Today we commit to honoring Pres. Trumka’s legacy by continuing to fight for better policies for working people including the PRO Act. Pres. Trumka made it clear that all working people deserve dignity and respect on the job. We will keep fighting to make Pres. Trumka’s vision a reality so that all workers earn family-sustaining wages, work in safe conditions, and have a collective voice on the job.
According to the 2021 edition of the Executive Paywatch report released today by the AFL-CIO, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio at S&P 500 companies in North Carolina was 235:1 in 2020. On average, North Carolina CEOs made $13,302,100 in total compensation in 2020, up from $12,007,943 in 2019. Results once again show massive CEO-to-worker pay disparity and inequality among S&P 500 companies.
On Wednesday, April 28th, North Carolina workers will be joined by faith, community, and labor leaders for a virtual Workers’ Memorial Day service honoring those who have died or suffered illnesses or injuries while on the job. Workers and leaders will share personal experiences and call for stronger worker protections in North Carolina and across the country. Speakers will include Reverend Jennifer Copeland of the NC Council of Churches, Rabbi Salem Pearce with the Carolina Jews for Justice, and NC State AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillan among others.
We commend the people of the Duke University Press Workers Union for exercising their freedom to join together in union so they too can know the power, protection, and hope that comes from having a union contract, and we call on Duke University to immediately recognize their union and begin collective bargaining.
All working people should have the freedom to join together in unions and collectively negotiate for better, safer working conditions. We strongly urge every member of our congressional delegation to sponsor the PRO Act and fight for its passage.
Elections are a process, and that process does not end until we have certified the results and sworn in the leaders that the voters have chosen in a peaceful transfer of power. This is the way American democracy has worked since the first presidential election ended in 1789, through the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. It may take longer this year to obtain all the results, but the people of the American labor movement remain committed to seeing democracy endure.
Workers are calling on Thom Tillis to stop putting Mitch McConnell’s priorities, including ramming through a Supreme Court nomination, ahead of hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who face unemployment, foreclosure and other serious economic consequences due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The NC State AFL-CIO’s 63rd Annual Convention was held online this year via Zoom, Thursday and Friday, September 24th and 25th. The two-day convention brought together labor, community, and political leaders from across the state to discuss ways to fight for a better future through organizing, political power, and community building.
We congratulate the nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville on winning their union with National Nurses United by an over two-to-one margin!
Today in an online town hall and press call organized by the state AFL-CIO, members and leaders from unions of working people in North Carolina called on Senator Thom Tillis to support the essential role of working people in this pandemic by passing the HEROES Act, legislation which the U.S. House passed on May 15th to protect the lives and livelihoods of working Americans still grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, Senator Tillis declined an invitation to participate in the town hall.
In a press call this Tuesday, July 28th at 12pm ET, members and leaders from unions of working people in North Carolina will be calling on Senator Thom Tillis to support the essential role of working people in this pandemic by passing the HEROES Act, legislation that already passed the U.S. House in May to protect the lives and livelihoods of working Americans still grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In “Workers First Caravans” rolling out across the country, union members are raising their voice to call for racial and economic justice, including this morning on a press call with Black frontline workers and labor leaders in North Carolina about the continued need for elected officials to address the triple threats of COVID-19, mass unemployment, and structural racism and to demand that Senator Tillis support the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act.
On Wednesday, June 17, working people from North Carolina will join with workers in all 50 states to take part in a Workers First Caravan for Racial and Economic Justice, a national day of action calling for policies to confront the three crises facing America: a public health pandemic, an economic free fall, and long-standing structural racism.
The most important things we as labor leaders can do right now are listen to our Black sisters and brothers and work together to strengthen and position our unions to be powerful forces against racism and white supremacy.
We are deeply disappointed that, despite bipartisan support in the state senate, Republicans in the state house refused to accept even small changes in our Unemployment Insurance system that would help the record number of North Carolinians who are out of work during this pandemic.
