When it’s time to go to bed after a holiday with friends and family, let’s reflect on why many of us had the day off—to recognize the many decades that working people have spent organizing for and fighting to secure safe, good-paying jobs for all of us—black, white, and brown alike. Then let’s pledge that in November, we’ll elect Joe Biden, Cal Cunningham, Jessica Holmes, and other people to local, state, and federal offices who will fight for our rights and freedoms.
I do not go around asking people if they believe in God. But I frequently ask people if they believe in labor unions.
United Steelworkers (USW) Smoky Mountain Local 507, AFL-CIO, CLC proudly hosted the 113th Canton Labor Day Parade, North Carolina’s longest-running Labor Day parade, featuring a float by the Western North Carolina Central Labor Council marshalled by NC State AFL-CIO president MaryBe McMillan.
This Labor Day, workers are winning. Momentum is building. The balance of power is shifting. Across the country, working people are joining the fight for a better deal and a better life.
For over forty years now, successive generations of millworkers and members of United Steelworkers Smoky Mountain Local 507 have used their freedom to join together in union to organize and ensure shared prosperity in the tiny mountain town of Canton, North Carolina.
Worker organizing past and present is the cover story of the Labor Day 2018 issue of Creative Loafing Charlotte, featuring quotes from North Carolina State AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillan, IBEW Local 379 President and state AFL-CIO Vice President Scott Thrower, and Ben Lee, chairman of the Charlotte Labor Day Parade Committee.
When people ask why I spend some of my very rare free hours advocating for labor unions in my new home state, the answer is simple. I want labor union sense to be again this region’s common sense.
Local cooks and cashiers from McDonald’s, Burger King, and other restaurants announced Friday that they will walk off the job on Labor Day, joining strikes by fast-food workers in 300 cities from coast to coast.
Working people in North Carolina celebrated the holiday that bears our name with Labor Day parades and festivals, media outreach, and community service.
This Labor Day, we are asking working families across the country to take action and commit to improving the lives of all working people by voting, for a better life. On November 8, 2016, working people will flock to the polls to support policies and candidates that are dedicated to creating fundamental, lasting change for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
Working people in North Carolina commemorated Labor Day this year with a parade and picnics, prayers in the pulpits, and community service to honor the American worker and to celebrate the incredible achievements of all people who are working for a better life.
North Carolina State AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer MaryBe McMillan sat down for an interview for the radio program News & Views with Chris Fitzsimon to talk about the future of work in North Carolina and efforts to raise the wages of working people in our state.
“We can no longer devalue the importance of a collective voice for workers. We can no longer hope that corporations and policy makers will do the right thing because we ask them to. We have to return to what works for working people — labor unions.”
Come out for an “old fashioned, union made” parade when the biggest and longest-running Labor Day parade in the Carolinas returns to Charlotte in 2015, featuring local union floats and marchers as well as stepping groups, bands, and more.
On the Saturday before Labor Day, join AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America for fun, fellowship, and a free lunch when they hold their Labor Day weekend celebration and open house at their office in Greensboro.
