labor

February 2, 2018 - Despite losing two high-profile organizing campaigns in Mississippi and South Carolina last year, labor unions gained 130,000 members in the South in 2017.

September 22, 2017 - MaryBe McMillan, who this month was elected the first woman president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, talks to Facing South about why unions are important today, how they can win in the South, and labor's key role in building a progressive political movement.

August 11, 2017 - Labor lost a high-profile campaign to unionize auto workers at Nissan plant in Mississippi last week. But the union says it isn't going away, pointing to other historic Southern labor drives that often took multiple elections to win.

March 30, 2017 - At the time of his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis, Tennessee, preparing to march with the city's striking sanitation workers. Labor protests on the anniversary of his death next week will continue the work he was doing during his final days to connect race and class.

July 21, 2016 - Half a million eligible voters have moved to North Carolina in the past five years. They are bringing new views to the state while at the same time grappling with its complicated new voting requirements.

June 2, 2016 - The hospitality industry is thriving in the tourist mecca of Nashville, Tennessee, but the people who do the hard work of keeping the city's hotels clean are not sharing in the prosperity and often face appalling work conditions, a new report finds.

May 19, 2016 - Wilna Destin of Florida is leading a struggle for economic justice while also creating room for Black women's leadership.

February 5, 2016 - Organized labor has made surprising gains in a region where unions face some of their toughest obstacles, new federal data shows. But defending workers' advances in the South's hostile political climate will require a long-term organizing commitment.

February 4, 2016 - Although the South has added millions of jobs in recent years, the region's low-road approach to economic development has meant many of them are low-paying jobs that leave families fighting to get by.

January 12, 2016 - As a young, popular governor and the child of immigrants, it's easy to see why the GOP tapped Gov. Haley to rebut President Obama's final State of the Union address. But back home she's under mounting criticism for an economic development approach that gives millions in incentives to companies for low-paying jobs that trap families in poverty.