In the latest Payday Report podcast, retired New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse talks about how Clinton pushing NAFTA bred distrust of the Democratic Party in the Rust Belt. He also discussed how Trump's tariffs may appeal to some working-class

By Mike Elk

For more than 15 years, I have covered Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers union, but I have never seen her as excited as when she got the news that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a social studies teachers and AFT member, had been selected as Vice President.

Behind the scenes, Weingarten had pushed heavily for Walz to be selected as Vice President. The first time that a non-lawyer had been on the Democratic ticket in 44 years since Jimmy Carter, who was a naval officer.

While in Pittsburgh last week, Weingarten sat down with Payday Report to discuss the impact of Walz's selection on the rank-and-file of her union.

"This project is every historian's dream," said Goldscheider. "I stumbled onto a cache of union meeting records and newspaper clippings from the 1940s that allowed me to reassemble a piece of local history that had been completely forgotten. The story of what happened in Greenfield is really a window onto a much larger story that speaks to possibilities in our present day. Manufacturing and democratic labor unions are in the news again. I also see this as a cautionary tale about how unions can be divided and defeated, or not; and about what happens when the rule of law is subverted to a hyper-partisan political agenda. History matters!"

Semafor's Dave Weigel talks with Mike Elk about how Congresswoman Summer Lee was able to cruise to a landslide victory against AIPAC will other candidates struggles and were defeated by them.

Chris Townsend is a veteran union organizer who has lived in Virginia for 20 years. He previously served as the UE's Political action director and the ATU's Organizing Director. Over the past five years, he has seen an upsurge in organizing in Northern Virginia. "I was the organizing director for the Amalgamated Transit Union and in a period of several years, in Virginia, we organized 16 new units. We hadn't done 16 of anything in this state for a long time," says Townsend. Townsend thinks that yesterday's victory of 27,000 teachers voting to unionize in Fairfax County, Virginia, could inspire teachers elsewhere. "If they can prevail on their internal union structures, to take a serious look at health care organizing here in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, they will find a tremendous opportunity," says Townsend. Listen to the veteran union organizer describe how things are changing in Virginia and what this means for the presidential election.

With 70% UAW Sign Up, 25-Year Mercedes UAW Veteran Talks

By Mike Elk

Eleven years ago, I first met Kirk Garner, Vice President of UAW Local 149, the minority union at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama.

After the UAW was narrowly defeated in a union drive in 2014, it formed minority unions at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Mercedes in Vance, Alabama.

Both automakers were German and allowed the minority union in the South to sit in on meetings and discuss workplace issues with more sympathetic minds in union-heavy Germany.

For ten years, the UAW couldn't attract enough members to win, but folks like Kirk, who has been involved in union organizing efforts at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama, keep trying.

"We've had a good network for the last two years, at Chattanooga, Volkswagen, they already had a minority union," says Garner. "So they had a base to begin with, which helped speed things up. So you weren't starting from scratch. And so we have a minority union at Mercedes."

When UAW filed for a union election at Mercedes in April, they filed with 70% of the workers having signed cards. After the Volkswagen victory, Garner says that interest has expanded dramatically.

"it came real quick by hundreds and hundreds of people," says Garner of the union, finally above 70%. "It was just like, immediate. People started jumping on board. And so with momentum (it) keeps on going. It's just blossomed into this, probably over a 70% majority now. So we should end up about where Volkswagen did," where the UAW won with 70% of the vote.

Garner says that the severe labor shortage has helped union efforts. Using Biden stimulus programs from the Inflation Recovery Act, Mercedes has used the federal government to pay for electricity. In the process, they had trouble finding workers.

With the plant expanding and management trying to get any "body they can get in the door," says Garner, power dynamics have changed dramatically in the shop.

As the plant expanded, the automaker struggled to keep people employed, with wages starting at $21 an hour, and hired more prominent young workers. The younger workers at the plant seem much more receptive than Garner has seen in any of his 25 years of organizing.

Garner says that 65% of the workforce is under 30.

"When the labor shortage kicked in around COVID, a lot of older people left. So, the only people in the labor pool were the younger generation under 30. And so that's what we've had to bring in. It'll take years to balance out since we've got 65% under 30."

With many people needing help with childcare costs, it's difficult to get together union members for multiple weekly in-person meetings. However, the union relies heavily on Zoom, which became famous for organizers during the pandemic.

"This is a new age, we're in the digital age, it's somewhat of a new way of organizing from older people to younger people". says Garner. "I think we saw it in Amazon in New York, they used a lot of internet and phones, instead of a traditional house calling, having big committee meetings, you know, three or four days a week."

Please listen to the lessons of how union activists combine new and old methods to organize across generations and races in the digital age.

Donate to Help Us Provide #PaydayPodcasts Update from Alabama

Since the late 1990s, UAW Local 149 Vice President Kirk Garner has been involved in efforts to unionize at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama. Now, after the 73% victory at Volkswagen in April, the union says that it is cruising to victory.

"It feels really good. And it's finally coming to fruition. And we're excited, everybody's excited, ready to vote," says Garner, who predicts that approximately 70% of his co-workers at Mercedes support the UAW.

Mercedes union organizers say that the news of the massive victory is helping building their support as they head for election.

A formerly anti-union Volkswagen worker explains why he now supports the union at Volkswagen.

For nearly 25 years Mercedes workers in Vance have tried to unionize, but have never gotten so close. Early last month workers at Mercedes reached 50% for the first time in plant history.

"I came in '98. And they had a campaign going on, and were gaining momentum. And they just couldn't reach that 50% mark," says Kirk Garner, one of the leaders of the current union drive there. "They get pretty close. But they just couldn't get over the hump. And so they ended the campaign, then. And so for the last 20 years, we've tried little campaigns to see if there was any interest, and we just couldn't get over the hump".

Now, after the success of the "Stand Up Strike," union activists are seeing new momentum in their attempts to organize at Mercedes. In February they announced that a majority of workers at the plant had signed union cards.

"The big three got a really good contract and so people down here got excited and wanted to organize. So we're organizing now," says Garner.

Not only does the UAW feel a new sense of momentum in their organizing, but they are using new digital technologies to help organize.

"They've adopted tactics that grassroots online organizing (is) using that it's not so many staffers on the ground now as much as handing out QR codes and signing people up online and things like that," says Garner. "The UAW has been slow to make that change. And once the new administration came to UAW that they, they have accepted, you know, today's ideology and social media."

Mercedes has responded to the organizing energy in the plant by raising wages $2-an-hour. However, the German company, which is entirely unionized in Europe, has yet to launch an aggressive anti-union campaign. The UAW so far has yet to file any unfair labor practice charges against the company.

However, although some local anti-union lawyers are raising money to launch a "community anti-union campaign," it may be too little too late to stem the momentum of workers at Mercedes.

Anti-union community campaigns run by outside sources have helped lead to devastating losses both at Volkswagen in Chattanooga and at Nissan in Canton, Mississippi.

The union says that it is increasingly moving towards the solid majority needed to hold a union election at the plant.

"I'm expecting the UAW to file any day now. file for an election," says Garner. "The big three Stand Up Strike generated a lot of interest. So I think this is a great opportunity. While it's still in everybody's forefront, that we'd go ahead and get this done now."

The UAW is also very close to filing for a union election at VW in Chattanooga and has announced a union drive at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama.

Listen to our full interview with Mercedes Alabama worker Garner here for more.