Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Politicians need to be focused on creating jobs for today’s jobless instead of worrying about future debts because only when the unemployed get back to work will we be able to grow our economy and tackle our long-term federal budget deficits. In the meantime, continued investment aid to the jobless is among the best forms of economic stimulus.

That was part of the message from NC State AFL-CIO President James Andrews when he sat down for an interview on News and Views with Chris Fitzsimon to air this Labor Day weekend. Here’s a preview:

“You give an unemployed worker a check, they spend that check. They’re not going to put it in the bank, and if you want the economy to grow and folks to have jobs, that’s a stimulus in every sense of the word. Yes, we’ve got to deal with the budget, but we can’t cut our way out of this.”

The full interview will air this Sunday on WRAL (101.5) and WCMC (99.9) in the Triangle, and will be streamed from the NC Policy Watch website on Monday.

North Carolina has received $2.2 billion from the Recovery Act as of June 30, 2010.

$400 Million for education from “Race to the Top”

North Carolina won big in President Obama’s Race to the Top Fund, securing a $400 million grant that will, in part, pay for continued implementation of Gov. Bev Perdue’s Career and College: Ready, Set, Go! initiative, she announced this week:

“North Carolina’s children today are one step closer to being guaranteed the best public education possible – something every child deserves. This grant will give us the resources to more aggressively implement our plan to ensure that all of our children graduate ready for a career, college or technical training.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress and signed into law last year included $4.35 billion for the Race to the Top Fund, a competitive grant program for the states designed to reward those which demonstrate success in raising student achievement and come up with the best plans for education reform – plans that can serve as a model for other states.

“I thank Sec. [of Education Arnie] Duncan for recognizing North Carolina’s ability to lead in education reform, and I thank everyone who worked so hard to make this possible,” said Perdue.

Our state was one of nine and the District of Columbia to win grants in the second phase of Race to the Top. President Obama has requested $1.35 billion in his next budget to continue the successful program, saying only the countries that lead the way in education will lead the world:

“There are any number of actions that we can take to enhance our nation’s competitiveness and secure a better future for our people, but few of them will make as much of a difference as improving the way we educate our sons and daughters.”

$250 Million for expanding broadband

Last week, Gov. Perdue announced that North Carolina has been awarded an additional $115 million in Recovery Act grants to expand broadband Internet access in our state. All together in just this year, North Carolina has received $250 million in grants from President Obama’s economic stimulus plan for bringing high-speed Internet to our rural communities.

“Increasing broadband access will create new jobs up front and provide a boost for local economies to create even more jobs and a better quality of life in the near future,” said Gov. Perdue. “These improvements are especially important in rural and underserved areas of North Carolina.”

“We need high speed Internet for our homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces,” says Speed Matters, a project of the Communications Workers of America, which advocates for affordable high speed Internet access for Americans:

“But most U.S. Internet connections are far too slow to send and receive large files for medical monitoring, to run a home-based business, or for multi-media distance learning. America is falling behind our industrialized peers at a time when we should be growing our competitiveness with the rest of the world.”

Download and upload speeds in the United States – the nation that invented the Internet – rank (PDF) 28th in the world, and North Carolina falls below the national average. Many remote or rural areas of our state still don’t have broadband. Thanks to investments being made because of the Recovery Act, we’re beginning to change that.

On the side of teachers, firefighters, public safety officers…

Last week, Congress passed and the President quickly signed into law a bill that will save literally hundreds of thousands of American jobs. The law provides $16 billion in Medicaid funding assistance and $10 billion for teachers’ jobs. Failure to pass this bill would have meant state and local governments – which cannot operate a budget deficit and are still reeling from massive shortfalls since Wall Street nearly triggered a second Great Depression in 2008 – would have been forced into a new round of layoffs.

In North Carolina alone, some 5,700 public school teachers will be in class instead of in unemployment lines because of this law. Our economic recovery depends on fixing the jobs crisis. In signing this bill into law, President Obama and Democrats in Congress prevailed against a nearly unanimous Republican opposition, which seems determined to make the crisis worse.

On the side of Wall Street and outsourcing…

This law was fully funded, in part by closing a corporate tax loophole that rewarded multi-national corporations for exporting our jobs. Republican allies of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the Senate had filibustered the bill for months to protect this tax break for outsourcing.

After the Senate overcame Republican obstruction to pass the bill and send it to the House for final consideration, House Republican leader, John Boehner attacked – without irony – closing the outsourcing loophole as a “job killing tax hike” and derided the teachers, firefighters, and police officers whose jobs would be saved as “liberal special interests.”

The House passed the bill by a vote of 247-161. Not one Republican from North Carolina voted for this bill. AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka, released a statement:

“With today’s vote, House Republicans showed they value Wall Street and tax cuts for the rich over teachers, police and firefighters.  This is yet another example in the laundry list of anti-jobs votes they’ve taken.  They voted ‘no’ even though the Congressional Budget Office estimated this measure will reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion.

“This bill reduces the deficit by closing tax loopholes that reward companies for sending American jobs overseas.  So not only did these Republicans vote against saving jobs in America — they voted to keep encouraging corporations to outsource jobs during this recession. [...]

“Come November working people will remember who stood for jobs and who stood in the way.”

We will, indeed, remember in November.

The U.S. House of Representatives took an important step forward in providing fire fighters, police officers, and other public safety workers collective bargaining rights by passing the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act as an amendment to the war supplemental spending bill moving through the Congress.

Most states already provide bargaining rights to public safety workers. Only North Carolina and Virginia make it illegal for public employees – including safety workers – to sit down at the table and bargain as equals with their employer. This bill would change that for public safety workers, and it’s a long time in coming, says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger:

“Seventy-five years after passage of the National Labor Relations Act, fire fighters are a step closer to having the same rights that workers in the private sector have had since 1935.”

Tell Kay Hagan keep her campaign promise of support

Kay Hagan won the endorsement of the IAFF in 2008 after pledging her support for the collective bargaining bill. Now staff for the Senator are indicating she has changed her position.

“This is unacceptable,” says Greensboro firefighter and Vice President of PFFPNC Local 947 , Dave Coker:

“We are asking that you contact Senator Hagan’s office and urge her to live up to the promises she made to firefighters in North Carolina and vote for the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act.

“I can’t stress how important these phone calls will be as we head into this fight.  You can bet that the City/County Managers and others will be calling Senator Hagan and encouraging her to vote against the bill.”

Here’s the number to Kay Hagan’s DC office: 202-224-6342; and her state headquarters in Greensboro: 336-333-5311; and her Raleigh office: 919-856-4630; and her Charlotte office: 704-334-2448; and her Asheville office: 828-257-6510; and her Greenville office: 252-754-0707.

For more information about this legislation, visit the IAFF website.

The campaign to end the ban on public employee collective bargaining in North Carolina has been a long one. The work of the North Carolina Hear Our Public Employees Coalition (HOPE) must continue, especially in hard economic times. Even for a group that runs as efficiently as HOPE on a shoe-string budget, that effort takes money.

Richard O’Brien, Secretary-Treasurer for the Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics of North Carolina, has written a letter urging our member unions and individuals in the community to dig deep and continue to fund this vital effort to repeal the Jim Crow law that bans bargaining for public employees:

Now is not the time to slack off, as HOPE has been securing more and more legislators who support the repeal.

This is where we need YOUR help! Our larger contributors have not been able to help out in the way that they would like to be able to contribute. So rather than having a few large contributors, HOPE is counting on numerous individuals like you to make smaller donations of $10, $15, or $20.

I am Richard O’Brien, the Secretary-Treasurer for the Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics of North Carolina (the IAFF State Affiliate).

If you are receiving this e-mail, you are in some way connected, either as a Local Union member or through your membership in a larger statewide organization, to a coalition known as HOPE (Hear Our Public Employees). Visit the website and learn more about HOPE.

HOPE is a coalition of organizations and individuals that support our goal of securing collective bargaining rights for public employees by repealing NC General Statute 95-98 which bans contracts between units of government and unions or employee associations.

As you are aware, the economy has not recovered. The coalition partners are doing everything they can to financially support HOPE which runs on a limited budget. HOPE operates with only one part-time staff person and is in danger of losing that one person.

HOPE is not a charitable organization. If it were, we would not be able to lobby the legislators thereby defeating the reason for our very existence. Therefore, donations are not tax deductible and you can see why small donors are that much more important.

Now is not the time to slack off, as HOPE has been securing more and more legislators who support the repeal.

This is where we need YOUR help! Our larger contributors have not been able to help out in the way that they would like to be able to contribute. So rather than having a few large contributors, HOPE is counting on numerous individuals like you to make smaller donations of $10, $15, or $20.

Help HOPE Help You!

HOPE makes it real easy to donate. HOPE has a PayPal account set up on their website.

Simply go to HOPE’s website and click on the orange Donate icon on the right hand side of the page and follow the instructions to make a secure credit card donation of $10, $15, or $20.

We know finances are tight for our members too, and if you can’t see your way clear to donate one of these amounts, would you at least consider donating $5?

Your help is needed now! Please contribute now!

Visit HOPE’s website NC HOPE and click on the orange Donate icon on the right hand side of the page and follow the instructions to make a secure credit card donation.

We are extremely disappointed that the Senate Judiciary Committee voted this week to amend House Bill 961 by gutting it of all language relating to campaign finance reform.

HB 961 would have expanded public financing to several Council of State races, including the one for labor commissioner. The money to pay for the campaigns would have been raised by imposing relatively modest new fees on the businesses and firms regulated by the elected offices involved – attorney general, state treasurer, agriculture commissioner, labor commissioner and secretary of state.

Call or email senators on the Judiciary Committee before Tuesday and tell them you want public financing for Council of State races and you want it before they adjourn for the year – not later, not next year, but NOW. Let them know this is an issue that you will remember when you vote in November.

• Chair, Sen. Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr., 919-715-3001, Martin.Nesbitt@ncleg.net
• Vice Chair, Sen. R. C. Soles, Jr., 919-733-5963, RC.Soles@ncleg.net
• Vice Chair, Sen. Daniel G. Clodfelter, 919-715-8331, Daniel.Clodfelter@ncleg.net
• Vice Chair, Sen. Peter S. Brunstetter, 919-733-7850, Peter.Brunstetter@ncleg.net
• Vice Chair, Sen. Josh Stein, 919-715-6400, Josh.Stein@ncleg.net
• Members:
  Sen. Charles W. Albertson, 919-733-5705, Charlie.Albertson@ncleg.net
  Sen. Philip E. Berger, 919-733-5708, Phil.Berger@ncleg.net
  Sen. Dan Blue, 919-733-5752, Dan.Blue@ncleg.net
  Sen. Margaret Highsmith Dickson, 733-5776, Margaret.Dickson@ncleg.net
  Sen. David W. Hoyle, 919-733-5734, David.Hoyle@ncleg.net
  Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird, 919-733-5804, Ellie.Kinnaird@ncleg.net
  Sen. Floyd B. McKissick, Jr., 919-733-4599, Floyd.McKissick@ncleg.net
  Sen. David Rouzer, 919-733-5748, David.Rouzer@ncleg.net
  Sen. Andrew C. Brock, 919-715-0690, Andrew.Brock@ncleg.net
  Sen. Harry Brown, 919-715-3034, Harry.Brown@ncleg.net
  Sen. Debbie A. Clary, 919-715-3038, Debbie.Clary@ncleg.net
  Sen. Malcolm Graham, 919-733-5650, Malcolm.Graham@ncleg.net
  Sen. Clark Jenkins, 919-715-3040, Clark.Jenkins@ncleg.net
  Sen. Richard Stevens, 919-733-5653, Richard.Stevens@ncleg.net
  Sen. Jerry W. Tillman, 919-733-5870, Jerry.Tillman@ncleg.net

This is about whether we can have a state council of elected officials controlled by multi-national corporations and the businesses they are supposed to regulate or have a government of, by, and for the people.

On Tuesday, June 15, 2010, supporters of public employees rallied outside the North Carolina General Assembly before lobbying lawmakers to repeal the ban on collective bargaining by public employees – GS95-98 – a Jim Crow law passed in 1959 that’s still on the books.

The event was organized by the North Carolina Hear Our Public Employees (HOPE) Coalition. About 200 trade unionists, community, and civil rights activists traveled to our state’s capital to press for repeal of the law that makes North Carolina one of only two states to forbid public employees from engaging in what is an internationally recognized right to bargain with your employer.

The day-long event began with an orientation session at the State Archives building, where NC State AFL-CIO President, James Andrews, urged supporters of HOPE to not give up this fight for freedom:

“The message is to you – and it’s a biblical term some of you folks know – ‘Stay on the wall. Don’t get off the wall’ – because I am convinced that the right of public workers in this state to gain collective bargaining will happen in North Carolina.” Watch the video:

Speaking truth to power in a powerful way

After orientation, HOPE supporters converged on the Mall across from the Legislative Building where the General Assembly meets to speak out for the rights of workers. There they heard several powerful messages, beginning with a speech by NC NAACP President, Rev. William Barber. Here are a few highlights from his remarks:

“The Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement are two movements headed in the same direction, and we will always be joined together.”

“Environmentalists and civil rights people and labor folk and folks who care about education come to those positions from the same basic moral framework: that we must have a society that works for everybody and especially those on the margins and those who do the hardest work.”

“This law [G.S. 95-98] is a Jim Crow law, one of the last active Jim Crow laws, and it needs to be repealed from our state law.”

“People talk about the dignity of work, but work alone is not dignified. Slavery was a form of work, but there was no dignity in that. [...] Work is only dignified when workers are protected, when there’s a living wage, when there’s safety, when there’s collective bargaining, when there’s labor rights.”

Watch Rev. Barber’s speech to at Lobby for HOPE rally: Part 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Ed Duffield is a firefighter of 24-years in Winston-Salem, NC. “I’m here to talk about having a seat at the table.” Firefighters’ number one priority is protecting the safety of the public and their members. They want the ability to talk about workplace issues “intelligently” with their employers, “and with collective bargaining, we’ll have the opportunity to do that.” Watch the video:

“Without the progress of women, there can be and will be no progress,” said Michelle Cotton Laws, a community activist, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, and Indy Weekly’s 2009 Person of the Year. Women make up 47% of the state workforce and 91% of teachers. In refusing to give these women a seat at the table, Michelle said, lawmakers “are talking about dismantling the strength of our families and communities.”

“We’re hear to say to the members of the General Assembly and the cabinet, ‘If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside-down, all alone, you ought to let us back at the table to collectively bargain and turn it right-side-up.” Watch the video:

We’ll have more to add to our collection of videos and pictures from Lobby for HOPE 2010 in the coming days, but you can watch these and more at our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/aflcionc.

UPDATE: Press Clips from Lobby Day

Thanks to HOPE staff person, Chelsea Earles, for compiling this list of press clips from the June 15 Lobby Day:

• http://www.reflector.com/state-news/tuesday-nc-general-assembly-38522
• http://groups.google.com/group/official-correspondence/browse_thread/thread/a33c42a646eecdfc?pli=1
• http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=node/541
• http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/group-lobbies-end-nc-government-bargaining-ban
• http://www.theherald-nc.com/2010/06/16/14784/bill-would-allow-unions.html
• http://wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.nc/210be66b-www.wlos.com.shtml
• http://www.kinston.com/articles/coalition-66138-kfpress-bargaining-workers.html
• http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/3564aaa8dd164dcc8a5005ebb005893a/NC-XGR–Collective_Bargaining/ (IN)
• http://www.gastongazette.com/news/ban-48254-unions-government.html
• http://www.civitasreview.com/miscellaneous/the-audacity-of-h-o-p-e/
• http://www.gearino.com/
• http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Tuesday-at-the-NC-General-Assembly-524962.php

]]> http://aflcionc.org/blog/2010/06/25/recap-collective-bargaining-lobby-day/feed/ 0 http://aflcionc.org/blog/2010/06/18/voter-owned-elections-lobby-day-is-tuesday-622/ http://aflcionc.org/blog/2010/06/18/voter-owned-elections-lobby-day-is-tuesday-622/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:46:44 +0000 Jeremy http://aflcionc.org/blog/?p=2515

Click to register and for more info.

Putting “We the People” back in control of our politics

NC Voters for Clean Elections, a coalition working to advance citizen-funded, voter-owned elections will hold a lobby day at the General Assembly June 22. The NC AFL-CIO supports the work of the NC Voters for Clean Elections because we believe public campaign financing would make it easier for regular citizens – as opposed to special interests with deep pockets – to impact policies that ensure every North Carolinian has a decent quality of life.

What: Voter Owned Elections Lobby Day
When: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 starting at 9:00 AM
Where: State Legislative Building, 16 W Jones Street, Raleigh, NC

Click here to register to attend lobby day!

Special keynote address by Lawrence Lessig

This year NCVCE will present Professor Larry Lessig as the keynote speaker at Lobby Day. Lessig is a Professor of Law at Harvard University and a frequent national commentator on the growing influence of special interests in our political system. He is currently the Director of Harvard’s Edward J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics where he studies institutional corruption. To get more of an idea about his work, you can read his recent article, “How to Get Our Democracy Back,” published in the Nation, or view a selection of his famous, rapid fire presentations (seriously, you’ll be stunned).

Lessig will speak in the Legislative Auditorium from 11 AM – noon, followed by free lunch for lobby day participants from 12 noon – 1 PM. Click here to register.

Two bills in the General Assembly need our support

There are two bills on the coalition’s legislative agenda that would push reform forward in North Carolina. The first would expand our successful Council of State program to additional statewide races where there is an awkward reliance on money from regulated industries (e.g. State Treasurer, Commissioner of Labor). The second would allow municipalities to create local public financing programs. Both bills help break the fundraising dependencies that have led to state ethics scandals. Both would make state elections more accessible to average voters and grassroots-oriented candidates.

But legislators won’t act unless they hear from you! Click here to register.

The event is being sponsored by the state campaign reform coalition, NC Voters for Clean Elections.  Their partners include the League of Women Voters, Democracy North Carolina, the NC Center for Voter Education, Common Cause NC, AARP-NC, the NC Council of Churches, the AFL-CIO of NC, the NAACP of NC, the NC Association of Educators, and the NC Justice Center. For a full list of partners click here.

The NC State AFL-CIO is proud to stand with NC Voters for Clean Elections to expand sensible campaign finance reform and put “We the People” back in charge of our politics in North Carolina.

For more information, including the schedule, parking, and directions, visit http://www.ncvce.org/.

Click to download the flyer.

Support public employees

Join us on Lobby Day, Tuesday, June 15. Come to Raleigh and lobby the General Assembly to repeal the ban on collective bargaining and give state agencies and localities the option to negotiate a contract with their employees. Help make sure all employees in North Carolina – private and public – have the right to a voice at work.

What: Collective Bargaining Lobby Day
When: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 starting at 9:00 AM
Where: State Archives auditorium, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC

RSVP for Lobby Day by sending a message to info@nchope.org.

Virtual Lobby Day is happening now

Can’t be in Raleigh on Tuesday? You can still support our efforts by calling and emailing your state representative and senator. Click here to find your legislators. Tell them you support the repeal of the bargaining ban because:

• Public employees make NC work. Our quality of life depends on them.
• Public employees should not have less rights on the job than workers at McDonalds or Walmart.
• Public employees can help balance state and local budgets and collective bargaining would give them a seat at the table and a voice in how to do it.
• Repealing the ban would empower state agencies and local leaders to decide for themselves whether to bargain with employees.
• Ending a Jim Crow injustice matters even today, 51 years after the ban sought to prevent whites and non-whites from working together on the job.

Download the flyer (opens PDF) for Collective Bargaining Lobby Day and promote this event within your networks.

Click to download the flyer.

Come to Raleigh and support public employees

State budget crises across the country have led to major cuts in public services for the public good while ideologues foment resentment of public workers despite research which shows they earn as much as 12% less than their private sector counterparts.

In North Carolina, public employees are especially vulnerable because our state is one of only two in the nation to outlaw collective bargaining for its workers. Not having a contract makes these workers easy targets for pay cuts, layoffs, and furloughs, and it means police officers, fire fighters, teachers, and other civil servants have less rights on the job than employees at McDonalds or Walmart.

Join us on Lobby Day, Tuesday, June 15. Come to Raleigh and lobby the General Assembly to repeal the ban on collective bargaining and give state agencies and localities the option to negotiate a contract with their employees. Help make sure all employees in North Carolina – private and public – have the right to a voice at work.

What: Collective Bargaining Lobby Day
When: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 starting at 9:00 AM
Where: State Archives auditorium, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC

Lobby Day is about:

• The right to collectively bargain.
• The right to respect and a voice in the workplace.
• The right to negotiate decent wages, benefits for workers and their families and safety in the workplace.
• The opportunity to share workers’ knowledge and skills on how to make public services more efficient and effective.

Download the flyer (opens PDF) for Collective Bargaining Lobby Day and promote this event within your networks.