Last month, over 1,500 Fort Valley workers at Electric School bus maker Blue Bird recently ratified their first union contract.
The previous year, employees at the nearly 100-year-old company voted overwhelmingly to join the United Steel Workers, a major win for unions in the South and one of Georgia’s most notable labor victories in 2023.
“It was a lot of mixed emotions,” said Dee Thomas, a Blue Bird worker for over a decade. “We know it was a make-or-break moment on the job. We knew that if we didn’t get the vote in that it may never happen.”
The deal will provide all workers with at least 12% in raises, and for some of the lowest paid positions, they will see an increase of more than 40%.
“Now, these will become career jobs, jobs that people will appreciate, and will love to go to work each and every day because they’re being paid what they feel that they’re worth,” said Alex Perkins, a staff representative for the United Steel Workers.
He says that with the wave of investments into the electric vehicle sector, it was important for the workers to organize now.
“If you had asked me two years ago if we would have been able to get this contract, definitely no,” the union representative said.
As the United Auto Workers union monitors the state’s energized Electric vehicle sector, labor advocates are rewriting the South’s union-unfriendly label. Along with support from President Joe Biden, organizing campaigns here are charged up.
“[The] money that [the Biden Administration] is investing into the clean energy is really helping, you know, workers here in the South,” said Perkins.
“It has really did a full 360 for this company, [and] is giving them the money to rebuild, as well as rebrand themselves as one of the leading electric bus makers in this country.”
Regarding the future of union representation in the South, Perkins feels that workers are finally starting to see the benefits of securing labor rights, something he says was already prominent in the North due to the steel and automotive industries.
The rising growth does not come without its share of pushback, however.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has been an outspoken opponent of unions, claiming that they hurt business development in the state.
Organized labor only represents about 4% of the state’s workforce and Kemp does not want to see that number jump any higher.
Despite this, Thomas is confident that more and more workers will be determined to seek out the professional benefits and luxuries that being in a union can offer.
“I mean, I put a lot of time in there working, you know, to be successful and have a good future,” said Thomas.
“So the union is gonna make that happen, along with partnership with Blue Bird Is he can only get better.”
