| Last week, tens of thousands of longshore workers went on strike at ports along the East and Gulf Coast. For months leading up to the strike, USMX – the shipping alliance that the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) negotiates with – had dragged their feet and refused to budge on issues of wage increases, automation, and more. Within three days of workers walking off the job, USMX came to the table and moved significantly from their initial position on these major issues, resulting in the suspension of the strike as negotiations continue. The strike sets a powerful and important example for other workers – when we act collectively, build organization, and exercise class power, we can change conditions. In addition, it demonstrates how workers at strategic junctures of the economy can exert an even greater amount of leverage to fight and win on their demands and on broader conditions that impact all workers. Nearly every week, there’s a new announcement by a multinational corporation making a capital investment of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in a Southern state, in a wide variety of sectors – chips, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles and other green energy production, data centers, and more. Close to two-thirds of new investment into the construction of manufacturing facilities is coming into the South. Why? Because these companies know that the South is the least unionized region of the company. The reactionary forces that dominate the region are all too eager to facilitate this race to the bottom by heaping huge tax incentives on the order of billions of dollars to these companies, and by continuing to pass some of the most racist, anti-worker laws in the country. With nearly 60% of Black workers in the U.S. living in the South and the fastest growing population of migrant workers, the impacts of these policies have been disastrous for workers here. We earn the lowest wages and have the highest levels of poverty, we have shorter life expectancy and lower access to quality health care, we often live in communities polluted by industrial waste and other toxic byproducts of production, to name a few. On nearly every measure of quality of life by state, the lowest measures are largely among states in the South. The ILA and other organized sections of the working class are an island of strength amidst a sea of unorganized workers. The region as a whole has roughly the same number of union members as New York state alone. Do you want to be a part of changing these conditions by building worker power and organization in key strategic industries across the South? We know that the only way to change the quality of work and life here is to get organized. The Southern Workers Assembly is currently recruiting workers who want to be a part of leading this change, by getting jobs in key strategic sectors across the region and digging in for the long-term to build power with their coworkers.Please fill out the form below if you are interested in participating in this program, and someone will be in touch with you shortly. |
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 
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