Big Labor is making big gains in the South.  Tennessee especially has seen alarmingly robust union growth, with more than 31,000 Tenneseeans added to union rolls in 2013, according to estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). CWF's Matt Patterson reflected on the news in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press:

"This reflects a strategic decision on the part of organized labor to target the South and to some extent it is bearing fruit," said Matt Patterson, an anti-tax advocate who helped establish the Center for Worker Freedom this year to fight unionization efforts in the South. "Our concern, and that of a lot of conservatives, is that organized labor spends so much and works so hard for liberal, big government causes and has a political agenda that leans so heavily to the left. A higher unionization rate in the South could lead to a different political culture in the South as unions use their dues and organization to support political candidates and causes that lean left and are contrary to the political views of most people in the South."