North Carolina’s Union Movement

On the heels of a yet another anti-worker ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, the AFL-CIO announced October 25 that it’s filing charges with the International Labor Organization (ILO). The ILO is a UN agency created in 1919 to improve the conditions of workers and advance the cause of social justice throughout the world.

“Under Bush, America’s labor board has so failed our nation’s workers that we must now turn to the world’s international watchdogs to monitor and intervene. The Bush Labor Board is kryptonite for America’s workers. There is no historic precedent for such aggressive efforts by the Board to curtail workers’ rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining.” -AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

The ILO complaint, filed with the organization’s Committee on Freedom of Association, says the NLRB responded to a “rise in unlawful employer conduct” by shrinking coverage of the National Labor Relations Act, limiting the rights protected by the statute and strengthening management’s ability to discriminate, harass and intimidate workers. It also charges the NLRB with steadfastly refusing to apply the few meaningful remedies available under the law.

In related news, the AFL-CIO is planning a major rally on Thursday, November 15 to protest the anti-worker decisions of the Board.

Thanks to the DC Metro Council which contributed to this report.

Some 300 people - including students, trade unionists, retirees and farmworkers - rallied and marched in Winston-Salem on Sunday to demand Reynolds American meet with tobacco field workers’ representatives from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).

Reynolds has complete control over the tobacco procurement process, yet refuses to acknowledge its role as the de facto employer of the farm workers tending its tobacco crop and has said it will not negotiate with FLOC.

“Farmers don’t control the system. These companies control the money, and they benefit the most from the stoop labor of these workers. We’re saying, ‘Hey, you need to own up to the situation that you’re implicated in.’ ” –Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC president, N&O 10/27/2007

The union has successfully overcome similar challenges from employers like Campbell’s, Heinz, Vlasic, and Mount Olive, negotiating deals by which the companies demand their growers use workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The NC Growers Association has such an agreement with its seasonal workers, but because Reynold’s tobacco growers are not members, tobacco field workers don’t have the wage protections, health benefits and decent housing standards afforded by the contract.

Supporters on Sunday gathered at Lloyd Presbyterian Church for a rally before the march to Reynolds corporate headquarters in downtown Winston-Salem. Many waved flags or carried signs. Others carried crosses bearing the names of farm workers who have died, some while tending Reynolds’ crops. Marchers also brought a wreath as a memorial to North Carolina’s dead migrant farm laborers, which they intended to lay at the company’s headquarters building but were prevented from doing so by police.

In addition to folks from across North Carolina, dozens of union members from as far away as West Virginia and Washington, DC made the trip to show solidarity with FLOC. Among them, Will Duncan, special assistant to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, who said of Reynolds American CEO in a letter from Sweeney, “When Susan Ivey won’t meet with you, she turns her back on all of us.”

NC State AFL-CIO officers James Andrews and MaryBe McMillan rode a bus chartered by the Triangle and Triad Labor Councils from Raleigh to be at the event. The officers pledged that the 120,000 members of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO would stand with the farm workers as long it takes to win justice in the tobacco fields.

The rally and march received coverage in several North Carolina newspapers. You can read their coverage by clicking the following links:

• Union that took on Mount Olive turns aim toward tobacco workers
• Tobacco workers’ rally draws 300
• Farm union targets RJR
• Farm workers seek better conditions
• Calls for Change: Demonstrators march to Reynolds American, protesting farmworkers’ conditions

The AFL-CIO Blog also covered the story here.

• A strong voice for nurses, profession
• ‘Pioneer for nurses’ headed union, worked at U-M
• Union: Trade deals partly to blame for lead problems
• Kentucky - where Democrats hope more than the grass is blue
• UAW gearing up for intense talks with Ford
• Future of 6 plants in UAW hands
• Union that took on Mount Olive turns aim toward tobacco workers
• Tobacco workers’ rally draws 300
• Farm union targets RJR
•  Farm workers seek better conditions
• Calls for Change: Demonstrators march to Reynolds American, protesting farmworkers’ conditions
• Bush would support expanding some SCHIP coverage
• Clearing out, cleaning up
• Unions oppose Rhee’s firing plan
• Looming writers strike could change face of TV
• Mediator to The Rescue Of Writers Talks, Maybe
• Edwards trying to collar case of Iowa blues
• Murder and payoffs taint business in Colombia
• Capital bill needs bipartisan support (Illinois AFL-CIO op-ed)
• Republicans protest O’Malley plan
• NLRB neutral on labor issues, general counsel says Post a Comment
• A Union With Clout Stakes Its Claim on Politics
• Touting business as a path to peace

“Even if we or our families were not directly involved, we had heard and read about pickets being beaten, jailed, sometimes killed. Honoring a picket line was the least we could do. It still is.”

–Sydney Lens, author

More info & ammo for unionists at biglabor.com

• Autoworkers cling to middle class
• Workers at Chrysler Narrowly Approve Contract
• UAW members approve Chrysler contract
• Chrysler workers ratify contentious four-year labor pact
• Hard work remains for GM, Locals
• Auto pacts could mend ailing state
• Dealing gears up; job security key
• Union members deliver message to community
• Union reps visit HARH picket line
• AFL-CIO, UAW turn out to show support for ARH strikers 
• Many don’t understand how adjustable rates work
• Pirates of Private Equity
• New wage law brings limited complaints
• Cooler weather helps contain California fires
• Report: Gap uses child labor in India
• The human cost of doing business
• Edwards Offers Savings Plan
• Edwards offers proposals to benefit workers
• Iowa’s Democrats Opt for Jan. 3 Caucuses
• Stop blaming workers for state budget woes (MI AFL-CIO op-ed)
• Split builds over slots
• Employees, grocery stores agree to contract

• President Visits Scene and Promises Help
• Striking ARH Nurses Receive Support from National Organizations
• Chrysler labor pact likely to win OK
• House Passes Revised Children’s Health Bill, but Timing Irks GOP
• American Airlines pilots offer new pay proposal
• UAW’s Attention Shifts To Ford
• Bridge numbers up for grabs
• AFTRA and IATSE get closer
• Postal workers protest reduced hours
• Immigration Raids Hurt Farmers
• UAW, MGM Grand Detroit reach tentative deal
• Production ends at Maytag

• Heroic firefighters toiling against California Inferno
• Four key UAW locals back Chrysler pact
• 56% favor UAW contract nationwide
• LEGISLATIVE RACES: Democrats Get Last-Minute Push From Labor, Business Interests
• Defense Department’s Union Rules Challenged
• Newark Teachers’ Union Tries to Prove It’s Part of the Solution for a Failing School
• House to Vote on New Version of Child Health Bill
• Senate rejects granting legal status to illegal immigrants who are high school grads
• Using Chávez as Counterpoint, Bush Pursues Latin Trade Pacts
• Ford plant runs despite strike
• New players’ union leader Kelly seeks unity, peace
• AirTran pilots select new leader
• UAW leaders hit the shop floor to lobby workers on Chrysler deal
• Communications union communicates on politics
• Rising costs forcing half of U.S. adults to delay doctor visits, study shows
• Dodd gets political on CA fires
• Specter, GOP colleague spar over legislative earmarks

• During rescue effort that turned tragic, an act of heroism
• Child Care Workers in New York City Vote to Unionize
• Has the Change Led to Wins?
• American Pilots Ask for Pay Increase of 53%
• Sens Consider Help for Immigrants Kids
• Wall Street Democrats Versus Main Street Democrats
• Fires char houses not spirits
• Study finds farmworkers unaware of job protections
• GOP senators to push judicial nominee
• DC Mayor Seeks Authority to Clean House
• Labor Arbitrator Penalizes Hospital
• Whatever Happened to the Eight-Hour Work Day?
• Trading Down

We join the McCoy family in mourning the lost of a true freedom fighter, Brother John McCoy.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. at Mount Zion A.M.E. Church, 1111 South 5th Street, Wilmington, NC.

Brother McCoy played a major role in building our statewide and Wilmington area labor movements. He in many ways became the conscience of the labor movement in North Carolina as he debated positions that called on us to do the right thing.

Brother McCoy was a fighter for workers’ rights as a member of the International Longshoremen’s Union and he became a state and national voice for social, political, and economic justice through his many affiliations.

He served as president of the area A. Philip Randolph Institute for many years. In that capacity, he led voter registration/voter education campaigns designed to build political power for his community.

We will always remember his fighting sprit, love for his family and the contributions he made to advance the needs of the poor and working class in North Carolina and indeed around the country.

• Broadway stagehands vote unanimously to authorize strike
• Chrysler sweetens UAW pact
• Vote expected this week on Judge Southwick Nomination to Circuit Court
• Hollywood bargaining
• Foxwoods casino unionization gets a boost
• Columbia seen to deserve vote on trade pact
• Saving some Ford factories on the table
• Chrysler-UAW deal backed by secret product pledge
• Kaine and Stolle talk election
• AFTRA link with AFL-CIO could weaken four A’s
• Ohio group pushes for sick days
• GOP finds hot button in illegal immigration:Special election in Mass. Could  be indicative of Democratic week spot
• Senate Democrats cite meeting Bush ‘halfway’ on spending proposals
• Bush asks Congress for $46 billion more in war funding
• Minimum wage cooks up more controversy
• Right to work suddenly moot?
• Union to donate to slain crossing guard’s family
• Copan resident inducted into AFL-CIO labor hall of fame

• Labor unions are in no hurry to endorse candidates
• Stagehands’ unions authorizes a strike
• Chrysler contract approval in doubt
• AFL-CIO chief organizer brings expertise to southern efforts
• Negotiations between nurses, ARH, to resume
• Kaine Urges Union to Press Flesh for Democrats
• Resistance to Chrysler-UAW contract grows
• New company takes away union jobs and wages (AFL-CIO Op Ed)
• GREAT STRIKE WAY
• Pension Plan Wants Countrywide CEO Out
• OSHA meets on diacetyl; will progress follow?
• Air traffic controllers retiring at high rate
• Public-employees unions committed to good of society
• Fence to protect America turns out to be Made in China
• You might be due overtime pay, even if you’re salaried 
• Wabash factory plans November closing, cutting hundreds of jobs
• NBA, union deny reports of discipline for refs
• San francisco / Labor leaders say politicians won’t end war, urge workers to protest

Last week, the Justice @ Smithfield team reported that Smithfield Foods had abruptly called off negotiations with employee representatives from the Tar Heel plant. The talks began shortly after the massive rally and march on the Smithfield shareholders meeting in Williamsburg in late August of this year, but it seems they were a ruse to buy the company some good PR while they prepared for legal action.

Smithfield Foods has filed a lawsuit against the UFCW and some its allies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, legislation originally designed to tackle organized crime syndicates, and alleges that their efforts to draw public support for Tar Heel Workers constitutes attempted extortion.

Clearly, the lawsuit is meant to be a distraction from the ongoing health and safety issues at the plant, and the latest roadblock to finding a long-term solution for workers who have been struggling for years to bring union representation into the plant. The UFCW intends to vigorously fight these baseless allegations.

You can read the union’s full press release here.

What: Solidarity support needed for tobacco field workers in bid for union recognition

How: March on Reynolds American headquarters. Download the action flyer

When: This Sunday, October 28 at 3:00pm in Winston-Salem, NC

Get on the bus! The Triangle and Triad Labor Councils have arranged for free bus transportation, round-trip from Raleigh and Greensboro to Winston-Salem.

Tobacco field workers are marching to demand Reynolds recognize their union, FLOC. Read our blog entry for more info, and answer the call to action on October 28.

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — the factory, farm, or office. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

–Eleanor Roosevelt (1953)

More info & ammo for unionists at biglabor.com

• Veto funding for children’s health care? What could you be thinking? (AFL-CIO op-ed)
• Guatemala union heads killed despite US trade deal
• Jobless Claims Rise Sharply 
• Democrats Look Ahead as Veto Override Falters
• Mortgage resets: a rude awakening
• ‘No fly’ on steroids
• Unions, consumer groups protest Schwarzenegger’s health plan
• Teachers Agree to Bonus Pay Tied to Scores
• Mayor pushes affordable housing plan
• Bonus on way for GM workers
• American Airlines’ parent shows profit again
• Health insurance main sticking point with MotorCity Casino workers

• Fed chief says credit crisis will slow growth into ‘08
• Study: ARM Borrowers Don’t Know the Terms
• Mortgage rates survey find homeowners don’t know details
• New Wave of Foreclosures in the Works
• Consumers Remain Confused About Mortgages
• Republicans at a Loss
• The sky’s no limit for CEO perks
• Bush, Uribe action needed to save Colombia deal
• Canadian Industrialist Urges Workers to Join Union
• California health reform gets sticky

• Mortgage Poll Finds Some Borrowers May Cut Back on Groceries as Rates Rise
• Survey shows confusion among holders of adjustable mortgages
• Adjustable rates still a mystery to many, study says
• As Defaults Rise, Washington Worries
• Mortage rates survey find homeowners don’t know details
• Adjustable rate mortgages puzzle, worries homeowners
• Survey Finds Homeowners Confused about ARMs
• Union leaders say NLRB ruling erects new hurdle for labor
• An Overblown Fear About S-Chip 
• Labor’s watchdog: Face to Face with Damon A. Silvers
• UAW leaders send contract for vote
• Chrysler union leaders OK contract
• GM’s health care deal may move others to action
• Unions Remain Divided On Pick Among Democratic Contenders
• AOL to Cut 20 Percent of Workforce, 750 People Locally
• Unions give up on gov.’s health plan
• Risk posed by overseas aircraft repairs
• Poll: Mixed feelings on kids’ health insurance
• Edwards gains support of 10 SEIU chapters

From the AFL-CIO Blog: President John Sweeney and Union Privilege President Leslie Tolf have announced the launch of the Union Plus Save My Home Hotline.

“The Save My Home Hotline will provide free, confidential advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the counselors at Money Management International, a nonprofit, HUD-certified housing counseling agency. Face-to-face counseling is available at more than 100 local offices in 22 states and the District of Columbia.”

Union members and their parents and children can call the hotline for advice at 1-866-490-5361.

Read more at blog.aflcio.org.

What: Override of Bush veto of SCHIP essential for over 110,000 kids in NC

How: Write a letter to the editor of your local paper

Unless the Congress acts to override Bush’s veto, 6 million children will lose their coverage, and another 4 million kids that would have gained health care will continue to go without.

Speak out and join the debate in the press by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper. Let folks in your community know that override of Bush’s veto of SCHIP should be a top priority of the Congress. Send your letter today!

Last week we told you about the veto by President Bush of the bill that would reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and expand its coverage to include 4 million more children of families that make too little to buy their own insurance.

This week we’ve launched a letter writing campaign through our web site so our members can join in the discussion of the Bush veto, which has sparked heated debate in local newspapers across our state and around the country.

The NC State AFL-CIO lobbied against funding the expansion of SCHIP on the backs of tobacco workers and their jobs through an increase in the federal tobacco excise tax. We lost that debate.

Even so, we believe that the reauthorization of SCHIP for the over 110,000 kids in NC who depend on it for their basic health care needs is too important not to support the legislation now before the Congress. Their health and the health of tens of thousands of other children still without coverage in our state depend on an override of Bush’s callous veto.

We urge those of you reading this e-mail to go to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/schip_veto_letters/ and use the form to send your own letter to the editor in support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

At the letter writing campaign web site, we’ve provided a list of talking points you can use to help get you started. Letters only have to be 250 words or less. When you provide your zip code, our system will pull up a list of local newspapers in circulation in your area. You can choose to send your letter to one or to all of them.

The veto of SCHIP renewal means 6.6 million children of low-income families will lose their health care when funding expires on November 16 unless the Congress acts quickly to override. An additional 4 million children from low-middle income families that would have gained coverage will continue to go without any health insurance.

It takes a two-thirds majority to override a veto, but the 265 to 159 House vote falls about 25 votes short of what is needed.

An override will almost certainly count on two North Carolina Democrats who voted against SCHIP renewal - Rep. Bob Etheridge of the 2nd Congressional District and Rep. Mike McIntyre of the 7th CD.