B.J. Cardwell has been a union organizer in Michigan. And over the past year, he has been a union organizer in southern-tier states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee Arkansas and Alabama.

After knocking on doors of nonunion workers fearful of losing their job, confronting and/or sweet-talking employers, cajoling workers to attend union meetings and bolstering the resolve of workers who have expressed an interest in organizing, Cardwell has come to a simple conclusion.

"People in Michigan have no idea how good they have it," he said. "The pay standards in most of the South are low, and the workers are scared to do anything about it. If workers in Michigan could see what has become of the South and their attitude toward workers, it would make them fight like hell to keep what they have, because it doesn't take long to lose it."

Cardwell, 44, hails from Painters Local 514 in Ann Arbor. He had been a business representative for the local and for Painters District Council 22 for several years when he was given the position of general organizer by International Union of Painters and Allied Trades General President Mike Monroe in April 2000.

Last summer, Monroe directed Cardwell to oversee the Painters Unions' "Southern Initiative," which operated under the concept that a union can't do a good job of organizing outside workers if it isn't organized internally.

The effort put into practice a section of the International Union's Bylaws, which requires individual union members to spend at least one day a year in service of their union, whether it's on a picket line or in attending a COMET (Construction Organizing and Membership Education Training) program, or other service.

The effort to organize - and get organized - utilized union officers and rank and file members in the South. They made house calls to union painters to make sure they understood what the union could do for them, and what they could do for their union. They talked to open shop painters, and made work calls to union and open shop employers. A core group of organizers headed by Cardwell went to various areas of the South to make the union pitch, and motivate the locals.

"We were told that we did more organizing in seven weeks than they did in 30 years," Cardwell said. The result: 2,400 Painters members were visited, 386 new members were organized and 12 contractors were signed to a collective bargaining agreement.

On Dec. 3, 2001, Monroe promoted Cardwell to the position of General President's Representative. Cardwell said the union's efforts will continue in the South -an area that had nearly given up on organizing over the last few decades - and will spread to other parts of the country.

"These people have been beaten down for so long," Cardwell said. "My impression is that they're scared. They know they need help; they just don't know where to get it. The general president has afforded us the opportunity to make some changes and to be more aggressive and help those people."

Cardwell said in many cases, nonunion employers use "favors" to keep their employers in line. One painter who was earning $7 per hour said he wouldn't join the union because he would have to turn his back on his boss, who had done him a favor by paying to have his car repaired when it broke down.

Another painter who stayed loyal to his nonunion employer recalled how his boss bought he and his family groceries when they were short on cash.

"I got really upset with the union leadership in Memphis," Cardwell said. In 1968 the city was the site of a notorious sanitation workers strike, which received nationwide attention in part because of the highly visible support of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated the day after he made a speech in the city. The workers finally won a contract nearly two-and-half months after the strike began.

"I told 'em at the union meeting that they shut the city down, then they grabbed their fishing poles and forgot about it," Cardwell said. "They got lazy. Today they're building like crazy in Memphis and it's all nearly completely nonunion. It made me sick."