Workers at a rural Georgia factory that builds electric school buses with generous federal grants voted to unionize on Friday, handing organized labor and Democrats a surprise victory in their hopes of injecting huge new cash from Washington into a union beachhead in the Deep South transform.
Blue Bird, based in Fort Valley, Georgia, may lack the reputation of Amazon or the ubiquity of Starbucks, two other companies that have attracted union attention. But Blue Bird workers voted 697 to 435 to join the United Steelworkers, marking the first major union election at a plant receiving large federal funds under legislation signed by President Biden.
“This is just a guide for the future, especially in the South where working people have been ignored,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said Friday night after the vote. “We are now at a point where we have the investment and strategy to increase wages and coverage for a bright future in road transport.”
The three bills that make up this investment include a $1 trillion infrastructure package, a $280 billion measure to revitalize a domestic semiconductor industry, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides $370 billion for clean energy to combat climate change.
Each of the bills included language designed to help unions expand their membership, and Blue Bird management, which opposed the union offensive, had to contend with the Democrats’ subtle support for steel workers.
In the run up to the union vote, banners appeared outside the Blue Bird plant.Credit…Jonathan Weisman/The New York Times
Blue Bird will benefit from the new federal funds. Last year, it welcomed the $500 million the Biden administration earmarked under the infrastructure bill to replace diesel-powered school buses with zero-emission and low-emission buses. Georgia school systems alone are getting $51.1 million to buy new electric buses, but Blue Bird is selling its buses across the country. Even more money will flow through the Inflation Reduction Act, another law the company has lauded.
But that money came with strings attached – strings that subtly tilted the playing field towards the union. Just two weeks ago, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the Clean School Bus Program, required all federal grant recipients to detail the health insurance, paid vacation, retirement and other benefits they offer their workers.
They also required companies to “commit to remaining neutral in any organizing campaign and/or to voluntarily recognize a union on the basis of majority support”. And under the rules of the Infrastructure Act, no federal money can be used to thwart a union election.
The Steelworkers’ Union used the rules to their advantage. In late April, the company filed multiple unfair labor practices charges against Blue Bird’s management, citing $40 million in rebates the company received from the EPA, which said those funds were not earmarked for anti-union activities may be used.
“The rules say that if workers want a union, you can’t use money to hire anti-union law firms or use people to intimidate workers,” said Daniel Flippo, director of the Steelworkers district, which covers the Southeast the vote . “I am convinced that Blue Bird did that.”
Politicians also got involved. Georgia’s two Democratic Senators and Democratic House Representative in Southwest Georgia also subtly urged management at the plant in a union-busting but politically crucial state to at least make the elections fair.
“I have been a longtime supporter of the USW and its efforts to improve the working conditions and living standards of workers in Georgia,” Democratic Congressman Sanford Bishop wrote about the United Steelworkers in an open letter to Blue Bird workers. “I want to encourage you in your efforts to exercise your rights under the National Labor Relations Act.”
Blue Bird management minimized this pressure in its public statements, although it fought hard to fight back the union organizers.
“While we respect and support employee voting rights, we do not believe that integrating a union into our relationship with employees would serve Blue Bird better,” said Julianne Barclay, a company spokeswoman. “In the upcoming election campaign, we have made it clear to our employees that a union is not in the best interests of the company or our employees.”
Friday’s union victory has the labor movement thinking big as federal money keeps flowing, and that could be good for Mr. Biden and other Democrats, particularly in key Georgia state.
“Workers in places like Blue Bird embody the future in many ways,” Flippo said after the vote, adding, “For far too long companies have cynically viewed the South as a place where they could suppress wages and working conditions because they believed they could discourage workers from unionizing.”
The Blue Bird union store, which employs 1,400 workers, will be one of the largest in the South and union leaders said it could be a beachhead as they eye the influx of new electric vehicle suppliers – and possibly the biggest and most difficult targets: foreign electric vehicle makers like Hyundai, Mercedes -Benz and BMW, which partially settled in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina to avoid unions.
“Companies are moving there for a reason — they want the smoothest possible path to union busting,” said Steve Smith, a national spokesman for the AFL-CIO. “But we have federal money floating around, a friendly administration, and an opportunity to make some progress like we’ve never had before.”
The Blue Bird plant, which suddenly finds itself on a country lane lined with peach and pecan orchards, has long made a practice of hiring less educated workers, some in prison and most starting at $16 or $17 an hour, said Alex Perkins, one of the main organizers of the United Steelworkers in Georgia.
The organizers acknowledged that a union for such vulnerable workers would be difficult to achieve in the face of fiercely opposed management. As they finished the last shift of the day on Thursday, most workers refused to comment publicly. A group of about a dozen workers stood at the Circle K gas station across the street from the plant in the predawn darkness Friday, holding up pro-union signs as the first workers arrived to cast their ballots under the gaze of observers from the National Labor Relations Board .
But Cynthia Harden, who has worked at the plant for five years and voted to organize, spoke about the pressure put on workers to vote against. Slideshows of the voting process, showing ballots that said “No,” said the company could go bust if the union won, and suddenly food trucks appeared at lunch and banners on the perimeter fence read “We Love Our.” Employee!”
“They have already made some changes, but if the union had not been formed, nothing would have happened,” she said.
The letter, written by Georgia Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to Matt Stevenson, Blue Bird CEO and President, was remarkably humble, praising the company for its cooperation and well-paying jobs before “encouraging everyone involved.” whatever they wanted. Outcome to ensure the letter and spirit of the National Labor Relations Act are upheld.”
Mr Perkins was furious at the tone given the work the unions had done to get Mr Warnock re-elected last year. “I won’t forget that next time,” he said.
Both senators declined requests for comment on the election.