A Transtar statement said,“we are investigating the incident and are cooperating with investigations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board”. Due to the nature of the ongoing investigations, we will not be commenting further on the incident.”

Transtar, which operates seven railroads serving U.S. Steel facilities, was sold by the steelmaker to Fortress Transportation in 2021. Its Fairfield Southern railroad provides in-plant rail service for U.S. Steel’s Fairfield Works, located approximately 10 miles west of Birmingham.

While we are saddened at the news of our brother’s death, we must double our resolve to build a safer workplace where such tragedies are not so commonplace.

The Railroad Workers United Program for Fallen Rails urges you to do the following on behalf of our fallen brother, his friends and family, co-workers and all railroad workers:

Commit yourself to following up on how and why our brother or sister was killed. What is the behind-the-scenes story? What role did unsafe conditions, including short staffing, crew fatigue, inadequate training and/or qualifying, deferred maintenance, or other factors play in this fellow worker’s death?

Get involved in the national movement against blame the worker “behavior-based safety” programs. Help build real union-based safety committees and programs that focus on hazard elimination and do not ignore the underlying causes of accidents, injuries and fatalities sustained on the job. For more information, see the RWU webpage entitled “Oppose Behavior Based Safety.”

Take part in the RWU annual Railroad Workers Memorial Day each April 28th. For more information, see the RWU webpage “Fallen Rails.”

Join RWU and fight to build solidarity and unity among all railroad workers, and make safer workplaces for all.

Thank you,
Railroad Workers United

The post RWU: Rail Fatality Alert! – Transtar Rail Worker Killed June 16th in AL appeared first on Labor Today.

In the South, the benefits of the success of such a campaign would be hard over state. By multiple means, it would inject new strength into a labor movement that is under constant open attack by the region’s political leaders and their corporate backers.

First and foremost, it would give Southerners their first taste of rightful control over a distribution system upon which the livelihoods of the entire region rely. The entire Southern economy relies on the ability to use freight rail to transfer large quantities of goods efficiently. The regular functioning of the rail system is so important that lawmakers have decided that rail workers cannot go on strike without federal approval. Despite the importance railroads play in our lives, all the decision-making on how the system works is left to a couple of monopolies.

The system as it stands not only allows a small group of corporate leaders to extract monopoly prices from their customers, but it gives them the unspoken power to bend the whole Southern economy to their will. After all, how would any sizable town function without access to rail goods? It makes no sense for all of the decisions to be in the hands of a few corporate interests. It is only right that the average Southerner has at least some say in how this system operates.

Likewise, these monopolies do not have to overly concern themselves with the safety of the communities they travel through. The example of East Palestine, OH showed that the railroad monopolies care little about the fines and cleanup fees imposed on them after a derailment because these fees are small in comparison to the profits they make by cutting corners on safety. Such corner-cutting practices are also known as “precision scheduled railroading”, and it creates so much profit that it has taken over the whole industry. These problems are here to stay unless railroad workers, communities, and environmental groups are given a direct say in how the system is managed.

Additionally, the system would immediately introduce a direct experience of worker’s democracy to states that have faced the highest levels of labor repression in the country. With the low level of union membership in the region, those turning to unionism lack direct contact with union members and local examples to draw from. If all class I’s were made public with shared control from unions, every rail-yard in the South could become a fortress of support for our labor movement. Suddenly workers across the entire region would have nearby examples of how an industry can be managed by workers, perhaps even better than by private companies.

The return of class I railroads to public ownership would provide enormous benefits to the average Southerner. This goal is attainable, beneficial to the majority of Southerners, has been proven to work in other countries, and has worked successfully in the United States. Any group or advocate worth their salt will rise to the occasion, and join the campaign to have Public Rail Now.

The post The Southern Labor Movement Must Rally Behind the Public Rail Now Campaign appeared first on Labor Today.

The DBDT leadership has claimed that the decision to terminate all of their dancers was not in response to their unionization efforts but was a response to a video posted by the dancers to Social Media. The DBDT stated in a Dallas Morning News article that this video “promoted content and practices that contradict our core values and standards of professionalism”. This article was posted in response to the uproar over the termination of the dancers, but the public sentiment still fell clearly on the side of these dancers, with AGMA “[receiving] reports of declining ticket sales, donors withdrawing their support, and major foundations severing ties with DBDT in the wake of its actions”.

Taking the air out of DBDT Leadership’s arguments, in November 2024 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a formal complaint against the DBDT including more than 40 counts of unlawful conduct based on the dancers’ protected activities. In an Instagram post by the dancers they stated “The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a formal complaint, finding reasonable cause to believe that Dallas Black Dance Theatre committed numerous unfair labor practices, the most extreme of which was the termination of the entire company. Additionally, the NLRB is recommending seeking emergency relief in federal district court, due to the grievous nature of DBDT’s actions.” The NLRB recommended emergency relief in this matter, including reinstatement of the fired workers with back pay and “making all employees or former employees whole for any loss of wages, benefits, or other direct or foreseeable pecuniary harm.”

The long-fought struggle came to a close in December 2024, with the AGMA posting to their website that the DBDT had reached a Settlement Agreement with the terminated dancers. The agreement was brokered by the NLRB and included monetary compensation for the dancers including front pay, back pay, and other pecuniary harms, personal apologies, training and union access, and other worker protections. In addition to these, “the full 7-page NLRB Notice detailing the Company’s misconduct will be: published in The Dallas Morning News for seven days, read aloud to employees by a senior leader, and posted and distributed physically and electronically.” This historic win for performing arts workers shows the power that organized labor has in standing up to unfair treatment at the hands of the bosses. The dancers who fought in this struggle for over 6 months demonstrated for workers throughout Dallas, Texas, and the USA the strength we can achieve when banding together and fighting for our rights.

Photo courtesy of AGMA.

The post Dallas Dancers Defeat Bosses in Major Unfair Labor Practices Case appeared first on Labor Today.

Amazon resorted to many different tactics to defeat this unionization effort and judging by the vote result, it unfortunately worked incredibly well. Amazon hosted daily meetings with workers and had TV screens with anti-union messages. Amazon fired Ryan Brown who was a leading figure in the effort appropriately for using “inappropriate language” while three C.AU.S.E. members were arrested while distributing food outside the RDU1 warehouse. C.AU.S.E. members also accused Amazon of removing workers from the lobby who were attempting to share updates online. This in addition to other efforts of Amazon to defeat this drive shows the importance for the workers to fight for better conditions.

North Carolina is, along with many of its Southern neighbors, an incredibly difficult state to organize in and this vote showed many examples of the tactics used by large corporations to defeat any organizing work. North Carolina is a “right to work” state which means that the job is always going to be incredibly difficult work to do, but that it is a job that must be done. North Carolina has a long history of fighting for better conditions and unions but has come up short many times before.

Garner is a suburb of Raleigh a city that is very unaffordable for many of its residents and the efforts of these and other workers to organize and demand better conditions and wages is not only important but necessary. We must join together to support our fellow workers and fight back against any anti-union efforts both here and worldwide.

The post Amazon Repression Defeats Organizing Campaign in North Carolina appeared first on Labor Today.

RALEIGH, NC—On Friday, March 7, members of UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, spoke out against increased insurance costs and cuts to health services at the State Health Plan Board of Trustees meeting. Last month, the SHP Board, led by State Treasurer Brad Briner, voted on several proposals to increase the premiums and deductibles paid by over 700,000 state employees. The board is also considering future cuts to services and privatization of retiree health insurance plans.

Briner has called upon state workers to “step up” to pay the extra premiums; state workers called on the board to instead “step up” and ask the General Assembly to stop giving major tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.

Local 150 Recording Secretary Alexandra Fox, who works at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, detailed the “existential threat” faced by the state hospitals run by the Department of Health and Human Services. The state’s three psychiatric hospitals currently have over 400 empty beds due to staff shortages, and the department has a vacancy rate of 32.1 percent.

“DHHS is already in the middle of a major crisis of staff vacancies and having trouble to retain staff,” Fox said. “We cannot afford any increases to our premiums, to our deductibles or cuts to services. We are the people doing the most direct care, people cleaning the hospitals, but we can’t afford the care that we give to other people.”

Local 150 member Karina Hernandez, a social worker at Central Regional Hospital, told the board, “We are hearing about the surplus revenues that the state has. The surplus revenue last year alone could have wiped out a huge portion of the [State Health Plan] budget shortfall. But you all, and the General Assembly, did not see fit to prioritize state workers, the same workers that take care of you, your families and your communities. Instead they prioritized further tax breaks for the wealthy, for corporations, and to give away private school vouchers for the rich.”

Charles Owens, a healthcare technician at Cherry Hospital and vice president of the Cherry-O’Berry chapter of Local 150, stated, “Don’t make the workers pay for your mistake. You are going to increase the cost of our health care so high that we cannot afford to get sick.”

Local 150 has also been circulating an online petition, “Stop Cut Backs and Price Increases to State Health Plan!” The petition text declares that “State employees already suffer from low wages and record vacancy rates. Any increase in prices and reductions will further push away talented public servants and impact the quality of services we provide to the public. The economy of our state is doing well, and the state has plenty of revenue to cover the budget shortfalls.”

The post UE: NC State Workers Say, ‘Fund Worker Health, not Corporate Wealth’ appeared first on Labor Today.

RALEIGH, CHARLOTTE & SPRING HOPE, NC—Three workers in North Carolina died last year after being exposed to high temperatures while working. Alongside unions and advocates, UE Local 150 members are pushing for new safety policies to prevent future deaths. Members participated in rallies on December 8, 9, and 10 to urge state officials to finalize the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed standards for Heat Illness and Injury Prevention.

At the Raleigh event on December 9, Local 150 steward and utilities department worker for the City of Raleigh Joel Bryan said, “It is imperative that the state and federal government pass common-sense legislation to protect us.” Bryan urged state officials to pass the new OSHA regulations, noting that heat safety affects the workers “growing our food, working in a warehouse, responding to our emergencies, and maintaining our nation’s aging infrastructure.

“We as a society [need to] protect these workers and pass common-sense legislation to ensure that they are protected from the effects of heat related illnesses,” Bryan said. After the rally, members delivered a letter to the Department of Labor.

In a release sent by the coalition, advocates explained that according to the North Carolina Department of Labor (NC DOL), employers operate under the General Duty Clause which states, “Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees conditions of employment and a place of employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious injury or serious physical harm to his employees.” Labor and health advocates maintain that this clause is insufficient to protect workers. In the absence of standardized requirements employers can interpret “free from recognized hazards” broadly, and workers are left without clear recourse to advocate for their safety.

The new OSHA standards, if passed, would require several interventions by employers to protect workers from heat. This would include developing and implementing a worksite heat injury and illness prevention plan (HIIPP) with site-specific information to evaluate and control heat hazards in their workplace, identifying heat hazards in both outdoor and indoor work sites, and implementing control measures at or above a certain temperature. The new standards would apply to all employers conducting outdoor and indoor work in all general industry, construction, maritime, and agriculture sectors where OSHA has jurisdiction.

Local 150 members were joined at the event by members of Toxic Free NC (TFNC), El Futuro Es Nuestro (It’s Our Future), The Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN), Hispanic Federation (HF), North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), North Carolina Justice Center, and The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

The post UE: Local 150 Members Join Coalition to Advocate for Heat Safety in North Carolina appeared first on Labor Today.

NORTH CAROLINA—As public-sector workers, the members of UE Local 150, North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, who work for cities, state hospitals, and public universities across the state know that decisions made by the state legislature affect, and in some cases set, their wages, benefits and working conditions. Recently, the right-wing Republican supermajority in the state General Assembly lowered income tax for the wealthy, which pulls billions of dollars from the state budget that funds wage increases for state workers and other vital public services. Although Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has demonstrated some sympathy with state workers, the fact that the Republicans hold a supermajority of seats means they can override any potential vetoes.

The General Assembly has also passed anti-immigration laws, anti-choice laws, anti-protest laws, voter suppression laws, and further gerrymandered districts along racial lines to keep themselves in power. They changed the legal definition of a “riot” to encompass more forms of free speech and protest.

In an effort to break the Republican supermajority, UE Local 150 revitalized its political action committee this year. The members of the committee educated their fellow workers in their chapters and their communities about the upcoming elections. They also organized canvassing in working-class neighborhoods where members live throughout the state.

The local targeted Granville County as a critical swing district. Several hundred members live in the county who work at the Central Regional Hospital, Murdoch Developmental Center, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the City of Durham. Local 150 focused on hosting educational activities and events, including canvassing days. The work that members did helped flip the state house seat and state senate seat in Granville and the state house seat in nearby Wilson county, contributing to breaking the Republican supermajority.

Tracy Harter, a housekeeper at UNC and vice president of her Local 150 chapter, door-knocked in Butner in October alongside members from the chapter at the Central Regional Hospital. “We talked to people about how they need to bring a photo ID so they are prepared when they go to vote,” said Harter. North Carolina requires voters to present a specific form of government-issued photo ID, a requirement which targets the elderly, minorities, young, and low-income people – all more likely to vote Democratic. Local 150 members protested the passage of this policy in 2018.

“Almost everyone that we talked to seemed like they would vote for candidates for the working class,” Harter continued. “It was good to be involved in everything. Win or lose, it’s great to know we did our part. I would rather lose and know I did everything I could than lose and know I did not make the time to do my part.”

In a newsletter, the local reported that members had participated in the political action committee at a higher level than in any year’s past. Harter explained that this participation helped the local meet its political action goals. “We surpassed our goal in knocking on over 5,000 doors,” she said. “The people that we spoke to, we made sure that they had a voting plan and talked to them about attending the town hall. We had members speaking to people in the communities in both English and Spanish.”

Local 150 hosted a “Candidate Accountability” town hall on October 17 in Oxford with Down Home North Carolina, a community organization that builds multiracial working-class power in the state. The town hall was attended by state house candidate Brian Cohn and state senate candidate Terence Everitt, who listened to workers speak and answered questions. Both Cohn and Everitt won their seats in the election. Harter was one of the leaders who spoke in front of community members and representatives. She spoke about both economic insecurity and the importance of voting, mentioning a precinct that was previously won by a very slim margin.

When asked about future organizing, Harter said, “Going forward, I’m going to do this harder and sooner. The fight is not over. We have to still fight and we can’t just roll over and say better luck in four years. We have to do what we have to. Politicians work for us and we don’t have to take what they are doing. If that means protest, we will protest. If that means calling their office, we will call them and let them know what we want.”

The post UE: Local 150 Helps Break Right-Wing Supermajority in North Carolina appeared first on Labor Today.

• HB 49 allows minors aged sixteen and seventeen to work more than eight hours on Sundays and holidays, even when there is school the next day.
• HB 49 allows parents and school superintendents to waive the limitation that minors aged sixteen and seventeen may only work thirty hours per week when school is in session. The law will also lower the age restriction on minors working more than six consecutive days from seventeen years of age to fifteen years of age.
• HB 49 removes the work hour restrictions for minors aged sixteen and seventeen who are in a “home education program” or who are “enrolled in an approved virtual instruction program in which the minor is separated from the teacher by time only.”
• Under HB 49, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation is allowed to waive restrictions for minors when it is in the minor’s “best interest”, based on “extenuating circumstances” determined on a case-by-case basis.

HB 49 was initially written by the Foundation for Government Accountability, a right-wing think tank, and sponsored by Florida State Rep. Linda Chaney who explicitly referred to teenagers 16 and older as “youth workers” and “not children.”

The bill took effect in the midst of a major shift in the demographics of its workforce due to the State’s recent crackdown on the employment of migrant workers. The Florida Policy Institute estimates that the first-year cost of DeSantis’ new aggressive policies on migrant workers will exceed $12 billion, not even taking into account the loss of labor suffered by Florida’s agricultural and construction industries.

Chaney is echoing the discourse of industry groups like the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association —a state affiliate of the anti-union National Restaurant Association which represents major employers in Florida such as McDonald’s (a repeat violator of child labor law), Olive Garden, the Walt Disney Co., Universal Orlando, and other restaurant and hotel owners that employ a large percentage of the youth workforce. Research has found that working more than 20 hours per week can hurt children’s academic performance and can increase the risk of skipping school and other behavioral problems, like drug use. Young workers are also more likely to be injured on the job and are less likely to speak up if their employer steals their wages or violates their rights under the NLRA. Given these facts, it seems Florida is trying to replace one group of super-exploited workers with another.

The post Florida Joins Growing List of States Rolling Back Child Labor Laws appeared first on Labor Today.

UPS workers in the region are among the most impacted by heat illnesses and injuries due to climate change in recent years. A result of the company’s ruthless exploitation of its workforce and gross negligence regarding worker safety: this was underscored by the tragic death, in June of this year, of Braden Hasselbeck, an Oklahoma City delivery driver was found, hours after returning to his building, unresponsive at the facility.

In response to multiple worker deaths in the company’s McKinney TX facility and other incidents – including a recent crash involving a fatigued driver – Oklahoma Teamsters have mobilized to take action in solidarity with the struggles of their union, brothers and sisters in North Texas.

Though the national contract, negotiated and ratified last year after a very public and contentious contract campaign, commits UPS to replace a minimum of 28,000 delivery vehicles with air-conditioned models by the expiration of the contract, no new models have been introduced to date.

Across the country, the company has ramped up its efforts to squeeze the maximum amount of production from its workforce, intensifying production harassment, speed-up, and excessive overtime for its drivers rather than taking steps to make safety protocols more effective. Much of the heat illnesses and deaths could’ve been prevented by the introduction of the air-conditioned vehicles promised by the contract. UPS seems to prioritize its stockholders over the safety of its employees.

“UPS Teamsters across the country, including our union siblings in Texas Teamsters Local 767 are facing unbearable and dangerous heat conditions,” said Zakk Flash, a representative of Oklahoma Teamsters Local 886, “we are united in our demand that UPS take immediate action to honor the contract and protect our members’ lives” he continued.

To effectively respond and counter the aggressions of the company, Teamsters will need to develop a class-oriented approach that emphasizes solidarity and militancy. This will require a resolute left-wing within the union that is capable of putting before the membership the most effective strategies and tactics appropriate to the hazards we face.

The post Oklahoma UPS Teamsters Build Solidarity Across Two States appeared first on Labor Today.

With the slogan “Resist, Restore and Revitalize!” the 13th Biennial Convention of statewide UE Local 150 convened at the Franklinton Center at Bricks on August 10 and 11. Local 150 members from across North Carolina shared their experiences fighting for fair wages and dignity, and building their union, in one of the least unionized states in the country.

In her address at the start of the convention, President Sekia Royall told the story of how she got involved in the union. A new manager in her department had fired one of her fellow workers, and she went to a meeting called by the union “not knowing what to expect,” as she had grown up in Kansas, another “right to work” state without a strong union culture.

“That day something changed in me,” she said. “I’ve always been a fighter but UE taught me how to fight different.”

Royall, who was not seeking another term as president, shared how her six years as a local officer (two as vice president and four as president) had been “a very humbling experience and rewarding, helping workers to find their own strength. In that moment, I found my power as well.”

Organizing the South

In one of the highlights of the convention, former Local 150 President Angaza Sababu Laughinghouse chaired a panel of Local 150 chapter leaders on “Organiz[ing] the South.” The importance of organizing the South for the entire working class was laid out in a resolution on the topic passed by the convention, which points out that “North and South Carolina are the least unionized states in the entire country. This allows the big multinational corporations to make super profits and not have to bargain with workers and their unions.” Another resolution, on collective bargaining rights for all workers, identifies one of the reasons why North Carolina has such a low union density: “In 1959, during the Jim Crow era when Black people largely had no rights to vote, an all-white state legislature passed General Statute 95-98 banning public worker collective bargaining and strikes.”

Despite that ban, Local 150 members who work for the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), for the state’s largest cities, for its university system, and at the Cummins Diesel plant, have been uniting workers to engage in aggressive struggle to win improvements in wages and fair treatment, and leaders from all of these sectors participated in the panel.

The panel began with Terry Green, president of UE Local 111, the Virginia Beach City Workers Union. Until recently, the state of Virginia had also banned collective bargaining in the public sector, but new legislation passed in 2020 allows municipal workers to win collective bargaining rights — but only if their city council passes a resolution allowing it. Green reported on how municipal workers in Virginia Beach, despite setbacks in their efforts to win such a resolution, have won two ten-percent raises, and are making plans to engage in political action to secure a solid city council majority in favor of collective bargaining.

Willie Brown of the Durham City Workers Union spoke about the “stand down” action by sanitation workers last September, which won $6.5 million in bonuses in October and helped the union win $28 million in raises in the budget adopted by the city this spring. Workers took the action despite the state’s anti-union laws. Brown also gave an honest assessment of mistakes the union had made during, and how union members had learned from them.

William Young from the Cherry Hospital DHHS chapter reported that DHHS workers have seen an uptick in Covid-19 cases, severe understaffing, and fear of hospitals closing down — but the union has been actively protesting these conditions, and keeping workers informed through its newsletter. “We’re going to continue to write letters or do whatever we have to do,” he said.

Khin Su Su Kyi, a housekeeper at the University of North Carolina’s flagship campus in Chapel Hill, described how the UNC housekeeper’s chapter of the union had won a minimum wage of $15, then of $18 per hour, and are now fighting for $20 per hour. The union is also fighting so that workers don’t have to pay to park when they come to work. However, perhaps the most important change since workers have established the union, she said, is that “Now, we have a worker union … before, we listen[ed] to the supervisor, now [the] supervisor listen[s] [to] our voice.”

Hwa Huang told the convention about several campaigns the grad worker organizing committee at North Carolina State University has been carrying out, including a cost-of-living survey, a petition that won a significant increase to stipends in one department, and fighting to end fees.

Tim Hunt of the Carolina Auto, Aerospace and Machine Workers Union chapter of Local 150 said that the union at Cummins Diesel has been around for 32 years, and discussed the union’s challenges with connecting to and bringing in younger workers. He also spoke about how the newly-formed Down East Workers Assembly is bringing together workers in the region to share their struggles. “We show up at city council meetings,” he said. “We want people to know the struggles that people are going through.”

In the discussion of the resolution on organizing the South which followed the panel, Jim Wrenn, a retired member of the CAAMWU chapter, pointed out the “crucial role” that the Southern Workers Assembly, which was founded in 2012, has played in supporting efforts to organize in the state and throughout the region.

Understanding the Political Moment

Dr. Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt of Black Workers for Justice, a professor of African-American history at North Carolina State and Local 150 member, gave a presentation on “Understanding this Political Moment, What’s At Stake in 2024 Elections.”

“You all don’t need me to tell you that we’re in a political, economic, social and environmental crisis,” said Dr. Dillahunt. “Our people are suffering, our communities are suffering, our planet is suffering, and by the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like that crisis is going to let up anytime soon.”

Noting that “We have a long battle ahead of us,” he emphasized the importance of focus and discipline, because “We have to be on our game more than we have ever been.”

Dr. Dillahunt reviewed various aspects of the political moment, including the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza, police violence against Black communities, and Project 2025, the far-right plan for expanding corporate power under a second Trump presidency. He also noted that at the state level in North Carolina, the crisis for working people has intensified, with right-wing supermajorities imposing their extremist agenda on the University of North Carolina system and failing to pass budgets, leaving public schools and public workers “in a mode of crisis, without the resources needed to thrive.”

In this context, Dr. Dillahunt asked, what is the role of the upcoming elections? He suggested that, while there are important differences between the two major parties, both of them represent capitalist exploitation. “Elections are important but they are not the fundamental element that will transform our society,” he said. Real change comes from organizing and “people power.”

Following his presentation, Dr. Dillahunt led a robust discussion in which Local 150 members and guests discussed what to do after the election, the role of white supremacist movements in the current moment and how to effectively oppose them, how to best engage faith leaders in workers’ struggles, and more. Montrell Perry of the Durham City Workers Union chapter decried the role of money in politics, declaring that “We deserve more and we have to figure out how to come together.”

Brigette Rasberry of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, a long-time UE ally, also spoke to the convention about “The Long March for Unity and Justice” (happening September 20-29) which the center is organizing to “push for the type of North Carolina that we know is possible.” The march’s mission is to “create a compassionate and more just” North Carolina.

“We are fed up and we are ready to do something different,” Rasberry said. “We are coming together … workers and unions coming together with ordinary citizens to say no more.”

Speakers: How to Win for Workers in a Right-to-Work State

Keynote speakers Bryan Proffitt, the vice president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, and Braxton Winston, the Democratic candidate for North Carolina Commissioner of Labor, both laid out visions of a North Carolina that would respect workers’ rights and plans for how to achieve it.

Proffitt, a high school history teacher, began his talk with the observation that public education in North Carolina owes its existence to the newly-freed slaves who, in 1868, wrote a guarantee of public education into the state’s new constitution. As recently as twenty years ago, the state still valued education — and the job of teacher was so desirable that Proffitt was unable to secure a job fresh out of school.

However, after right-wing Republicans took over the state government in 2010, they immediately went after public schools. Proffitt noted that the right wing hates public schools because they are one of the few places in society where people connect with each other across racial divides, and the rich and powerful rely on dividing people in order to stay in power. “When we all go to school together … and play ball together, and eat lunch together and learn together … and stand together in our unions together, we are very dangerous,” he said.

Proffitt reviewed how educators in North Carolina, inspired by the Chicago Teachers Union’s 2012 strike and the Moral Mondays movement in their own state, began to rebuild their union, and in 2018 and 2019 participated in the “Red for Ed” movement, shutting down schools across the state to demand more investment in public education. Then he told the story about how his own local in Durham, starting with 10 percent membership, used rank-and-file, worker-to-worker organizing to achieve majority membership this past May. Bolstered by this new majority, the union won $27 million in additional funding from the county this year, more than twice what they had been able to win in previous years.

 “We could be less than a decade away from repealing the ban on collective bargaining in our state,” Profitt told the convention. NCAE is planning to use the same kind of worker-led organizing that brought them to majority status in Durham to win majorities elsewhere in the state, win elections to the state Supreme Court, and challenge North Carolina’s gerrymandered electoral map in 2030 — potentially paving the way for a repeal of the collective-bargaining ban.

“The majority of the people in our communities, in our state, in our country, in our world, are on our side,” Proffitt said. “And if we fight effectively, they will join us, and we will win all the things that our people deserve.”

Winston, a union stagehand and a member of IATSE who is running for Commissioner of Labor, addressed the convention via Zoom. He told UE members, “I’m a guy who clocks in and clocks out,” and that “it’s high time that we had a worker being the lead advocate for workers all across our state,” and noted that, when elected, he will be the first union member to hold the position of Commissioner of Labor.

He cited his experience advocating for workers as city councilor and mayor pro tem in Charlotte, where he was a strong ally of Local 150’s Charlotte City Workers Union chapter, and promised to bring strong leadership at the state Department of Labor.

“We have to realize that the foundation of this nation’s economy was built on stolen labor,” he said, and pointed out that this legacy hurts all workers, because “today’s American economy continues to rely on the use of unpaid or underpaid labor.”

All North Carolina workers suffer from the same system, Winston said, one that “aims to grow the pockets of a small population of business owners” while “ensuring that most of our workforce is indentured to a life of living on the edge of financial ruin, despite people’s willingness to be honest, hard workers. This is a rigged system and it’s supported by middle-men who will do the bidding of the ownership class.” These middle-men, he said, sow division among the working class along lines of race, immigration, and sexual orientation, in order to distract working people from “the owners’ thirst to survive off stolen labor.”

He noted that his opponent is one of these middle-men, and that “His platform is to sell you and other workers out.” Winston’s opponent has never been elected to public office, and currently works as a lawyer defending construction companies who are under investigation by the very department he now seeks to lead.

“Whether it’s urban or rural, in the mountains or the coast, our North Carolina communities are more alike than we are different,” Winston said. “So many of our workers are on the edge because they lack access to affordable child care, affordable housing, or reliable transportation methods.” When elected, he said, he will build coalitions to improve all aspects of working people’s lives, what he called a “whole worker” approach. “If we take care of North Carolina workers, then North Carolina can work for all of us.”

After his presentation, Winston took questions from the audience. In response to questions about the limited powers the Commissioner of Labor has in North Carolina, he said he would use the position as a “bully pulpit” to advocate for workers and be creative in using the office to push for improvements in workers’ lives on multiple fronts.

Following the discussion, convention delegates voted unanimously to endorse his candidacy.

Fighting for Social Change

A second panel of UE members and allies addressed “Community-Faith-Labor Coalitions to Win Broad Social Changes.” Chaired by Local 150 Recording Secretary Nichel Dunlap-Thompson, it featured presentations by Ashaki Binta of Black Workers for Justice and the Southern Workers Assembly, Angaza Samora Laughinghouse of Black Workers for Justice and Refund Raleigh, and Hwa Huang of the NC State grad workers’ organizing committee of Local 150. Laughinghouse spoke about efforts to redirect funds from policing to other city services, Huang spoke about organizing tenants, and Binta addressed the leading role of Local 150 in organizing the South, even in the absence of collective bargaining rights. “UE150 has shown that rank-and-file leadership can take on these struggles and build organization,” she said. “Even though the day-to-day may be difficult or challenging, don’t ever underestimate the significance of what you all have been doing for the past 20 or so years”

In his remarks to the convention, UE General Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker said, “Local 150 is to be recognized for … challenging us all to do more and to do better.” Reflecting on the UE mottos “the members run this union” and “the union for everyone,” he reminded the delegates and guests that “it is up to all of us to live up to them.” Eastern Region President George Waksmunski also addressed the convention, emphasizing the importance of finding the potential in all workers: “A lot of our members out there don’t know that they are great labor leaders.”

Keith Bullard of the Union of Southern Service Workers and Don Cavellini of the Coalition Against Racism in Pitt County brought greetings from their organizations, and Local 150-CAAMWU retiree Jim Wrenn welcomed delegates on behalf of the Franklinton Center, on whose board he serves.

Taking a formal stance on many of the issues discussed in the various panels and presentations at the convention, Local 150 delegates discussed and passed resolutions on fighting racism, international solidarity, justice in policing, and “The Ongoing Genocide in Gaza and Palestinian Liberation.”

Education, Elections and Organizing

On Saturday afternoon, convention-goers attended two rounds of workshops, covering topics including how to have an organizing conversation, elements of a strong local union chapter, movement healing and self-care, what lawyers can and cannot do for workers, and UE’s philosophy of “Them and Us Unionism.”

Following the workshops, delegates elected a slate of officers to lead the union for the next two years. Willie Brown from the Durham City Workers Union chapter was elected president, and William Young from the Cherry Hospital DHHS chapter was elected vice president. Treasurer Dominic Harris and Chief Steward Craig Brown, both of the Charlotte City Workers Union chapter, were re-elected to new two-year terms; Alexandra Fox from the Central Regional Hospital Chapter was elected as Recording Secretary, and Vincent Daniels of the Durham City Workers Union chapter was elected as Assistant Chief Steward. Dr. Rakesh Patel (Central Regional Hospital) and Montrell Perry (Durham City Workers Union) were elected as trustees, and Chris Benjamin (Durham City Workers Union) was elected as the alternate trustee. Rob Davis of the Charlotte City Workers Union chapter also ran for president.

On Sunday morning, International Representative Dante Strobino, Field Organizer Kass Ottley and Project Organizer Lora Tate gave reports on organizing and membership numbers for the local over the past two years.

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