The Win for EV Workers in the South You Didn’t Hear About

“I never thought I would find another competitive paying job at my age,” said Marcus King, a 50-year-old  electrical technician who started at New Flyer after the nearby Goodyear tire plant where he had worked for nearly three decades shuttered in 2020. At Goodyear, he was a member of the United Steelworkers, and he drew on that experience to represent his coworkers on the bargaining committee. “We build the same buses they build at the other plants,” he said. “We felt that we should be compensated, financially and otherwise, just the same as those other plants.” 

The organizing didn’t end once the contract was ratified. Alabama is a right-to-work state, so workers have to opt-in to becoming dues-paying members. King and other worker organizers have now gotten a strong majority of their coworkers to sign up for the union. “I just had to explain to them the wins that we had in that contract,” said King. “That’s when they came around.” Masters is looking forward to starting regular union meetings and building up their local. “It feels like I have a new purpose at work,” he said. 

Masters has been at New Flyer long enough to remember the last attempt at unionization, in 2015, which he opposed after the company held mandatory meetings to share anti-union messaging. This time around, the company pledged to voluntarily recognize the union and remain neutral during the campaign, refraining from union-busting tactics like captive audience meetings. That neutrality pledge was the result of a multi-year campaign by CWA, JMA, and other community groups targeting the public agencies that buy New Flyer’s buses in the more labor-friendly cities of New York and Los Angeles to get the company to sign an agreement to provide high-quality jobs to workers from disadvantaged groups and support worker’s right to organize.  

Over the last decade, as city agencies have transitioned their public transportation fleets to green technology, JMA has pushed for high workplace standards in transit manufacturing. JMA developed a policy tool called the U.S. Employment Plan, which allows companies to commit to uphold certain standards for working conditions and community engagement as they bid for city government contracts. 

In 2013, New Flyer won a $508 million contract from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority  to provide up to 900 buses and signed onto a U.S. Employment Plan pledging to provide more than 50 jobs above a certain pay rate at its facility in Ontario, CAIn the following years, based on conversations with workers and reviewing pay stubs from New Flyer’s facilities, JMA grew concerned that the company  wasn’t upholding their commitments from the agreement. New Flyer had pledged to pay workers at least $18.35 an hour, but the documents reviewed by JMA indicated workers were making $17 or less when they started at the facility. In 2019, the organization  filed a fraud complaint against New Flyer alleging that it was misrepresenting the value of the wages and benefits it promised  to provide to workers as a condition of receiving local funds.

At the same time, a coalition of community groups in Alabama including JMA, CWA and other unions, faith groups, and environmental groups, launched a public campaign to highlight the effect of low pay and discriminatory working conditions on New Flyer workers. The coalition publicized a study by researchers at Alabama A&M University that found a pay gap between Black and white workers at New Flyer’s Anniston plant, and that Black workers were more likely to be denied promotions and get injured at work. Coalition members attended the American Public Transportation Association conference to raise awareness about the study and distributed an open letter from anonymous Black workers describing racist treatment at New Flyer. Employees also testified before local transit boards that were considering granting contracts to New Flyer about the impact New Flyer’s low wages and benefits had on them and their communities.

At the time, New Flyer spokesperson Lindy Norris told In These Times that the company disputed the claims in the public letter and that JMA had been waging “a very public, aggressive and antagonistic attack on [New Flyer America].” She added, “We take any and all allegations of racism, sexism, toxic workforce culture, and pay inequity seriously, and have investigated singular and atypical incidents following multiple allegations made by JMA.” 

In 2022, New Flyer settled the LA Metro lawsuit for $7 million while denying any wrongdoing and signed a community benefits agreement with JMA covering its plants in Alabama and California (New Flyer’s operations in California are now mostly dormant). A year after the agreement was signed, JMA’s Southern Director Will Tucker wrote that the agreement was “having a noticeable impact” at the company,” including through a new system for discrimination complaints, enhanced safety training, and hiring pipelines for workers from historically disadvantaged communities. “The partnership with New Flyer gave us, as Southern workers, hope that we can create not only quality products and build out this infrastructure but also we can do it in a space of good jobs and collaboration,” said JMA’s Iheme. 

The company also penned a neutrality agreement with CWA pledging to voluntarily recognize unions that formed at all of its plants. IUE-CWA President Carl Kennebrew said the union’s partnership with JMA was “crucial” and that their policy tools and campaign strategy led to New Flyer maintaining neutrality. “Reaching this milestone at New Flyer has been a testament to the power of collaboration and the unwavering determination of our workers,” he said in a statement. Leading up to the recent union win at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen had also agreed to remain neutral, though its response to organizing was less consistently “high-road” than New Flyer’s. The UAW filed unfair labor complaints against Volkswagen for retaliating against worker organizers.

Organizers at the Anniston plant see their win as part of a broader movement to bring high-paying, good-quality jobs in the green economy to the South, even as Alabama is now trying to discourage other neutrality agreements. On May 31, Governor Ivey signed a law that will prevent companies that voluntarily recognize unions from receiving economic incentives from the state. For now at New Flyer, “I feel like I made history here at this plant,” said King. “Hopefully this will bring really great jobs in the future.” Kennebrewsaid that the New Flyer campaign is a key part of the union’s vision for a just transition. “This initiative not only supports environmental sustainability but also ensures that these new jobs are good union jobs, providing stability and a promising future for American workers and the communities where they live.” 

Masters hopes the fight at New Flyer will help end the “Southern discount” on labor costs. “I’m tired of being paid less than somebody who lives six hours from me,” he said. According to U.S. Census data, Alabama’s autoworkers earned almost $16,000 less than their counterparts in Michigan in 2019. The Alabama victory will increase New Flyer workers’ bargaining power across the country, including at its plants in Minnesota, Kentucky, and New York, said LeLou, by preventing a race to the bottom for wages and benefits. 

Because of the training programs New Flyer agreed to create in the new contract, Franks will be able to become an electrician, just like her dad. “When I told him that they’re going to have an electrical apprenticeship program and I’m top of the list to go, it just made it full circle,” she said. “It’s something that he’s proud of and he’s so excited for me to learn it and I am too. If it wasn’t for the union, I wouldn’t have that opportunity.”