Sign up now for Carolina Labor School, the premier labor education program for members of AFL-CIO affiliates in the Southeast. Class will be back in session Sunday-Friday, July 15-20, 2012 on the campus of UNC Wilmington.

What: Carolina Labor School
When: July 15-20, 2012
Where: On the campus of UNC Wilmington

We are pleased to welcome to the faculty instructors from the Labor Education Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Institute for Economic Advancement.

Download the 2012 Carolina Labor School docs, including the call letter, the flyer, and the registration form:

• Call Letter for 2012 Carolina Labor School (PDF)
• Flyer for 2012 Carolina Labor School (PDF)
• Registration form for 2012 Carolina Labor School (PDF)

On Saturday, May 12, 2012, Campbell Soup Company will team up with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to collect food donations to give help to the millions of Americans who are struggling with hunger each and every day.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single day food drive, having collected more than one billion pounds of food since its start in 1993. In 2011, generous Americans donated 70.2 million pounds of food, which marked the eighth consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected.

At a recent press conference, NALC President Fredric Rolando said, “Helping to end hunger is really pretty simple,”

“Just leave a non-perishable food donation at your mailbox before Saturday’s mail delivery, and we’ll do the rest. Letter carriers are committed to walk in your neighborhoods every day, delivering for America and Stamping Out Hunger.”

Click here to watch the PSA for Stamp Out Hunger 2012 with Nick Cannon:

“We can all help those in need by participating in the National Letter Carriers food drive. Collect non-perishable food. Leave it for your letter carrier, and you’ll help feed the people in your community that are struggling.”

This Saturday, May 12, you can do your part to fight hunger in the United States. It’s as simple as leaving few canned or otherwise non-perishable food items next to your mailbox. Your letter carrier will do the rest!

Helping Stamp Out Hunger is as easy as checking your mailbox. Just leave a bag of non-perishable food where your letter carrier normally delivers your mail on Saturday, May 12. Your letter carrier will then pick up and deliver the food to a local food bank. Examples of non-perishable items include:

• Canned soup
• Canned meats and fish
• Canned vegetables, fruits and juices
• Boxed goods (such as cereal)
• Pasta and rice

For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, ask your letter carrier, contact your local post office or visit either www.helpstampouthunger.com or www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger, and follow the drive at www.twitter.com/StampOutHunger

Help stamp out hunger, this Saturday, May 12!

On Wednesday, President Obama made history when he became the first sitting U.S. President to support marriage equality for same-sex couples, telling ABC News Robin Roberts ”at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

OBAMA: I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.

AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka issued the following statement:

TRUMKA: Working people believe in equality and fairness and that’s why we are happy to stand with millions of Americans and with President Obama in supporting marriage equality.

LGBT working people face numerous inequities in the workplace and in society as they struggle to care for their families. Civil unions do not guarantee the 1,138 rights, benefits and responsibilities that are triggered by the word “marriage” under federal law.

Most important, we should respect and honor our friends, neighbors, and family members who want to take care of their families and their loved ones – whatever their sexual orientation. We are proud to come together for a more just America.

Larry Cohen, president of the Communication Workers of America, which represents thousands of employees at AT&T and US Airways, said CWA will stand with the President and all those who support equality and human rights:

COHEN: We oppose all discrimination and recognize the direct linkage between civil and workers’ rights, and the attempts to divide Americans based on these issues.

Nearly ten years ago, CWA convention delegates called for full and equal rights including civil marriage, pointing out that far too many benefits and protections of civil marriage are denied to people on the basis of sexual orientation. These often include health care and survivor benefits as well as other legal rights for partners. It’s time to move forward.

Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents workers at Smithfield in Tar Heel, NC and chemical workers in Hickory, said UFCW commended, “President Obama for his support of marriage equality, and I’m proud to support him as he takes this historic stand for equality”:

HANSEN: Marriage equality is an economic justice issue, and a social justice issue – and that makes it a union issue.

In the UFCW, we have a long, proud history of standing up for fair and equal treatment for all workers – regardless of what they look like, where they come from, what language they speak, or who they love. These values are heartfelt. We work every day to fight discrimination and unfair treatment against LGBT people on the job. That’s why our union is a strong supporter of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would ensure justice in the workplace for LGBT workers. UFCW members have been negotiating equal health care coverage for same-sex couples into their union contracts all over the country for years. It’s the right thing to do, and the fair thing to do. I’m proud that the UFCW’s advocacy on behalf of families includes all families.

Mary K. Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents members of the State Employees Association of North Carolina as well as members of Workers United, said “The President understands what we do – marriage equality is about family, community, love and justice”:

HENRY: Across this country, right-wing Republican politicians are seeking to divide us with attacks on immigrants, the middle class, women’s health, the environment and the LGBT community – but the growing numbers of Americans who believe in marriage equality reminds us that we cannot live up to our promise as a nation until we extend equal rights to all.

To those who have chosen to stand on the wrong side of history, we say this: There is growing momentum for equality in this country. And with each American that believes in equality, we are reminded that the continued dream of equality is our birthright, our heritage and our promise.

For anyone who counts equality among the basic tenets of a free and just America, Pres. Obama’s announcement today is a victory.

AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers also issued statements of support for President Obama’s “coming out” on marriage equality.

An issue for working families

The labor movement has a long, proud history of standing up for fair and equal treatment for all workers.

Marriage equality is a union issue, an economic justice issue, and a social justice issue.

Same-sex couples take a financial hit because their relationships aren’t recognized under federal law; they have less ability to care for and support their families in times of need; and it is a social justice issue, in recognizing equality for LGBT people.

As the Massachusetts state supreme court found in 2004, addressing the disparities between civil union and civil marriage, “Separate is seldom, if ever, equal.”

Federal laws grant 1,138 rights, benefits and responsibilities triggered by the word “marriage”. Many people may be unaware that same-sex couples receive disparate rights and benefits under current law – both because of lack of marriage rights at the state level, but also because of the federal DOMA or so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

Regardless of state laws, the federal DOMA means that same-sex couples are denied:

• Pension benefits for their surviving spouse/partner
• Social security survivor benefits
• Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or bereavement leave for their same-sex partner
• The right to sponsor their spouse / partner for immigration

State DOMA laws have also been used to undermine collective bargaining, such as in Michigan when the DOMA law was used to try to bar fairly-negotiated domestic partner benefits. (“Designated beneficiary” language is now often used to eliminate or at least limit the DOMA issues.)

In addition, same-sex couples must pay federal taxes on health care benefits for their spouse or domestic partner – because their relationships are not recognized under federal law. So even in states with marriage equality, those couples may file jointly at the state level and then must file as individuals at the federal level.

No marriage equality in North Carolina

On Tuesday, voters in North Carolina approved an amendment to the state constitution that makes “the marriage of one man and one woman the only domestic legal union” recognized as valid here [emphasis added] – no civil unions, no domestic partnerships.

The broad and vague language of the amendment actually takes away the rights of not only same-sex couples but every unmarried couple in our state. These couples are now, actually, strangers in the eyes of the law.

County commissioners in Mecklenburg are already moving to rescind health care and other domestic partner benefits to unmarried county employees and their children. Mecklenburg is just one of several municipal governments that have extended such benefits to unmarried couples.

When our out-of-control state legislature reconvenes to do the bidding of right-wing extremists and the 1%, let’s welcome them back with a sound they can’t ignore!

Can you hear that? That’s a sound only We the People can muster! Get ready for #May16NC.

RSVP on Facebook at on.fb.me/potsandspoons.

Click here to download the flyer (PDF).

Last Fall we warned you about remarks by Thom Tillis, NC Speaker of the House, to State Government Radio that he would make sure an amendment enshrining North Carolina’s Right-to-Work (for Less) status in our state constitution will appear on the ballot November 6:

State law already prevents companies from requiring workers to join a union as a condition of employment. But Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said adding those protections to the constitution would send an important message to the business community.

“We think this election is very much going to pit labor interests against business interests and we feel like getting something in the constitution that makes it easier for us to assert that right – should the federal government try to strip us of it – is a good thing.”

Now there’s video of Thom Tillis promising a Right-to-Work (for Less) amendment to a group of conservative supporters at a stop in Madison County on his Divide & Conquer town hall tour back in October. Click here to watch Tillis’ Right-to-Work promise:

At a different town hall in Belmont, NC earlier this year, Thom Tillis told a union worker he’ll never change his views on collective bargaining.

Remember in November

As Martin Luther King, Jr. told reporters, “Right-to-Work provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘work’. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.”

Unions increase the wages and political power of all workers – not just union members. Right-to-Work means less political clout to fight corporate greed and lower wages for all workers.

Right-to-Work (for less) doesn’t guarantee any rights. In fact, by weakening unions and collective bargaining, it destroys the best job security protection: the union contract.

If you and your co-workers can have a contract with your employer and a union to enforce that contract, you have the power to hold the worst abuses of CEO’s and the 1% in check. Anything Thom Tillis and others in our out-of-control state legislature can do to deprive you of that power suits them just fine. Remember that when you go to vote in November.

Are you ready to make some noise for the 99 Percent?

Are you fed up with policies that protect the 1% at the expense of workers’ rights, public education, and the environment?

Are you sick of right-wing politicians who, once elected, change the rules on who gets to vote?

Are you tired of being ignored by our out-of-control legislature?

Are you appalled by Amendment One?

Bring an empty pot and spoon (and a friend) this May 16th and join our cacerolazo, the first-of-its-kind protest of our out-of-control state legislature in North Carolina!

As corporate lobbyists and the right-wing crazy train line up to be heard when our legislature reconvenes, let us drown them out with a noise only We the People can muster! We will bang our empty pots non-stop for 15 minutes.

It’s all part of the 99% Spring. Are you in?

What: Pots & Spoons Protest of our Out-of-Control legislature
When: Wednesday, May 16 at 10 A.M.
Where: Bicentennial Mall (across from the legislative building), 16 W. Jones St., Raleigh, NC
Why: Let’s welcome state lawmakers back to Raleigh with a sound they can’t ignore.

RSVP for the Pots & Spoons Protest on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/261525210609095/ - or – contact Adam Orlovich at 919-833-6678 or adam@aflcionc.org.

Click here to download the flyer for the Pots & Spoons Protest (PDF).

Click here to download the flyer in Spanish (PDF).

Click to download the flyer for Pots & Spoons Protest May 16, 2012

Welcome to a different way to protest

Define: cacerolazo (n.) – a form of popular protest practiced in certain Spanish-speaking countries – in particular Argentina and Chile – which consists of a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils to call for attention.

In ongoing demonstrations, students in Chile have used the cacerolazo to protest efforts in that country to privatize public education (sound familiar?) and build new hydro-electric dams.

Workers in Greece have banged pots and pans to protest severe austerity measures imposed on that country by investment banks like Goldman Sachs.

Citizens in Iceland staged the so-called “Kitchenware Revolution” (little-known in the USA) in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. There, in the face of a government trying to impose an unpopular bank bailout, Icelanders occupied street corners and plazas, banging pots and pans day and night until their demands for new elections were met.

It is time to bring the spirit of the cacerolazo to North Carolina, where our out-of-control state legislature has busied itself since the 2010 election with catering to corporate interests and right-wing ideologues, gutting funding for public education, adding a hate amendment to our state constitution, trying to fast-track dangerous fracking, and attempting to restrict our voting rights.

In April 2011, some 300 people stood on Bicentennial Mall in total silence for 15 minutes in solemn protest of the efforts here and elsewhere to silence workers by taking away our rights.

In May 2012, we will return – but this time to make such a noise that no politician on Jones Street will be able to ignore us.

Share this event on Twitter with the hashtag #May16NC.

May 1 is celebrated around the world as International Workers Day. Often overlooked in America, May Day actually was born here – specifically in Chicago  - after the 1886 Haymarket Massacre, where police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight-hour workday.

Triangle Jobs with Justice would like to invite everyone to take part in a May Day 2012 mobilization in Durham, NC.

What: May Day 2012 celebration
When: May 1 beginning at 3pm followed by 5pm potluck, 6pm march through Durham, and 7pm rally
Where: the People’s Plaza (aka, CCB Plaza), 201 N Corcoran St, Durham, NC, 27701

From the invitation:

May Day is important this year as a day of action for economic justice and equality.

Over the past year, we have been inspired by people’s movements, resistance and actions around the globe. We have experienced an awakening over the past year that has created a new political movement and a focus on economic justice, and we believe that May Day 2012 is an opportunity for us to cultivate a broad and potent coalition of communities, organizations, and others seeking to build a different city and a different world. We believe that it can be not only a moment to demonstrate our discontent, but to begin to think together toward building self-determination for and from our communities.

Join us on May 1 as we rally for:

• Good jobs and living wages
• The right to join a union, the right to organize for all workers, and the right to collective bargaining
• Justice for immigrants, including amnesty and an end to deportations
• An end to police brutality, mass incarceration of communities of color, and all forms of oppression and discrimination
• Public sector jobs and services and public budgets that meet human needs

The schedule of events includes:

3 p.m. Arts and Cultural Festival at People’s Plaza (CCB Plaza) in Durham

5 p.m. Potluck

6 p.m. March through downtown Durham starting at People’s Plaza -

7 p.m. Rally and speeches at People’s Plaza

Speakers at the rally will include our own MaryBe McMillan, Secretary-Treasurer of the NC State AFL-CIO. Joining MaryBe at the mic will be speakers from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO), All of Us NC, the North Carolina DREAM Team, and Black Workers for Justice.

For more information, contact Katya Roytburd at 518-588-7553.

Do you plan to protest the Bank of America 2012 shareholders meeting on May 9? We have news about buses to Charlotte.

From Raleigh

Where: Teamsters LU 391 Hall – 6317 Angus Dr., Raleigh, NC 27613
When: Wednesday, May 9
Departure Time: 5am
Return Time (anticipated): 5pm (leaving Charlotte at 2pm)

From Greensboro

Where: Teamsters LU 391 Hall – 3910 Teamsters Place, Colfax, NC 27235
When: Wednesday, May 9
Departure Time: 6am
Return Time (anticipated): 4pm (leaving Charlotte at 2pm)

If you are on Facebook, click here for more information on the event page.

Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, issued the following statement in response to the Trustees reports issued today on the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds:

“Current and future retirees must be wary of Mitt Romney and others who will use today’s Trustees reports as political cover for radical changes that would put seniors at risk while enriching Wall Street and the big health insurance companies.

“Today’s reports do not justify the extreme ideas advocated by Mitt Romney and right-wing groups. Increasing the retirement age would be terribly unfair to workers, particularly those in blue-collar and service sector jobs. Privatizing Social Security would let Wall Street firms profit while gambling workers’ Social Security savings on the roulette wheel of the stock market.

“A more reasonable approach, one that would extend the Social Security Trust Fund to 2052, is the Rebuild America Act by Senator Tom Harkin. It would require the highest-earning Americans to pay their fair share in Social Security payroll taxes, and would change the Cost of Living Adjustment to better reflect seniors’ daily needs.

“The Medicare Trustees report reminds us of the long-term need to manage the rising health care costs for seniors. The 2010 Affordable Care Act takes a number of bold steps in that direction, including free preventive and wellness services to identify and treat problems before they become chronic and costly. Also, by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, seniors are now better able to follow their doctor’s orders and stay healthy. The law strengthens the Medicare Trust Fund by eliminating wasteful subsidies to private insurance companies. Not only would Mitt Romney repeal these common-sense improvements, but his Medicare ‘reform’ plan would steer millions of seniors away from traditional Medicare and generate even larger profits for the big health insurance companies.

“The ‘sky is falling’ warnings from the right wing that accompany these reports are part of a larger agenda to scare seniors and push extreme changes. But seniors cannot pay their bills or fill a prescription off of heated ideology and opportunism. Instead, they need responsible, level-headed action from their elected officials to help keep Social Security and Medicare – two ofAmerica’s greatest success stories – strong for generations to come.”

Click here to read Sen. Tom Harkin’s column, “Preserving Social Security”, for more information about his plan.

Join us in Winston-Salem on May 3 as we rally and march for justice for tobacco farm workers!

For over 4 years the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) has asked Reynolds American to meet with the farm workers who harvest their tobacco to discuss how to put an end to the human rights abuses occurring in North Carolina tobacco fields. While Reynolds continues business as usual, farm workers continue to suffer from dangerous and inhumane working and living conditions.

What: Picket outside the Reynolds American shareholders’ meeting and march in downtown W-S
When: Thursday, May 3 at 10:00am; picket at 10:30; march to follow
Where: Start at Lloyd Presbyterian Church, 748 N Chestnut St., Winston-Salem, NC; picket outside Reynolds American headquarters, 401 North Main Street Winston-Salem, NC.

FLOC will provide lunch after the march at no cost to participants.

Money for CEO’s, ALEC – not for workers

The 2011 Executive PayWatch report showed that Reynolds American, which made more than $1.5 billion last year, is more than willing to pay its top employee big bucks. Unfortunately, that willingness does not extend to the workers who harvest its golden crop.

Reynolds CEO Dan Delen received $8.5 million total compensation for nine months of work last year. That’s $5,903 an hour. The tobacco field workers whose labor makes that pay possible earn just $7.25 an hour – at best – working in some of the harshest conditions imaginable, living in sub-standard housing.

In fact, according to an analysis of the National Agricultural Workers Survey, North Carolina farm workers typically earn less than the national average of farm workers of $11,000 per year.  $11,000 is not even half the federal poverty level for a family of four!

But wait, there’s more!

At the same time the company was raking in billions, it also slashed thousands of jobs from it’s processing plants in Winston-Salem, leaving thousands of hard-working families without a paycheck.

Reynolds is also a corporate sponsor of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and Reynolds executive David Powers sits on ALEC’s corporate board.

Tell Reynolds the time has come to take responsibility for its actions and its supply chain.  We will not stand by as Reynolds turns a blind eye to human rights abuses, puts profit over people, and supports anti-worker, anti-immigrant corporate front-groups like ALEC.

Our presence at Reynolds’ Shareholders Meeting is crucial.  It’s our time to go face to face with Reynolds executives and tell them we demand justice. Won’t you join us?

For more information, contact flocnc@floc.com, or 919-731-4433.