It is interesting to read the comments of folks who don’t know Tennessee, who don’t remember when her Senators were James Sasser and Al Gore or all her moderate Democratic governors. Right-wing Republicans in Tennessee don’t campaign against unions.
I may not know everything, but I know the south.
- Would you believe me if I told you that in right-to-work Tennessee there was a Goodyear plant with 2000 workers and only six refused to join the union?
- Would you believe the huge Alcoa plant in East Tennessee has always been union?
- That all the Tennessee Valley Authority that brought electricity to much of the south has always been union.
- That the Tennessee Tombigbee water transportation system was created union.
- That all utilities in Memphis are still publicly owned and all are union.
- That the largest freight carrier in Tennessee and across the south is Teamster.
- That UPS HQ and largest distribution centers are in Atlanta and union.
- That the first farm workers union was created in West Tennessee and East Arkansas called the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union.
- Did you realize the very first sit down strike was in Atlanta, that the Machinists Union was birthed in Atlanta?
Glib dismissiveness of average working people trying to feed their families doesn’t win elections nor does it attract people to a movement for a more just America.