A new exploratory research study highlights the challenges faced by Black workers in the Southeast, and offers some insight into how those workers view labor unions. 

The working paper – “Advancing Black Workers in the South: An HBCU Research Initiative” – authored by Dr. Algernon Austin of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (The ILR School), brought together scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to work with CEPR, Jason Tomlinson and Erin Johansson of Jobs with Justice Education Fund and The ILR School. 

Dr. Austin and Dr. Bronfenbrenner analyzed survey data collected by Dr. Joseph Jones, Clark Atlanta University; Drs. Berneece S. Herbert and Talya D. Thomas, Jackson State University; Dr. Allison Tomlinson, University of North Texas, Dallas; Dr. Wakita Barksdale, Clinton College; and Drs. Lawren M. Long and Jacorius Liner from Tougaloo College.

The working paper recaps a research initiative that interviewed workers in five Southeastern states — Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The region is crucial to understanding the reality of Black workers  — who are overrepresented in the region  — and is home to the Southern economic development model, which emphasizes corporate subsidies and tax breaks alongside weaker safety net programs and anti-worker policies.

Given these realities, the economic benefits provided by labor unions should make them appealing to workers. So the research project, which brought together HBCU researchers working in partnership with several labor unions, aimed to shed light on the experience of workers in the region and their attitudes towards unions.

The project collected surveys from 131 workers, and conducted interviews with dozens of community members. The results of the survey revealed struggles in the workplace: More than half of workers (51 percent) receive little advance notice of their work schedules, about a quarter expressed concerns about workplace safety, and almost 20 percent said there were problems with racial discrimination at their jobs. A substantial share (32 percent) of surveyed workers reported concerns about or difficulties paying rent or affording food.

The findings also show that workers believe unions could alleviate some of these issues. Roughly three-quarters saw unions as giving workers a voice at work, 67 percent believe unions help to reduce racial discrimination, and 60 percent of all workers believed unions improve the economic conditions of low-paid workers.

These findings hold for the roughly half of the workers in the survey who are not represented by a union. About three-quarters of unorganized workers expect that their pay (77 percent) and job security (72 percent) will improve with unionization, 70 percent believe that their benefits would increase, 67 percent think that safety at work would improve, and roughly the same share (65 percent) think that they would have a greater voice in how things are done at work.

Workers who had participated in organizing campaigns provided some insight about the internal effect. Just one-third of their employers remained neutral during the campaign; the majority experienced one or more of a range of aggressive anti-union tactics – including mandatory “captive audience” meetings, surveillance, interrogation, or discipline for union activity. Nonetheless, half of the workers said these tactics made them more likely to support the union campaign; just 17 percent said it made them a lot less likely to support the union.

“Black workers in the South face challenges similar to that of other workers, but more severe because of the Southern economic development model and because of anti-Black racism,” said Algernon Austin, co-author of the report and the director of Race and Economic Justice program at CEPR. 

The working paper includes policy recommendations from the HBCUs based on the research initiative, including strengthening workers’ organizing rights at all levels of government, passing fair scheduling legislation, raising the minimum wage, strengthening anti-discrimination laws, and enacting comprehensive paid leave policies. The report also discusses the difficulties that HBCUs face in conducting such research. HBCUs are underfunded compared to predominantly White institutions, and many lack adequate research resources as a result. 

This research project —  funded by grants from WorkRise and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — was housed out of the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative, a project of Jobs With Justice that is creating a cohort of Black economic-justice and labor-focused strategists committed to leading, developing, and advancing policies and campaigns that support the collective power-building of working people, particularly in the South.

“As this report underscores, 20th Century approaches to practicing political and economic democracy never fully made their way to the US South,” said Erica Smiley, Executive Director of Jobs With Justice. “Investing in organizing efforts in the US South that leaders design campaigns to vie for collective bargaining and frankly any form of governing power based in the political economy of the US South, the pathway to democracy comes into clear focus.”

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