Sunbelt Blues (1990)

n 1976, Southern Exposure put together a special double issue on labor entitled "Here Come a Wind." Back then, the region was in the midst of a manufacturing boom. Factories were flocking south in search of a warmer industrial climate, one where wages are low and union membership is even lower. In the North, they called this migration "runaway shops." In the South, it was economic development. 

Our introduction to that special issue recognized that we were witnessing a dramatic shift of capital, jobs, and people to the South, and wondered aloud what the changing conditions would mean for Southern workers: "Will the runaway shops and homegrown factories offer the same job protection and income enjoyed by their Northern counterparts? Will unions really make a difference? What will be the relationship between identity in community and identity as an employee? What sense of personal worth and individual pride can workers expect from their labor?" 

That was nearly 15 years ago, but in many ways it seems like a lifetime. In the span of a single generation, we have experienced nothing short of a wholesale transformation of the Southern economy. Mills have given way to malls; factories have been replaced by fast food. In 1969, one out of every four Southerners worked in manufacturing. Today one out of two work services or trade, the Burger Kings and K-Marts that consume landscape.