Mayoral candidate resorts to union bashing in Fayetteville

And this guy could win if you don't show up to vote on Tuesday

Conservative candidate for Mayor of Fayetteville, Nat Robertson, got his buddies on the City Council to pen a letter to residents. The letter opens with a reminder that "It's critical for you to vote in the ongoing municipal election." Fair enough. You should take your civic responsibility seriously and vote in every election! So what's their beef with labor-endorsed candidate Val Applewhite?

Councilwoman Applewhite supports the internationally recognized human right of city employees to engage in collective bargaining - a right denied to them and all public workers in North Carolina by a Jim Crow-era law that's still on the books.

Apparently, Applewhite had the audacity to ask the City Manager to look into what it would take to begin a deliberative process that she hoped would result in the City Council adopting a resolution asking the state to end the bargaining ban and give Fayetteville the option to come to an agreement covering wages and working conditions with its workers.

Apparently, councilmen Bates, Hurst, Fowler, and Arp cannot believe the nerve of this woman, putting her principled support for workers' rights into action! So they go on in their letter to fear monger about "power hungry union bosses" trying to "break" the city.

The truth is that union members and their families help make Fayetteville work. Whether at the Goodyear Tire plant, the phone company, the Post Office, the V.A. Medical Center, or nearby Fort Bragg, there are thousands of men and women in Fayetteville represented by a union and who work hard to deliver for their families, their community, and the businesses who depend on them.

And sadly, there are city employees, some of them like fire fighters and police officers who - far from wanting to "break" Fayetteville - literally put their lives on the line for their community, whom the law treats with less respect than workers at McDonald's or Walmart. Councilwoman Applewhite says that's wrong.

Working families are lucky to have in Val Applewhite a candidate for Mayor of Fayetteville who isn't afraid to stand up to bullies like Nat Robertson, Keith Bates, Bobby Hurst, Wade Fowler, and Jim Arp. Those good-old-boys are hoping you won't know how lucky you are and will leave the voting to their supporters.

Many people stay home during municipal elections, it's true. Please don't be one of them this year. If you have not voted already, get to your polling place on Tuesday, November 5th. Take your neighbors and a list of our endorsed candidates with you. In Fayetteville, those candidates are:

Mayor: Val Applewhite
City Council (District 3): Mitch Colvin
City Council (District 4): Chalmers McDougald

Local elections are being held in communities across North Carolina on Tuesday. Grab the union guide to local elections November 5, 2013.