Boeing aircraft factory workers in South Carolina are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
The IAM has also long unionized a Boeing plant in Washington, where a strike was organized in 2008 causing the company to relocate $750 million in funding the the South Carolina plant with further investment of $1 billion to expand production. The vote in South Carolina could unionize 3,000 workers.
Labor relations consultant described the vote as a “major, major win for the machinists if they got this.” A main selling point is that IAM could help bring higher wages and more consistent hours to workers at the plant.
However, South Carolina has proved to be a staunchly anti-union state. One of 28 states where union membership is not required, South Carolina has the lowest union membership at 1.6 percent. New York has the highest percentage of union membership: 23.6 percent.
Professor at the Darla Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina, Hoyt Wheeler, cites South Carolina’s history of cheap labor and high business class influence as a reason union are often dead out of the gate. The IAM previously tried to hold a vote in April of 2015 but canceled due to what they called “political interference” and “misinformation” among the workers.
At the time, former Gov. Nikki Haley was among those strongly opposed to IAM. In her State of the State address in 2015, Haley stated that South Carolina is a “state that doesn’t want unions, because we don’t need unions.”
Boeing is using the same lawyer and standard union avoidance strategy now as it did in 2015. Boeing’s social media has been portraying IAM as divisive, and has starting airing its videos on local TV stations.
One video features a production manager, Daniel Mihalic, who was a unionized machinist in the Washington plant unionized by IAM, describing the tension and loss of income he experienced during a strike. Mihalic urges workers to vote no and speaks about how he struggled while on strike wondering how he was going to feed his child.
Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Washington, says he hates seeing the anti-union campaign and workers should have “free choice on what they want to do, being able to ask questions and not seeing intimidation.”