NC State A.F.L. – C.I.O.

The men and women who served our country in the military deserve more than lip service. They deserve the best.

Some 2.1 million union members, or 14 percent of all union members, are veterans of military service. The AFL-CIO is bringing together union leaders and members who are veterans to speak out to and hold government officials and candidates accountable to the needs of our returning heroes—not only for Labor 2008, but beyond. The newly formed Union Veterans Council will see to it.

The Western North Carolina Central Labor Council hosted the first Union Veterans Council event in our state on Monday, July 14, 2008. The event drew television coverage which further spread the word on the formation of a Veterans Council.

The Greater Sandhills CLC held its own Union Veterans Council meeting this past Tuesday, July 15, 2008. Check our photostream for pictures from each event.

Veterans will play a large role in the upcoming election and beyond, and the Veterans Council will be a conduit for their voices to be heard.

At both events, union veterans shared experiences, talked about their service to their country, and discussed the voting records of both candidates for President of the United States.

Union Veterans deserve the best from the country in which they served and continue to serve. They pledge to make their voices heard in the upcoming elections and from this day forward through the Union Veterans Council.

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

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 and working conditions for these workers. They need our support to win this campaign.

Join FLOC for an evening of music and conversation with farm worker leaders to support the campaign for union recognition and a contract at Reynolds Tobacco.

What: Benefit Mixer with FLOC President Baldemar Velazquez
When: Friday, July 11 at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Eno River Unitarian Universalist Church, 4907 Garrett Rd, Durham, NC

For more information, contact Eric Jones at 336-662-5333 or Nick Wood at 919-616-0889 or email flocnc@floc.com.

Call for Religious Leaders to Stand with FLOC

In support of the tens of thousands of farm workers in the Southeast who plant, tend, and harvest tobacco for RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, the National Farm Worker Ministry is urging religious leaders around the country to call on the tobacco giant to work with farm worker representatives.

It is time now to add the voices of many religious leaders to this call for justice. Tobacco farm workers need signers onto an “Open Letter by Religious Leaders to Ms. Susan Ivey, Reynolds American Inc. and RAI Board of Directors” by Monday, July 7.

We encourage our members who regularly attend religious service to ask their leaders to sign-on to the letter. To read the letter click here. Background information is available online here.

For further information, contact Virginia Nesmith, Executive Director, National Farm Worker Ministry at 314-726-6470, vnesmith@nfwm.org.

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 and the heroes who are asking for our respect.

Make your voice heard by firing off a letter to the House Appropriations Committee and to your NC House and Senate member in support of HB 1583.

June 11 is Public Employee Lobby Day

On the morning of June 11, 2008, supporters of public employees will gather at the General Assembly in Raleigh to lobby for HOPE. We will press for passage of House Bill 1583, which would restore contract rights for state and local government workers.

What: Lobby for HOPE and Collective Bargaining for Public Employees

When: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 9 am, press conference at 11 am

Where: AFL-CIO members will meet outside the Legislature, 16 W Jones St, Raleigh at 9 am

In December we alerted our members about a bill introduced in the Congress to extend to Flight Attendants the protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

On Tuesday the U.S. House of Representatives voted by a wide margin - 402 to 9 - to pass the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act, H.R. 2744.

The bill now moves to the Senate where our own Sen. Elizabeth Dole has yet to sign on to this important pro-family legislation.

FMLA was intended to provide all flight attendants, like other full-time employees, with the ability to take time off from work to take care of family members facing serious illness. However, employers and the courts have narrowly defined the “full-time” requirement of FMLA to mean the traditional 40 hour work week. Since airlines choose not to give flight attendants credit for their time between trips, even those on the same day of work, it can be difficult if not impossible for them to meet the annual threshold of 1,250 hours.

“For years, AFA-CWA has had to negotiate flight attendants’ right to have access to this important coverage that millions of Americans are automatically guaranteed. This important bill finally brings fairness and equity to the thousands of unique individuals who provide an essential service to our nation,” said Patricia Friend, AFA-CWA President in a press release.

Call NC Senator Elizabeth Dole 202-224-6342

A Senate version of the bill, S. 2059, introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), has 26 bipartisan cosponsors. Sen. Dole is not one of them. You can help flight attendants gain FMLA protection by urging her to become a cosponsor of S. 2059.

Every North Carolinian is a constituent of Senator Elizabeth Dole, and she needs to hear from all of us that Senate Bill 2059 is a priority for working families.

Here’s a sample phone script:

My name is ___________ and I am calling as a voter in your state [and a flight attendant]. I am asking that the Senator co-sponsor S. 2059, The Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act.

Senate Bill 2059 is important pro-family legislation. This bill is a priority for all flight crew members, and it’s a priority for me. I would really appreciate the Senator’s support of S. 2059.

The North Carolina State AFL-CIO stands in strong support of the Flight Attendants of AFA-CWA Local 89 in their bid to gain the same protections under FMLA that other working families depend on in times of crisis. Please show your support for them by calling Sen. Dole, today!

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.”

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 across the nation

How you can help: Place bags of nonperishable food items at your mailbox. Your letter carrier will pick them up and deliver them to local food banks.

On May 10th North Carolina Letter Carriers will carry with them more than just mail - they will carry the kindness and generosity of thousands of working men and women across our state. We hope you will join in making 2008 their most successful year ever.

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 peaceful protest of students at UNC Chapel Hill engaged in a sit-in outside Chancellor Moeser’s office to demand an end to university apparel being made in sweatshops itself ended when the Chancellor ordered their arrest.

The Chancellor’s order to arrest the students came on day 16 of the sit-in and only hours after NC AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer MaryBe McMillan appeared and spoke in solidarity with the students at a rally outside the South Building.

In a statement posted on its web site, UNC Sweatfree responded to the arrests:

“Chancellor Moeser characterized our actions as illegal, demonstrated by his order to arrest us– but let us ask, which is more criminal, taking a stand for the human rights of workers by peacefully occupying an office of a public institution that our tuition pays for, or allowing our Carolina apparel to be made under sweatshop conditions that violate international and domestic law?

“The sit-in ends with our arrests; but the campaign for justice for all workers will continue.”

UNC Chapel Hill makes considerable profits from the sale of apparel branded with its name and logo - apparel stiched with abuse of workers toiling in sweatshops. Arresting students that rightly take a stand against such injustices through peaceful, civil disobedience is an outrage. Such a heavy handed response may be typical of the authorities in countries where UNC-CH apparel is made, but it has no place at the flagship institution for higher education in North Carolina.

The NC State AFL-CIO calls on Chancellor Moeser and others in the administration of the University of North Carolina to immediately drop all charges against the students and adopt the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP) so that students, faculty and Tar Heel fans everywhere can wear UNC apparel with pride.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) voted at it’s annual convention May 3 to affiliate with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). With 55,000 members, SEANC was the largest independent public employee association in the United States not affiliated with a union.

“This vote marks the largest union victory ever for working people across the South — especially in North Carolina, which previously had the lowest rate of unionization in the country,” said SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope.

SEANC now becomes SEIU Local 2008.

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".

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 important provisions of FAA reauthorization can become law.

We encourage our members to take action to support PASS. You can fire off a letter to your Senators here.

Dozens of students at UNC Chapel Hill have staged a sit-in since April 17, 2008. The students are protesting Chancellor Moeser’s refusal to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP), a program that would ensure that Chapel Hill branded apparel is not produced in sweatshops.

The DSP works by certifying only those producers that comply with UNC Chapel Hill’s code of conduct for factories that produce apparel with the UNC logo. In order to become a designated supplier, factories must provide workers with fair wages, guarantee freedom of association, eliminate forced and unpaid overtime, and provide safe working conditions.

According to a posting on their website, Chapel Hill students began their sit-in after similar protests at other universities:

“After it became clear that the UNC administration was unwilling to engage in honest and respectful discourse about the human rights concerns of students, faculty, and staff, after three years during which workers have been losing their lives and livelihoods for manufacturing UNC licensed apparel and daring to stand up for their rights, 10 UNC students began a nonviolent occupation of the lobby of South Building, 10 feet away from Chancellor James Moeser’s office. Though he cannot see the workers who suffer to make our Carolina apparel, he will see us every day until he adopts the DSP.”

Take Action in support of Students Against Sweatshops at Chapel Hill

Union members in North Carolina know all too well the suffering caused by the apparel industry’s race-to-the-bottom to produce at the lowest possible cost. Thousands of textile workers lost their jobs when textile companies in our state moved shop to places with inferior wages and working conditions.

As workers in these new production zones have stood up for their rights, organized and formed unions, apparel companies have closed factories and moved elsewhere to exploit other more desperate and impoverished people, leaving devastated communities in their wake - just like they did in NC.

Why, then, would the flagship public university of our state - with arguably one of the most recognizable brands of any college or university in America - refuse to join the DSP and end this cycle of exploitation by apparel companies?

Take a Stand for Sweatshop Free UNC-CH

The NC State AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with the students at UNC Chapel Hill as they continue their non-violent protest of a university administration which ignores that UNC apparel is made in sweatshops. We encourage our members to support them by:

1. Calling Chancellor Moeser at (919) 962-1365
   email him at chancellor@unc.edu
   fax him at (919) 962-1647
2. Calling his boss - the Board of Trustees
   (http://www.unc.edu/depts/trustees/member.html)
3. Sign the petition demanding UNC Chapel Hill adopt the DSP
   (http://www.petitiononline.com/uncchdsp/petition.html)
4. Donate food
5. Learn more about the campaign for a sweatshop free UNC and other ways you can take action
   (http://dsp4unc.wordpress.com/take-action/)

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.