‘We Created a Family’ – After Historic Wins, Blue Bird Workers Look to Future

Three years ago, Ciera McClinton and many of her co-workers at Blue Bird Corp. were struggling at times to make ends meet and facing issues of favoritism, forced overtime and other unfair conditions on the job.

Now, the more than 1,500 members of Local 697 have a union contract – including wage increases, expanded benefits, improved scheduling and job security – that changed the lives of the workers at the school bus factory in Fort Valley, Ga.

“We wanted to at least be treated fairly,” said McClinton, a dispatcher who has worked for Blue Bird for six years. “We have seen a lot of progress.”

That progress began in 2022, when the workers launched a campaign to become USW members. They voted in May 2023, by a two-thirds majority, to do just that, in the largest organizing victory at a manufacturing plant in the South in 15 years. A year later, they signed their first contract.

“We were very excited about it after all the hard work that we put into it,” said Local 697 President Patrick Watkins. “I’m proud of what we accomplished. We created a family.”

Part of a Team

That family consists of teams of workers who assemble, on average, 40 buses per day, about one quarter of which are electric vehicles. USW members work in a half-dozen “cells” spread across the sprawling manufacturing site.

The process begins in the chassis bay, a football-field-sized area where the sounds of electric screwdrivers, welders and rivet guns fill the air as members begin to assemble the bodies of the vehicles, starting with large metal beams.  

From there, workers install the engines and other mechanical elements of the vehicles, then place windows, doors, steps, lights, heating and air conditioning, paint, mirrors, decals and other customized accessories as each bus moves along a carefully organized and choreographed assembly line.

Safety a Priority

When the vehicles are complete, members inspect every detail to ensure the buses meet strict quality-control and safety standards. Because 7 million people, mostly schoolchildren, ride Blue Bird vehicles each day, members prioritize safety, both for the workers at the plant and the passengers who ultimately make use of their products.

“It makes me proud to know that we put safety first,” McClinton said. “A lot of people depend on Blue Bird.”

In addition to students across the country, the people depending on Blue Bird include the residents of Fort Valley, where the company is by far the largest employer, with more than 2,000 workers.

Central Georgia’s Peach County, where Fort Valley is the county seat, has less than 30,000 residents, so businesses across the region know the significant economic ripple effects that the strong wages and benefits Local 697 members provide.

“It’s going to be big for the whole middle Georgia area,” said Sam Porter, who has worked at the factory for 15 years. “People, they’re starting to want to come to Blue Bird now. They know they’re going to be treated properly.”

When they ratified their contract last spring, some of the workers at Blue Bird received wage increases of as much as 40 percent, Watkins said. Overall, the three-year agreement, which runs through 2027, raises wages at least 12 percent across the board, while establishing vital health and safety, retirement and job security protections.

Local 697 Vice President Delushundra Thomas said having a union gives workers like her a voice and respect on the job, and she hoped other workers in the region would follow their lead.

“We are the ones who make change happen on the job,” Thomas said. “If people see others doing good things, they will follow.”

Boost from Biden

After the workers’ historic vote to join the USW, then-President Joe Biden invited Thomas and other union leaders from across the United States to the White House for a discussion about union organizing.

In addition, Blue Bird received an $80 million federal grant last year from the Biden administration to help expand its production of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles. That project, underway at an adjacent site, is expected to create as many as 500 new jobs.

“The infrastructure bill, which our members pushed hard to get passed, that really helped this location,” said Daniel Flippo, director of District 9, which includes USW members in Georgia as well as Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Since taking office in January, President Trump has repeatedly attempted to halt the distribution of funds Congress approved as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden initiatives, jeopardizing investments in many similar projects and threatening thousands of jobs across the country.

Union Energy

Because Blue Bird’s funding came with conditions meant to encourage union labor, it helped pave the way for the workers in Fort Valley to organize despite the historically difficult environment for labor in the region, Flippo said.

“Investments like these must come with a seat at the table for workers,” he said. “The thing that makes this all work is the energy and engagement of the local union members.”

That energy is evident throughout the plant as members go about their work day with a sense of pride and togetherness that comes with being part of a union community.

“People look forward to coming to Blue Bird every morning,” McClinton said. “It means a lot to know that we were able to keep the community growing.”

For Local 697 member and 14-year employee Shawn Cliett, the union contract – which members ratified by more than 95 percent – has been the difference between just scraping by and truly making a living.

“It was a rough time,” Cliett said in describing life before the workers joined the USW. “We had to sacrifice a lot of things to even make a living.”

Now, he said, workers are looking toward a future of growth and prosperity for their employer, their families, and their community.

Craig Corbin, a 20-year Blue Bird worker, said wages and benefits are just the tip of the iceberg when he thinks of all of the advantages of being a member of the USW.

Corbin said his union card also means improved communication with management, a sharper focus from the company on health and safety issues, and a sense of belonging.

Organizing the South

It’s a feeling that Corbin hopes other workers in the South will try to replicate by becoming part of the labor movement.

“Other people will see what we’ve done,” he said. “And they can do it, too.”

It was that desire to follow in other workers’ footsteps that set Blue Bird workers on the path toward USW membership, after they witnessed the success of their siblings at Kumho Tire in nearby Macon, who won a years-long campaign to join the USW in 2020.

“They knew what they wanted,” said USW staff representative Alex Perkins, who, as a USW local president, helped the Kumho workers launch their campaign in 2017. “I’ve walked in their shoes.”

Sam Porter, who has been at the Blue Bird factory for 15 years, said he can see in his co-workers’ faces the pride they take in being part of a union family.

“People are ready for change now,” Porter said. “It was never about money. It was about fairness.”