Tell Betsy Atkins to resign in protest
Our fellow union members at the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) need our support in their campaign to get Reynolds American to do right by the tobacco workers who harvest the golden leaf.
Betsy Atkins is a board member at Reynolds, but despite her encouragement, Reynolds CEO, Susan [...]

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Sign the petition to give TSOs a Voice @ Work
Nine years is long enough for workers at the Transportation Security Administration to go without collective bargaining rights. Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the power to grant this basic human right to Transportation Security Officers. The federal employees [...]

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UPDATE: Postponed until 2/27 due to wintry weather
Look for more information next week.
Because the change we need must come in North Carolina
The NC State AFL-CIO is proud to stand with our partners in the HK on J alliance. Our 14-point People’s Agenda speaks to the change we need in our state capital and across [...]

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Protest outside Target in Washington, DC. Photo by United Students Against Sweatshops.

Company agrees to reopen plant it shuttered after workers unionized
North Carolina has suffered tens of thousands of job losses to foreign competition. Once those jobs leave our shores, they don’t always stay in one place for long, as multinational corporations close shops and open [...]

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URGENT: Town Hall on plant closing is Thursday (11/19)
We have received an urgent request for solidarity assistance from APWU Local 1807 in Hickory, NC. As we’ve highlighted in past email updates and in our recent newsletter, the U.S. Postal Service is cutting services and window hours, consolidating rural routes, and has even sought legislation [...]

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FLOC demonstration at Reynolds shareholders meeting on May 6th
Join with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) at Reynolds Shareholders Meeting to show decision-makers that we support FLOC’s struggle.
Reynolds must address the injustices farm workers endure in their supply chain and give workers the respect they deserve!
What: Rally outside Reynolds American shareholders meeting
When: Wednesday, May 6, [...]

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Machinists of Local W369 to return to work
From the IAM web site:
Striking members of Local W369 in Moncure, North Carolina, will return to work at Moncure Plywood with their contract and their dignity intact after ratifying a new three-year contract that preserves seniority rights and sharply restricts the amount of forced [...]

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Event hosted by Young Dems of NC
From Will Cubbison, Chair of the YDNC Labor Caucus:
Join us at a reception in honor of the striking IAMAW Workers in Moncure. They have been on strike for almost 8 months over deplorable working conditions.
This reception will be open to all who can come. We ask that if you [...]

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No Fooling: Good food and fellowship for a just cause
The Moncure Solidarity Committee is organizing a baked chicken dinner and auction to benefit the striking workers at Moncure Plywood:
[Here's] a special invitation to stand up for human rights by coming to the general store in Pittsboro on Wednesday, April 1st, 6-9pm, for a special benefit [...]

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Actions start at 11 am on picket line
On Monday, March 16th, the faith based, social justice and labor community will come together to stand up for the Moncure workers who are standing up for us.
Download the flyer for this event. Please widely disseminate the flyer to friends, family, faith based organizations and list serves.
Here’s the [...]

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Join us on Monday, March 16, 2009
On Monday, March 16th, the faith based, social justice and labor community will come together to stand up for the Moncure workers who are standing up for us.
Download the flyer for this event. Please widely disseminate the flyer to friends, family, faith based organizations and list serves.
From the Moncure [...]

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Situation is critical for many strikers at Moncure Plywood
July 20, 2008 – union members of IAMAW Lodge W369 go on strike at Moncure Plywood. Six months later the company has done everything it can to avoid negotiating a fair contract for its workers, including hiring replacements.
Walking a picket line this long is finally taking its [...]

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“Angel Tree” list for striking members
Having been on strike since July 20, 2008, the many union members of Machinist Lodge W369 in Moncure, NC aren’t expecting to have a Merry Christmas or Happy New Year.
We wanted to give our readers and members from across the state an opportunity to help. The NC A. Philip Randolph [...]

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Supporters of justice marched on company share holders meeting in 2007.
Workers vote to join UFCW
After 16 long years, workers at the world’s largest meat processing plant will finally get their union.
Last night, the company announced the results of an NLRB supervised election—2,041 ’Yes’ votes for UFCW to 1,879 ‘No’ votes.
Organizing at the Bladen County plant [...]

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Rally for workers at Moncure Plywood
The strike at Moncure Plywood is about to enter its sixth month. The stakes for workers who have been out on the picket line since July have never been higher. The company is intent on using the strike to break the union rather than come to an agreement.
We cannot let [...]

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Workers at Moncure Plywood, members of IAMAW Lodge W369, have been on strike since July 20, when the company gave a take-it-or-leave-it final contract offer.
Workers have rejected the company’s demand for 60-hour work weeks, undermining seniority rights, increasing health insurance premiums by over 300 percent, and giving fewer holidays off.
The company has used [...]

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The Associated Press and News & Observer are reporting that the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and Smithfield foods have reached a settlement in the company’s lawsuit to end the union’s community outreach campaign, Justice @ Smithfield.
Election agreed to for Tar Heel plant
Since the Tar Heel plant opened in 1992, the UFCW has tried [...]

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Local 5287 defeats decertification by wide margin
With so much time and energy focused on our campaign to Turn Around America, there’s important news on the solidarity front in North Carolina’s union movement.
Good news from High Point – workers at Thomas Built Buses voted overwhelmingly to keep their union, defeating a decertification campaign [...]

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Strike enters third month
The workers voted overwhelmingly to strike on July 20 after bosses gave a take-it-or-leave-it final contract offer that would mandate 60-hour work weeks, weaken the seniority clause in a way that could lend itself to favoritism, discrimination and racism, increase health insurance premiums by over 300 percent, and give fewer holidays off. [...]

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Community Support Needed to Win Justice
Workers at the Moncure Plywood factory in Chatham County are under attack by their bosses and were forced out on strike. Now they need the support of our community.
What: Rally to support Moncure Plywood Workers
When: Tuesday, August 26th, 5:30pm
Where: downtown Pittsboro, NC
Download the community outreach flyer, available in both english [...]

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Union workers at Moncure Plywood in Chatham County remain on strike and have been since July 20. The wood workers are members of IAMAW Local Lodge W369.
We need to show our solidarity with the union members at Moncure Plywood. Local Lodge W369 is asking for our help, including donations of water, food, and supporters [...]

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Union workers at Moncure Plywood in Chatham County are on strike. The wood workers are members of IAMAW Local Lodge W369. Lewis Cameron, the local president, has worked at the plant for 35 years.
Check our photostream for pictures from the strike line.
“They treat us like dogs,” Cameron said of Wood Resources, the company [...]

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The textile industry was once the lifeblood of small towns like Roanoke Rapids, where Crystal Lee Sutton grew up and raised three children. At the J.P. Stevens mill where Sutton worked, she earned just $2.65 an hour toiling under poor conditions.
Then, in 1973, Sutton met a coal miner turned organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing and [...]

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While Reynolds Tobacco makes billions of dollars, the farm workers who harvest their tobacco live in abject poverty, suffer from nicotine poisoning and exposure to deadly pesticides, face racism and harassment, and have few enforceable human rights protections.
FLOC, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, is calling on Reynolds to meet and work together to improve living [...]

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Question:
What do these three public servants have in common?
Answer:
They are denied the same negotiation rights as employees
working in the private sector.
Virtual Lobby for H.O.P.E.
Take action and send a pre-written (but editable) letter to the House Appropriations Committee and to your NC House and Senate member. You will be asking them to support House Bill 1583 [...]

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This Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day, letter carriers will conduct the largest one-day food drive in the nation, having delivered over 70 million pounds of food to community food banks, pantries and shelters in each of the past four years.
What: 16th Annual NALC Food Drive
When: This Saturday, May 10, 2008
Where: mailboxes [...]

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Our members at PASS (Professional Airways Systems Specialists) of NC need our help to secure passage in the Senate of FAA Reauthorization (S. 1300).
The House has passed its version of FAA Reauthorization back in September 2007. It is time for the Senate to stop dragging its feet and pass the Senate version before several [...]

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Reynolds still refuses to meet with FLOC to discuss the plight of their tobacco field workers. FLOC supporters will gather Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at the Reynolds American Plaza Building, RAI’s corporate offices, on 401 N Main Street, Winston-Salem, NC.
What: Take action at Reynolds shareholder meeting
When: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Where: Reynolds American [...]

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Next Tuesday, April 29th, members of the Alliance @ IBM, a division of CWA, and their supporters will take action with a picket line and rally outside the IBM shareholders meeting in Charlotte.
What: IBM Stockholder action and picket line
When: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Time: 8:30 am picket line and 12:30 pm rally
Where: Charlotte Convention Center, 501 [...]

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2008 will surely be the most expensive election in history, and political parties at every level will need to raise and spend vast sums of money to secure victories in November.
But when Theresa Kostrzewa, contract lobbyist for Smithfield Foods and Smithfield Packing, came with check in hand, the NC Democratic Party said, “Thanks but no [...]

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Last October we told you about a new campaign to pressure Reynolds American Tobacco to recognize FLOC as the bargaining representative for the hundreds of field workers that pick the tobacco Reynolds uses in their products. Reynolds still refuses to meet with the union to discuss the plight of their workers.
The time has come to [...]

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The North Carolina HOPE Coalition is co-sponsoring a teach-in on collective bargaining rights with the Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change and Traction. Scheduled for April 3rd on the campus of North Carolina Central University, the teach-in is timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary Martin Luther King, Jr’s stand with public employees in [...]

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The Hear Our Public Employees Coalition, of which the State Fed is a charter member, is conducting a broad effort to gather signatures onto an open letter to members of the General Assembly, urging lawmakers to support repeal of the prohibition on public employee collective bargaining by supporting HB 1583.
The signature gathering effort is now [...]

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HOPE Coalition Seeks 1,000 Signatures for Letter to Lawmakers
When it comes to setting the conditions of their employment, union members know that only a collective bargaining agreement gives them a voice at work. North Carolina’s public employees, unfortunately, have no such protection. Since 1958, General Statue 95-98 has outlawed contracts between state, county [...]

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On behalf of the officers and volunteers of the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute, we would like to thank the affiliates of the NC State AFL-CIO and your members for your continued and steadfast support of our work to serve labor and the community at large.
On average, the NC A.P.R.I. supports 20 families a [...]

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There’s a great article at the AFL-CIO Blog published in time for the national holiday in Dr. King’s honor this Monday. This year, the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration is in Memphis, the site of his last campaign and where he was assassinated while helping city sanitation workers gain a voice at work.
Students at the [...]

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Rally followed by march on the General Assembly
Last year in downtown Raleigh, thousands of people rallied and marched to reclaim our legislature as the People’s General Assembly at the first annual Historic (H) Thousands (K) on Jones St (J). Folks from all walks of life came out to support a 14 Point Agenda for change [...]

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AFA-CWA needs your help to make it happen
North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole has yet to support extending Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits to all flight attendants. We need your help to contact and urge them to support the Airline Flight Crew Family and Medical Leave Act.
The Family and Medical Leave Act was [...]

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Town Hall Meeting hosted by John Ratzenberger of Cheers
You are invited to a “Keep It Made In America” Town Hall meeting, featuring John Ratzenberger (the beloved actor from Cheers and now Host of Travel Channel’s Made in America). This is the sixth in a series of town hall meetings in key primary election states. Their [...]

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