OXFORD,
Miss. – Is labor on the rise in Mississippi? This question is to be
addressed by labor leaders and pro-business attorneys Wednesday (April
8) at the University of Mississippi.
The free, public discussion
“Is Labor on the Rise?” is set for 5:30 p.m. in Overby Center
Auditorium, Room 147. It is sponsored by UM’s Overby Center for
Southern Journalism and Politics.
Moderator is Joseph B. Atkins,
UM journalism professor who is a statewide newspaper columnist and
author of the book “Covering for the Bosses: Labor and the Southern
Press (University Press of Mississippi, 2008).
Panelists are
Mississippi AFL-CIO President/Secretary-Treasurer Robert Shaffer, state
Rep. Jim Evans of Jackson, Jackson attorney Pepper Crutcher and Paul
Hurst, counsel to Gov. Haley Barbour.
Arguing for unions will be Shaffer, a veteran of more 30 years of labor organizing, and Evans, the legislature’s most formidable pro-labor advocate.
On the other hand, Atkins said the audience can “expect lots of criticism of labor and the Employee Free Choice Act from Crutcher, a veteran political activist, and Hurst, a close aide to one of the most conservative, pro-business governors in Mississippi’s history.”
“The prospect of a reawakened labor movement in the United States – prompted by the EFCA pending before Congress, populist outrage against corporate CEO compensation and recent gains in union membership nationwide after years of decline and despite a slumping economy – has forces on both sides of the issue armed for major combat,” Atkins said.
“Business groups have amassed an estimated $200 million to fight what Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus called ‘the demise of civilization.’ Union leaders call EFCA – allowing workers to vote in a union by simply signing a card – ‘an important step toward restoring balance and fairness to our economy.'”
With only 5.4 percent of its workers in unions, Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of organized workers in the nation.
“The South, in its business and political leadership, is as anti-union as it’s ever been,” Atkins said. “Yet, the presence of non-union foreign automakers, the influx of immigrant workers and other issues continue to make Mississippi and the South prime targets for labor organizers.”
For more information or to request assistance related to a disability, contact Dawn Jeter at 662-915-1692.