Can N.C. become pro-union? (Norma Rae country)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1414542.html

Rob Christensen - Staff Writer
Published: Sun, Feb. 22, 2009 12:30AMModified Sun, Feb. 22, 2009 04:20AM

It was Oscar night three decades ago when actress Sally Field accepted her award for her portrayal of Norma Rae, a North Carolina textile worker fighting to organize a union.

Much has changed over the past 30 years, including the collapse of the U.S textile industry. But North Carolina remains the most anti-union state in the country.

Only 3.5 percent of North Carolina workers belonged to unions in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, 5.3 percent of Mississippi's workers were union members.

There are a number of reasons North Carolina has been barren ground for the labor movement. North Carolina's mills were mainly located in small towns that were sometimes company-owned. The workers were often recruited off the farms, highly individualistic souls who were not inclined to join any group.

"The only union I believe in is sweet union," Democratic Congressman Bill Hefner once told a Democratic rally.

In the 1920s, Tar Heel authorities used billy clubs and bullets to crush the labor movement. Since then, the state's political leadership has often been hostile to organized labor.



FULL story at link.

[Warpy]

1. I watched Norma Rae again last night

and now that I know the end of the story, the whole textile industry having been dismantled and shipped overseas, the victory seems even more bittersweet than having Norma Rae standing outside the gates, listening to the celebration within.

I'm afraid that's what will stick with people in the south, the fact that the victory that brought them better wages and working conditions was such a short one. They will wrongly blame unionization, when the real culprits are corporate greed combined with Congressional stupidity and the jobs would have been robbed in any case.

Unions are going to have a doubly hard time in Dixie from now on.

[Sherman A1]

2. Yes, it can.

Spoke with a cousin in a very Red County in NC a few months ago, her husband works a one of the few remaining mills and she just wished that it was a union shop.