Tennessee’s Union Vote Is a Sign of a New South: Mary Ellen Klas

With a stunning victory this month, workers at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to unionize, sending another signal that the anti-labor bias of the South — with its roots in racism, Southern politics, and a bygone agricultural era — is breaking down.

The unionization effort succeeded for many reasons, including the fact that workers at the 4,300–employee plant are younger and more racially and ethnically diverse than the generation that twice rejected bringing organized labor to the only Volkswagen plant in the world without it.

These employees have done the nation a great service by cultivating a culture ...