Belabored Podcast #132: What Happened in Mississippi? with Chris Brooks

Last week, in a highly anticipated union election, workers at a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi voted against unionizing with the UAW. Chris Brooks from Labor Notes joins us to talk about the result.

Nissan workers on the March on Mississippi, March 4, 2017 (Ariel Cobbert / Daily Mississippian)

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For the third time in recent months, a major union election has gone down to defeat in a Southern manufacturing facility—this time at the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi. The union busting was fierce and the support from politicians like Bernie Sanders and Jackson’s Chokwe Antar Lumumba and celebrities like Danny Glover wasn’t enough to put the workers over the top, but was there anything that could have been done differently? We speak with Chris Brooks of Labor Notes about organizing the South, the structural challenges the workers faced, and ideas for new strategies for organizing in an increasingly union-free USA.

We also look at an auto mechanics’ strike in Chicago and a union win at Facebook, at the dystopian horizon of Trumpian immigration policies, and microchips in workers’ bodies, implanted by the boss. For Argh, we consider the power of police union contracts, and the question of race in the battle against capital.

If you think our work is worth supporting as we soldier on through Trumplandia, please consider becoming a sustaining member of Belabored or donating or subscribing to Dissent. Help keep us going for the next 132 episodes!

News

About 2,000 mechanics strike at Chicago-area car dealerships (Chicago Sun Times)

Union mechanics enter second week of strike (Chicago Sun Times)

Michelle: 500 Workers Staffing Facebook’s Cafeteria Just Voted to Unionize (The Nation)

Wisconsin workers embedded with microchips (USA Today)

Pa. lawmaker to introduce bill to prohibit employers from requiring microchip implantation (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Trump Supports Plan to Cut Legal Immigration in Half (New York Times)

Conversation:

Chris Brooks: Why Did Nissan Workers Vote No? (Labor Notes)

Causes of the Union Defeat at Nissan (Socialist Worker)

Michelle: Mississippi Autoworkers Mobilize (Dissent)

Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #123: Marching on Mississippi, with Morris Mock and Danny Glover (Dissent)