has long valued coalition building and community engagement. We see lasting partnerships between labor, faith, and civil rights leaders. We see innovative, non-traditional organizing. And we see how changing demographics have forged a new solidarity between black, white, and brown workers.
What we see in the South today is a growing movement for economic justice. Just look at the Moral Monday protests in my home state of North Carolina. People are hungry for a movement that offers the hope that things can be different. And they can be. If unions grow this movement by investing in southern states, we can change the South and by doing so, we can change the nation.
So which future will labor choose? Will unions let the low-wage, anti-worker culture of the South pervade the country or will they change the South by organizing its workers and growing this movement for justice?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders understood that the road to justice must run through the South. I hope labor leaders come to the same conclusion. Reinventing the labor movement must mean investment in strategies and in places that are different than in the past. It must mean waging the fight where it is most difficult for workers. Let’s organize the South, and we will watch the nation change.
I’m ready. Are you? Join me in LA to be a part of the conversation.
MaryBe McMillan, Secretary-Treasurer
North Carolina State AFL-CIO
Organize the South or Die: Why the South Matters to the Future of Labor will be an action session at the national AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles on Tuesday, 9/10 from 12:30-2:00 pm in room 308 A/B, moderated by MaryBe McMillan and featuring Gary Casteel, Region 8 Director, UAW; Dorothy Grant-Townsend, Southern Director, AFSCME; Keith Maddox, Organizing Dept, AFL-CIO; and Baldemar Velasquez, President, FLOC. Learn more at aflcio2013.org, and follow the discussion #aflcio13 on Twitter.
Pictured at top: Map of union density in the United States (2011). See a larger version. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Very good. well said! See you in LA
If there is one way to fight that makes sense and any of us ought to feel honorable about being armed to undertake, it is the defense and education of young children of the kindergarten age and up.
Feed and educate young children, and otherwise evacuate the families of ignorance and poverty. The culture of self hatred must also be overcome.
[…] it Operation Dixie 2.0 or call it Organize the South or Die, but the AFL-CIO appears to be heeding calls from southern labor leaders and others to do what […]
I am fighting with you to organize the south I live here in North Carolina and a strong labor union force is very well need here KEEP UP THE FIGHT FOR UNIONS IN THE SOUTH KEEP THE PEOPLE INFORMED ABOUT UNIONS BECAUSE MOST HERE DO NOT KNOW THE BENEFITS OF BEING UNIONIZED!!!
[…] “Is our future one of greater worker exploitation, continued decline in union membership and increasingly hostile laws?” asked MaryBe McMillan, NC State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, in her essay challenging the AFL-CIO and national unions to Organize the South or Die: […]
[…] have said that America’s unions will live or die based on what happens in the South. Fortunately, national and international unions seem ready to […]
please go after WEllsFargo
[…] can be,” wrote MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina state AFL-CIO, in an essay titled “Organize the South or […]
My greatest fear is that if unions & the right to collective bargaining continues to be aggressively degraded & inhibited by the wealthy class cartels that very soon a worker somewhere will throw the first “Molotov Cocktail” & a Ukraine style revolution will begin in some inner city, perhaps Atlanta, GA or Birmingham, AL ………..just a matter of time, now, as I believe the “fuse” is already lit!
[…] State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer MaryBe McMillan took the AFL-CIO’s call for unions to “organize the South” before a national audience of thousands of progressive thinkers, bloggers, online organizers, and […]
[…] recent years. The North Carolina State AFL-CIO has said the labor needs to “organize the South or die.” Others have called for a Second Operation Dixie, referencing the CIO’s failed mission in the […]
[…] onslaught. MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, said that we must “Organize the South or Die,” and she is absolutely correct. The fact of the matter is that without a deliberate, concerted […]
[…] With corporations moving production here to take advantage of low wages and low unionization, with a growing population increasing the clout of anti-union right-wing politicians in Congress, and with the weeds of “right to work” and collective bargaining bans spreading into states once considered safe harbors for labor like Michigan and Wisconsin, the situation is, as NC State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer MaryBe McMillan puts it, “organize the South or die.” […]
[…] “Organize the South (or die)” is our mantra at the NC State AFL-CIO, but making that a reality will take more than just convincing international unions and state and local labor federations in other parts of the country to invest in union organizing where it’s needed most. […]
[…] anti-worker culture of the South has an impact far beyond the Mason-Dixon line,” wrote MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina state AFL-CIO, for its national Web […]
[…] onslaught. MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, said that we must “Organize the South or Die,” and she is absolutely correct. The fact of the matter is that without a deliberate, concerted […]
[…] a choice to organize the South or die, and unions like National Nurses United have chosen to […]