Who do you think those plants are hiring? Some southerners, and the rest are______?
??????
immigrants
We hire immigrants from other countries to work those jobs because states like the south lack the skilled work force to fill those jobs out.
Due to the low cost of living, a skilled southern labor can live well off and even have savings to help send his kids to college and retire fairly comfortably. No union needed! In fact,
there are laws that prevent skilled labors from quitting their jobs because it would put the plants in a bind if a key labor left. (The labor market in the south is opposite to the North. There was a time employees would seek them out through their schools and 'ask' new electricians to work for them. )
But there is a lack of skilled southern labors and the new immigration laws, these companies just hire the skilled labor else where. And pay them less.
Now there is another reason why those companies would locate in the middle of a labor desert. They gain added perks from the states. Not just tax breaks, subsidies such as free use of land, reduction in utilities, and other perks just so the company would move and
stay in the state.(Some companies have left because they could not fill their plants with enough skilled workers or they could not meet production goal lines. It is well known in Georgia and South Carolina especially. Why work for an autoplant when you can make more working for a smaller company, local utility or even the state. It is a joke to those workers that do live in the area.)
The South has not had any thing like the union movement, but yet companies would not move to the South. The reason is the lack of skilled workers.
You did know these things, right?