DISCRIMINATION AND UNION DISPUTES AT SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER

One of the stalwarts of the liberal image for protection of workers is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Alabama-based civil rights legal advocacy group.  However, recently its long-standing president was dismissed and there were rumors of discrimination issues.  More recently, in late 2019, an affiliate local union of the Communications Workers of American attempted to become a bargaining representative at SPLC, but SPLC's Board of Directors voted unanimously to proceed with the union vote rather than voluntarily recognize the union.  Union organizers accused SPLC of hiring a "union avoidance" law firm to resist the unionization attempt, but the union won the final vote anyway.  The union claimed that SPLC was acting counter to its traditional values.