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Semafor’s Dave Weigel talks with Mike Elk about how Congresswoman Summer Lee was able to cruise to a landslide victory against AIPAC will other candidates struggles and were defeated by them. 

Chris Townsend is a veteran union organizer who has lived in Virginia for 20 years. He previously served as the UE's Political action director and the ATU's Organizing Director. 

Over the past five years, he has seen an upsurge in organizing in Northern Virginia. 

"I was the organizing director for the Amalgamated Transit Union and in a period of several years, in Virginia, we organized 16 new units. We hadn't done 16 of anything in this state for a long time," says Townsend. 

Townsend thinks that yesterday's victory of 27,000 teachers voting to unionize in Fairfax County, Virginia, could inspire teachers elsewhere. 

"If they can prevail on their internal union structures, to take a serious look at health care organizing here in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, they will find a tremendous opportunity," says Townsend. 

Listen to the veteran union organizer describe how things are changing in Virginia and what this means for the presidential election. 

In Virginia, this week, over 27,000 teachers and school staff are expected to vote on unionizing. If they win, it will be the largest union victory in decades. 
 
The organizing drives comes after Virginia granted collective bargaining rights to public employees in 2020. Virginia now has become one of the fastest-growing states for unions in the country. 
 
Payday Report spoke with Fairfax County Education Association President Lesli Houston about why the upsurge of organizing in Virginia. 

With 70% UAW Sign Up, 25-Year Mercedes UAW Veteran Talks
By Mike Elk
Eleven years ago, I first met Kirk Garner, Vice President of UAW Local 149, the minority union at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama.
After the UAW was narrowly defeated in a union drive in 2014, it formed minority unions at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Mercedes in Vance, Alabama. 
Both automakers were German and allowed the minority union in the South to sit in on meetings and discuss workplace issues with more sympathetic minds in union-heavy Germany. 
For ten years, the UAW couldn't attract enough members to win, but folks like Kirk, who has been involved in union organizing efforts at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama, keep trying. 
"We've had a good network for the last two years, at Chattanooga, Volkswagen, they already had a minority union," says Garner. "So they had a base to begin with, which helped speed things up. So you weren't starting from scratch. And so we have a minority union at Mercedes."
When UAW filed for a union election at Mercedes in April, they filed with 70% of the workers having signed cards. After the Volkswagen victory, Garner says that interest has expanded dramatically. 
"it came real quick by hundreds and hundreds of people," says Garner of the union, finally above 70%. "It was just like, immediate. People started jumping on board. And so with momentum (it) keeps on going. It's just blossomed into this, probably over a 70% majority now. So we should end up about where Volkswagen did," where the UAW won with 70% of the vote. 
Garner says that the severe labor shortage has helped union efforts. Using Biden stimulus programs from the Inflation Recovery Act, Mercedes has used the federal government to pay for electricity. In the process, they had trouble finding workers.
With the plant expanding and management trying to get any “body they can get in the door,” says Garner, power dynamics have changed dramatically in the shop. 
As the plant expanded, the automaker struggled to keep people employed, with wages starting at $21 an hour, and hired more prominent young workers. The younger workers at the plant seem much more receptive than Garner has seen in any of his 25 years of organizing. 
Garner says that 65% of the workforce is under 30. 
"When the labor shortage kicked in around COVID, a lot of older people left. So, the only people in the labor pool were the younger generation under 30. And so that's what we've had to bring in. It'll take years to balance out since we've got 65% under 30.”
With many people needing help with childcare costs, it’s difficult to get together union members for multiple weekly in-person meetings. However, the union relies heavily on Zoom, which became famous for organizers during the pandemic. 
"This is a new age, we're in the digital age, it's somewhat of a new way of organizing from older people to younger people”. says Garner. "I think we saw it in Amazon in New York, they used a lot of internet and phones, instead of a traditional house calling, having big committee meetings, you know, three or four days a week." 
Please listen to the lessons of how union activists combine new and old methods to organize across generations and races in the digital age. 
Donate to Help Us Provide #PaydayPodcasts Update from Alabama

Since the late 1990s, UAW Local 149 Vice President Kirk Garner has been involved in efforts to unionize at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama. Now, after the 73% victory at Volkswagen in April, the union says that it is cruising to victory.
“It feels really good. And it's finally coming to fruition. And we're excited, everybody's excited, ready to vote,” says Garner, who predicts that approximately 70% of his co-workers at Mercedes support the UAW. 
Mercedes union organizers say that the news of the massive victory is helping building their support as they head for election.
“Everybody's excited,” says Garner. “We're making calls this week to some of the undecided people, and we're getting good responses from them. Volkswagen was able to get, you know, some people that hadn't signed up, to vote for the union.”

A formerly anti-union Volkswagen worker explains why he now supports the union at Volkswagen.