North Carolina’s Union Movement

On August 19, the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce with the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host a rally in Hickory to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker legislation.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Reps. Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry, Sue Myrick, and Robin Hayes will attend the Chamber’s rally and speak out against legislation to protect workers’ rights.

Don’t Let Them Have the Last Word

Please make plans to attend an important event to respond to the Chamber’s attack on workers’ rights. Download the flyer for our event.

What: Workers’ Roundtable to Speak Out in Favor of the Employee Free Choice Act

When: Tuesday, August 19 at 10 a.m.

Where: Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, 1946 13th Avenue Dr, SE, Hickory, NC

Please contact the North Carolina State AFL-CIO and let us know how many members will attend from your local: info@aflcionc.org or 919-833-6678.

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 Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), Eli Zivkovich. Sutton knew she and her coworkers at the mill deserved better wages, a safe workplace, and respect on the job. When Zivkovich asked her to help organize the Stevens mill, Sutton dedicated herself to the task.

It was the beginning of her journey as a champion of workers’ rights and the union movement that led to victory in Roanoke Rapids, an eventual contract with J.P. Stevens after a 10-year boycott, and inspired the Hollywood blockbuster and Oscar winning film of 1979, Norma Rae.

Sutton, now 67 and living in Burlington, NC is in a new struggle for her life. Crystal has Meniginoma, a usually benign cancer that, unfortunately for her, is life threatening. Sutton disclosed her condition in a recent interview with the Burlington Times-News. “I call my cancer a journey and it is interesting to see where it goes,” she said. “It reminds you to live each day to the best you can. You are so much more appreciative of tiny things.”

After initially being denied coverage by her insurance company for life saving treatment, Sutton is now on drug and chemo therapies and has undergone two surgeries. Her husband of 30 years, Lewis Sutton, Jr is working two jobs to afford her medical care.

We encourage our readers and affiliated unions to join us by informing their membership about the struggle of the real ‘Norma Rae’ and pass motions to donate to Crystal’s medical fund. Supporting Crystal Lee Sutton is the least we can do for a woman who has done so much to advance the cause of worker’s rights and unionism right here in our own back yard.

“It is not necessary I be remembered as anything, but I would like to be remembered as a woman who deeply cared for the working poor and the poor people of the U.S. and the world.” –Crystal Lee Sutton

The NC State AFL-CIO will be making a contribution toward Crystal Lee Sutton’s medical care. Join us and send your donation to:

Crystal Lee Sutton Foundation
Truliant Federal Credit
P.O. Box 26000
Winston-Salem, NC 27114

Unionization significantly boosts the wages of workers across the income spectrum, with low-wage workers seeing the greatest benefit, according to a report released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The report, The Union Advantage for Low-Wage Workers, shows union membership in North Carolina boosted the wages of low- to middle-income workers by between 11% and 14% from 2003 to 2007.

“In recent years, workers have seen their wages stagnate, making it almost impossible for families to get ahead,” said MaryBe McMillan of the North Carolina AFL-CIO in a press release. “Unionization increases workers’ bargaining power in the labor market and helps to restore the balance of power in the employer-employee relationship.”

Unionization raises the wages of the typical low-wage worker by 20.7% nationally. Unions also have a substantial impact on the wages of workers at the middle and top of the wage distribution.

“As the cost of essentials like housing, health care, and child care have risen, many North Carolina families find they don’t have enough income to make ends meet,” explained Elaine Mejia, director of the NC Budget & Tax Center. “Workers should understand that union membership can make a significant difference in how much they earn.”

“State lawmakers should remove the barriers to unionization that exist in North Carolina,” McMillan added. “The first step must be the repeal of the law that prohibits public-sector workers from engaging in collective bargaining. This law severely undermines unionization efforts by public and private workers, and therefore reduces the earning potential of workers throughout North Carolina.”

Teamsters Local 391 has an aggressive attitude about organizing. That attitude is paying off as the Teamsters have recently won key organizing victories in both the public and private sectors.

“Organizing is tough,” said Jack Cipriani, Teamsters Local 391 President. “Here in North Carolina, the task is extra tough. But our recent success shows that when workers get an honest look at what the union can do for them, they overwhelmingly choose to join our ranks.

In the public sector, the Teamsters organized the State Capitol Police. Despite an archaic state law prohibiting public employees from enjoying the right to collective bargaining, nearly 90% of the officers have signed up to join.

In the private sector, the Teamsters are winning a long-running organizing battle with the company that was formerly Overnite Transportation. Once UPS bought Overnite, the union was quick to secure a card-check agreement. In a week and a half, more than 200 UPS Freight workers at five locations throughout the state signed up to join Local 391.

Said NC State AFL-CIO President James Andrews, “In each of these organizing victories the common thread is that when given a chance to freely choose union representation without coercion from their employer – workers will choose the union.”

The 2008 session of Carolina Labor School will be held on the campus of UNC-Wilmington on Sunday, June 22 - Friday, June 27.

Download the flyer and registration form.

Because of limited meeting space, we put a cap on the number of registrations we accept. Confirmations are made on a first-come, first-serve basis. The deadline to register is May 30, 2008.

For more information, contact Jeremy at (919) 833-6678.

Few people in the United States know that May 1, 2008 is a holiday - International Workers’ Day - recognized in almost every country with the exception of the U.S., Canada, and South Africa. Ironically, it was U.S. workers that founded the holiday.

International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) is deeply rooted in the American union movement - specifically the struggle during the late 1800s for an 8-hour workday.

In 1884 at its annual convention in Chicago, the precursor to the American Federation of Labor announced that from May 1, 1886 henceforth, the 8-hour workday would constitute a "legal day’s labor".

You can learn about the Brief Origins of May Day in an article by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

The AFL-CIO Blog has a great article about May Day celebrations going on today.

Letter Carriers and Postal Workers in NC Observe Workers’ Memorial Day and May Day

The Nathaniel Greene Branch 630 of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) in Greensboro and Memorial Branch 936 in High Point observed today a two minute moment of silence on May 1st at 9:15 AM, in opposition to the US war in Iraq. The APWU and the Rural Letter Carriers locals in High Point also participated with Branch 936 in the protest.

Branch 936’s observance also includes recognition of Workers’ Memorial Day. Branch 936 President Annie Woods said her branch is memorializing all the lives lost in the ongoing Iraq War as well as all U.S. workers who died this past year in on-the-job injuries.

These North Carolina union actions are in solidarity with the San Francisco Labor Council, the San Francisco Letter Carriers Union, the New York City Metro APWU and many others. All these unions decided to act following the decision of the West Coast Longshoremen’s Union (ILWU) to hold a day shift 8 hour work stoppage on May Day in opposition to the US war in Iraq.

The NC State AFL-CIO adopted Resolution 12: Bring the Troops Home Now at our 50th Annual Convention last fall. In the resolution, delegates to the convention highlighted the great cost of the Iraq War borne by our armed forces abroad and working families at home and found "the tragic and unnecessary loss of lives needs to stop".

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 Plaza, 401 N Main St, Winston-Salem, NC

There are two important areas of participation the day of the shareholders meeting:

1. Fifty or more people will act as “proxies” and enter the shareholders meeting with FLOC to participate. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS ASAP so we can process the paperwork to enter the meeting. Email flocnc@floc.com or call organizer Evan Hughes at 919-360-4410 to volunteer or with any questions.
2. There will be a simultaneous event outside the shareholders meeting to bring the message of Justice to the general public. This is your chance to get creative and make signs, puppets, and banners.

Download the flyer for this event.

Decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted in significant improvements in working conditions. But the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous. Each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more are injured or diseased because of their jobs. The unions of the AFL-CIO remember these workers on April 28, Workers Memorial Day.

In Raleigh, a ceremony will be held at the Employment Security Commission at 12 noon, 700 Wade Ave, Raleigh, NC.

In the Fayetteville area, the Greater Sandhills CLC is sponsoring an event Monday from 2pm-3pm in front of the Smithfield Packing plant, 15855 NC Highway 87 West, Tar Heel, NC.

Since there is no parking at the plant, people can carpool from the Subway restaurant on Highway 87 in Tarheel. Be at the Subway by 1:30pm if you want to carpool.

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 Memphis, TN.

What: A teach-in on Collective Bargaining at North Carolina Central University

When: Thursday, April 3, 2008 from 7 to 9 pm

Where: NCCU Student Union building

On April 3, 1968, Dr. King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, TN. King had returned to Memphis to support striking public sector workers in the city sanitation department. The public employees had been on strike since they walked off the job February 12 of that year to protest dangerous working conditions, poverty level wages, a lack of respect on the job, and to demand recognition of their union. The next day, April 4, 1968, King was assassinated.

A little over a week later the sanitation workers and their representatives reached an agreement with the City of Memphis to recognize the union, AFSCME, and bargain over the conditions of employment, thereby ending the strike.

Public employees in North Carolina have no right to collective bargaining due to a now 50-year old law that bans state, county, and local governments from entering into contracts with their employees. Repeal of the statue, GS 95-98 is a top priority of the HOPE Coalition, of which the NC State AFL-CIO is a charter member.

At the teach-in you can learn more about collective bargaining - what it means, why it’s matters, and how to secure it for NC public employees. The session will include a brief video on Dr. King and will include food and refreshments. Attendance is open to the public, and there is no cost to attend this event.

Download the flyer for this event.

Sign-on For HOPE

Our effort to gather signatures onto an open letter to members of the General Assembly continues. You can see the list of signers as of April 1, 2008 at the HOPE website.

If you have yet to join this effort, it’s not too late to add your signature, today!

Yet more welfare for an undeserving corporation

Once the employer of 1,450 workers in NC, many of them union members of USW Local 850, Continental Tire (CTNA) in recent years has all but ceased production here, choosing to open shop in Brazil. In moving its North American headquarters to Lancaster, SC, the tire maker would complete the process of abandoning Charlotte, Mecklenberg county and our state.

The company has yet to fulfill its obligations to employees and retirees under their collective bargaining agreement, and many hundreds of those who have lost their livelihoods live in Lancaster county or elsewhere in SC. Unemployment in Lancaster is now at 10.9%, the highest in the state.

Sadly, the failure of CTNA to keep covenant with its workers apparently isn’t enough to dissuade state and local government in SC from extending possibly millions of dollars in corporate welfare to relocate 300 white collar jobs across the state line.

In an article in the Charlotte Observer, a company spokesman believes it can get a sweet deal from the tax payers, especially in desperate Lancaster county:

“South Carolina does have a very proactive business climate,” said Continental spokesman Rick Holcomb.

The article continues:

The company has been offered incentives from the county and the state to relocate. The state would not release details about the incentives it offered because it says it has a year to finalize them with the company.

The Lancaster County Council, though, will vote on an incentive package that would freeze Continental’s property fees at 6 percent in lieu of taxes and would offer a 95 percent property tax rebate the first year and a 65 percent rebate the second year — about $200,000, said Keith Tunnell, president of the Lancaster County Economic Development Corporation.

It is time to stop giving tax breaks and other welfare to corporations that break their promises to American employees, ship their jobs overseas, and extort the very state and local governments left holding the ball with false hope and empty promises.

Below is a list of Lancaster county government officials who no doubt will be deciding on those incentives and their contact information:

• Bryan Vaughn
  swvaughn@yahoo.com / home: 803-802-6651
• Fred Thomas, Vice-Chairman
  ham@comporium.net / business: 803-416-2999
• Wesley Grier, Secretary
  grier1949@yahoo.com / home: 803-285-7796
• Larry Honeycutt
  lhoney@comporium.net / home: 803-246-0021
• Rudy Carter, Chairman
  rudylc@comporium.net / business: 803-285-3929 / home: 803-286-4961
• Jack Estridge, District 6
  home: 803-475-2849
• Wayne Kersey, District 7
  fayekersey@yahoo.com / business: 803-285-2130 / home: 803-285-9711 / cell: 803-287-9453

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 online. Adding your name to the open letter can now be done with a couple clicks of the mouse. The sign-on form (https://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/8305) is linked from our web site.

To build support for passage of HB 1583, HOPE has set a goal of collecting 1,000 signatures onto an open letter to lawmakers. Both individuals and organizations can join this effort.

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 2007 Carolina Labor School will recall seeing the powerful documentary about the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike that led up to Dr. King’s assassination. The film, At the River I Stand, explores the two months in Spring 1968 that transformed what started as a local labor dispute into a pivotal moment in the struggle for civil and economic rights in America.

Dr. King understood that there can be no civil rights for Americans without economic rights. Here’s an excerpt from his speech at the 1965 Illinois AFL-CIO convention:

“Negroes in the United States read the history of labor and find it mirrors their own experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the goodwill and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us. They deplore our discontent, they resent our will to organize, so that we may guarantee that humanity will prevail and equality will be exacted.”

For the first time ever, workers at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel, NC will have a paid day off to observe the Martin Luther King Holiday this year. Workers and supporters will hold an interfaith service on Monday in Fayetteville. Here’s an excerpt from an article in today’s Fayetteville Observer:

Officials at the world’s largest hog processing plant decided last month to add the holiday for its 5,200 workers. The new policy marks a shift from the company’s stance last January, when a few dozen workers — rallied by union organizers — walked off the job in protest of having to work on the King holiday.

“Dr. King stood for workers’ rights, and if he were alive today we know he would be fighting with us to help stop the abuse and make conditions better at the plant,” said Julia McMillian, a worker at the Tar Heel plant. “We know that he would appreciate this victory that we fought for.”

This Monday, January 21, 2008, we can all honor Dr. King as a champion for workers by keeping alive in our hearts and minds the connection between civil rights and economic justice, which he carried with him to the very end one fateful day in Memphis forty years ago.

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.

Our State Federation turned 5-0 earlier this year, and last month delegates from unions and affiliated organizations from across North Carolina gathered in Fayetteville to celebrate our Golden Anniversary on September 20-21, 2007.

To mark the occasion, delegates and their guests in attendance at our Convention Banquet received a special gift - a sapphire blue coffee mug emblazoned with our logo and a packet of union coffee from USA Coffee Company, in addition to a commemorative 50th Anniversary button generously donated by union label Tigereye Design.

The highlight of the 2007 Convention was our banquet keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. William Barber from the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. Rev. Barber gave an amazing, rousing speech about the enduring connection between civil rights, workers rights, and human rights. Rev. Barber challenged everyone in the room to look for the connections in our everyday struggles: the connection between costly war abroad and poverty at home; between the loss of respect for human rights and the ongoing assault on workers’ rights. Again and again the reverend repeated, “If you keep the connections alive, you will see the change.”

Also at the annual banquet, the NC State AFL-CIO honored United Steelworkers Local 959 with the P. R. Latta Award for outstanding service to the labor movement coming out of their strike against Goodyear Tire Company late last year.

During the daytime sessions Thursday and Friday, delegates took part in a packed program, including speeches from Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue, State Treasurer Richard Moore, and Congressman David Bonior from the John Edwards 2008 campaign, as well as several workshops on topics ranging from healthcare, tax fairness, workers’ compensation, and Labor 2008.

The convention delegates adopted resolutions that will be used to guide our work over the next year on topics like universal health care, diversity, organizing, and legislation just to name a few. A special resolution honoring the service and devotion of Brother Tom Foust (right) to the NALC and the North Carolina Labor Movement passed unanimously.

Look for a more detailed article on the convention in the upcoming Fall 2007 issue of the Newsletter.

American Rights at Work, a progressive, pro-worker think tank whose mission is to advance democracy in the workplace, has compiled the third edition of its annual report, The Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work. This report shows that major corporations can grown and profit from healthy, positive relationships with workers instead of falling back on the antagonistic, strong-arm management tactics all too common in American workplaces today.

The list this year includes:

• AT&T, Inc.
• DoubleTree Hotel San Jose
• Montefiore Medical Center
• SCA Tissue North America
• Stromberg Metal Works, Inc.
• Swanton Berry Farm
• Thompson Electric, Inc

Visit American Rights at Work to view the full report.

In our Labor Day update, we told folks that President James Andrews and Crystal Lee Sutton aka “Norma Rae” would be interviewed on News and Views with Chris Fitzsimon. Both interviews are currently available online at NC Policy Watch.

• Listen to the interview with James Andrews on health care, wages, and collective bargaining.
• Listen to the interview with Crystal Lee Sutton on her life’s story, including the organizing drive made famous in 1979 by the movie “Norma Rae”.

This August 29th, join hundreds of labor, faith, and social justice leaders in Williamsburg, Virginia at the largest-ever rally in support of Smithfield workers!

What: Demonstration at Smithfield Foods’ Annual Shareholders Meeting
When: August 29th, 2007, 11:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Where: Williamsburg, Virginia
Who: Workers from Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant, hundreds of their supporters, and YOU!

In the past year, justice for the workers at Smithfield Foods’ Tar Heel plant has become one of the preeminent social justice issues of our time. As workers continue to fight for the most basic workplace standards—clean drinking water, safe working conditions, freedom of association—your support has inspired and motivated their efforts, even as they faced verbal abuse, threats of termination, even immigration arrests.

This month, you can stand beside the brave plant workers, along with hundreds of their supporters, as they take their fight to the streets of Williamsburg, Virginia, staging a rally outside the 2007 Smithfield Foods’ shareholders meeting to demand a fair process to gain a union.

Get On the Bus! Free bus transportation and sack lunches will be provided from major east coast destinations, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Maryland, Virginia, and six regions in North and South Carolina. Visit our website to register and reserve your seats today.

For more information, including frequent updates and many other ways to get involved, please visit us at www.smithfieldjustice.com

We are very excited to announce that registration for the 2007 Carolina Labor School is now open! Labor School will be held at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on June 24-29, 2007. Admission to Labor School is open only to members of affiliated local unions and state councils.

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