Ironworkers Local 848 and the Southern Piedmont Central Labor Council are partnering with Novant Health to bring a vaccination event to union members and essential workers in the greater Charlotte area. The event is planned for Friday April 23rd. Priority appointments will be allotted to union members who complete this survey.
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 “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.
We are asking for your help to thank all the frontline essential workers who deliver our mail and packages, who pick, process, and stock our food, who transport us and protect our safety, who take care of us when we are sick. These workers are risking their lives to take care of us so let’s show them some love.
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.
The most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 178 workers were killed in North Carolina in 2018, and many more suffered from occupational diseases. This year, thousands more workers’ lives are being lost to COVID-19 because workers are not getting necessary protections at work—which would save lives and stop the spread of this very contagious virus.
How many more workers have to get sick and die before the Department of Labor steps up? Let’s send a message this Workers’ Memorial Day, Tuesday, April 28th, that safe jobs are essential for all workers!
President MaryBe McMillan talks to Trisha Pande, our counsel with Patterson Harkavy, LLP, about unemployment benefits available to NC workers during the pandemic.
“Our union makes us strong. It gives us hope.” Listen to this message of solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic from our president, MaryBe McMillan.
Resource guides and fact sheets for North Carolina workers, policy recommendations for state and local responses, and opportunities to take action during the COVID-19 pandemic.
