JD Crowe: Kay Ivey is making the case for unions in Alabama
This is an opinion cartoon.
“You need to fix this.”
That’s the advice Gov. Kay Ivey is giving to Alabama automakers about working conditions as their employees are deciding this week if they should join the United Auto Workers union.
If you think about it, the governor is making a better argument for unions than the unions themselves.
From William Thornton’s AL.com report:
“Gov. Ivey has been on the phone with both the leaders of Mercedes and Hyundai, and has said, ‘If there are issues, you need to fix this,’” said Alabama Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair.
Workers at Mercedes have cited two-tiered pay, temporary workers, and other issues as inspiring them to sign union cards.
Some have speculated that the recent vote by workers at a Chattanooga Volkswagen plant to unionize and a deal reached by UAW and Daimler Truck to avoid a strike indicate the union may win the Alabama Mercedes vote.
“We set an example for the entire South. I hope Mercedes in Tuscaloosa was paying attention to what we’re doing,” said Corey Hill, president of UAW Local 3520, which represents Daimler Truck workers in North Carolina, according to Reuters.
“She’s (Ivey) been very bold in using her voice to encourage Mercedes and Hyundai to do what they need to do to be sure that this isn’t necessary…
“Could (work conditions) be better? Yes. This is a wake up for them to be responsive to the employees’ needs and listen to them. I think absolutely that needs to be done. But hopefully, we can do that on a one-to-one basis without a third-party interfering,” McNair said.
Ivey is telling the companies they must fix things in order to keep the unions out. Would those things get fixed if there was no threat of unions coming to the state?
If the automakers give workers a few concessions due only to the threat of a union, what would they get if they had a union? Asking for a friend.
Maybe the UAW should hire Gov. Ivey to spread their message.
(Shout-out to my friend Harvey Kleck for inspiring this toon.)
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JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].
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