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    <title>InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign &amp;mdash; Fight Back! News</title>
    <link>https://fightbacknews.org/tag:InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign</link>
    <description>News and Views from the People&#39;s Struggle</description>
    <pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:16:51 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign &amp;mdash; Fight Back! News</title>
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      <title>Interview with Saladin Muhammad: &#39;Organize the South&#39;</title>
      <link>https://fightbacknews.org/saladin-tfpg?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Saladin Muhammad is a veteran leader of the labor and African American liberation movements in North Carolina. He is responsible for coordinating organizing in North Carolina and Virginia for the North Carolina and Virginia Public Service Workers Unions UE Locals 150 and 160. Muhammad is building the fight against a North Carolina law, NC 95-98, which limits workers&#39; rights to collectively bargain.&#xA;&#xA;!--more--&#xA;&#xA;Fight Back!: How has the struggle of the Sanitation workers impacted other workers in the public sector in Raleigh? How does the movement to repeal NC 95-98 play into this?&#xA;&#xA;Saladin Muhammad: Yes, city workers in other departments have begun joining the union. State workers are also stepping up. The NC Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150 launched the International Worker Justice Campaign in 2004 to build a rank-and-file and grassroots movement for collective bargaining rights and the repeal of NC 95-98. The current struggle draws attention to the strike as one of the only options left to the workers when there is no right to bargain. Many allies and forces who silently said they support collective bargaining are coming out publicly with this support as a result of this struggle. Appealing to the community has been a major component of the struggle. This struggle has been able to take away the strike issue as an argument used by management against unions.&#xA;&#xA;Fight Back!: What is the significance of the Raleigh Sanitation workers&#39; struggle in the long-term goal of organizing the South?&#xA;&#xA;Saladin Muhammad: This struggle is helping to create a labor, faith and community alliance as a social justice united front with the potential of building a united democratic front movement for economic and social justice and political power for African Americans and workers in the South. People seemed to make the connection between the relationship of quality working conditions to the delivery of quality services.&#xA;&#xA;Fight Back!: What is next for the Sanitation workers struggle?&#xA;&#xA;Saladin Muhammad: The union will hold a municipal workers&#39; summit reaching out to city workers throughout the state to bring together to develop a statewide program of action for city workers. Forums are currently being organized in various cities over the next two weeks entitled, &#34;Understaffed, overworked and underpaid.&#34;&#xA;&#xA;#NorthCarolina #NC #AfricanAmerican #NC9598 #InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign #UE&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;sharingbuttons.io&#34;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Saladin Muhammad is a veteran leader of the labor and African American liberation movements in North Carolina. He is responsible for coordinating organizing in North Carolina and Virginia for the North Carolina and Virginia Public Service Workers Unions UE Locals 150 and 160. Muhammad is building the fight against a North Carolina law, NC 95-98, which limits workers&#39; rights to collectively bargain.</em></p>



<p><strong>Fight Back!:</strong> How has the struggle of the Sanitation workers impacted other workers in the public sector in Raleigh? How does the movement to repeal NC 95-98 play into this?</p>

<p><strong>Saladin Muhammad:</strong> Yes, city workers in other departments have begun joining the union. State workers are also stepping up. The NC Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150 launched the International Worker Justice Campaign in 2004 to build a rank-and-file and grassroots movement for collective bargaining rights and the repeal of NC 95-98. The current struggle draws attention to the strike as one of the only options left to the workers when there is no right to bargain. Many allies and forces who silently said they support collective bargaining are coming out publicly with this support as a result of this struggle. Appealing to the community has been a major component of the struggle. This struggle has been able to take away the strike issue as an argument used by management against unions.</p>

<p><strong>Fight Back!:</strong> What is the significance of the Raleigh Sanitation workers&#39; struggle in the long-term goal of organizing the South?</p>

<p><strong>Saladin Muhammad:</strong> This struggle is helping to create a labor, faith and community alliance as a social justice united front with the potential of building a united democratic front movement for economic and social justice and political power for African Americans and workers in the South. People seemed to make the connection between the relationship of quality working conditions to the delivery of quality services.</p>

<p><strong>Fight Back!:</strong> What is next for the Sanitation workers struggle?</p>

<p><strong>Saladin Muhammad:</strong> The union will hold a municipal workers&#39; summit reaching out to city workers throughout the state to bring together to develop a statewide program of action for city workers. Forums are currently being organized in various cities over the next two weeks entitled, “Understaffed, overworked and underpaid.”</p>

<p><a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:NorthCarolina" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">NorthCarolina</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:NC" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">NC</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:AfricanAmerican" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">AfricanAmerican</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:NC9598" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">NC9598</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:UE" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">UE</span></a></p>

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      <guid>https://fightbacknews.org/saladin-tfpg</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:31:09 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>North Carolina: Workers tell UNC: Down with Censorship, Up with Collective Bargaining</title>
      <link>https://fightbacknews.org/uncue?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Man talking in bullhorn.&#34;)&#xA;&#xA;Chapel Hill, NC - Campus and city workers, union organizers and students held a press conference at the university here, Sept. 13, to denounce University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill administration’s censorship of an article on collective bargaining. In June, an article that described the growing statewide movement for collective bargaining rights was cut from the University Gazette, an official publication distributed to all UNC workers. The North Carolina Public Sector Workers Union, UE Local 150, organized the press conference to demand the article be published.&#xA;&#xA;!--more--&#xA;&#xA;Manzoor Cheema, a research technician at UNC and UE 150 member, said, “We need to put the pressure on Chancellor Moeser and the UNC Board of Governors. This censored article needs to be published immediately. Collective bargaining is a basic workers’ and human right and North Carolina is violating that right.”&#xA;&#xA;UE 150, along with members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Student Action with Workers, demanded that UNC publish the censored article, issue a formal apology, and adopt a policy of non-interference in union organizing on campus. SDS member Tamara Tal said, “We call on students to join in this struggle against the blatant denial of workers’ rights. These workers drive our buses, clean our dorms and feed us everyday. This university works because they do. We as students need to support the workers in their internationally undisputed right to collective bargaining.”&#xA;&#xA;North Carolina and Virginia are the only states in the U.S. that have laws denying public sector workers the right to collectively bargain with their employers. The North Carolina law, General Statute 95-98, was passed in the 1950s and is a holdover from the racist Jim Crow era. It was designed to hold down the growing trade union movement among African American workers, at a time when over half the public sector workers in the state were Black. Earlier this year the International Labor Organization found North Carolina in violation of international law because of the statute.&#xA;&#xA;Ashaki Binta, coordinator for UE’s International Worker Justice Campaign, explained at the press conference, “We have a bill pending, House Bill 1583, to repeal this statute. We call on UNC to support that and to sit down across the table with workers in Chapel Hill to negotiate on the basic issues affecting their lives.”&#xA;&#xA;The North Carolina legislature will take up the bill to repeal G.S. 95-98 in the summer of 2008. UE 150, along with the North Carolina NAACP and many other progressive organizations, is leading a major state-wide campaign to raise public support and put pressure on the politicians to repeal the statute.&#xA;&#xA;Cheema explained, “We know what it’s going to take. We need a grassroots movement to empower rank-and-file workers and build community support to abolish General Statute 95-98.”&#xA;&#xA;He continued, “Here at UNC, outreach to students can help shift the balance of power in our favor. Students should understand the pain and troubles of workers. UNC is a good school and they have many classes on labor rights and poverty issues - but students need to go beyond textbooks and see the reality for workers on this campus.”&#xA;&#xA;In the coming weeks, UE 150 will continue to build up momentum by holding a town hall meeting to address the issue of collective bargaining in North Carolina and the struggle to repeal G.S. 95-98.&#xA;&#xA;Students on front a banner.&#34;)&#xA;&#xA;#ChapelHillNC #StudentMovement #News #SDS #UELocal150 #NC9598 #InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;sharingbuttons.io&#34;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/su0USTva.jpg" alt="Man talking in bullhorn." title="Man talking in bullhorn. Research Technician and UE 150 member Manzoor Cheema at the press conference condemning UNC&#39;s censorship of information on collective bargaining. \(Fight Back! News\)"/></p>

<p>Chapel Hill, NC – Campus and city workers, union organizers and students held a press conference at the university here, Sept. 13, to denounce University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill administration’s censorship of an article on collective bargaining. In June, an article that described the growing statewide movement for collective bargaining rights was cut from the University Gazette, an official publication distributed to all UNC workers. The North Carolina Public Sector Workers Union, UE Local 150, organized the press conference to demand the article be published.</p>



<p>Manzoor Cheema, a research technician at UNC and UE 150 member, said, “We need to put the pressure on Chancellor Moeser and the UNC Board of Governors. This censored article needs to be published immediately. Collective bargaining is a basic workers’ and human right and North Carolina is violating that right.”</p>

<p>UE 150, along with members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Student Action with Workers, demanded that UNC publish the censored article, issue a formal apology, and adopt a policy of non-interference in union organizing on campus. SDS member Tamara Tal said, “We call on students to join in this struggle against the blatant denial of workers’ rights. These workers drive our buses, clean our dorms and feed us everyday. This university works because they do. We as students need to support the workers in their internationally undisputed right to collective bargaining.”</p>

<p>North Carolina and Virginia are the only states in the U.S. that have laws denying public sector workers the right to collectively bargain with their employers. The North Carolina law, General Statute 95-98, was passed in the 1950s and is a holdover from the racist Jim Crow era. It was designed to hold down the growing trade union movement among African American workers, at a time when over half the public sector workers in the state were Black. Earlier this year the International Labor Organization found North Carolina in violation of international law because of the statute.</p>

<p>Ashaki Binta, coordinator for UE’s International Worker Justice Campaign, explained at the press conference, “We have a bill pending, House Bill 1583, to repeal this statute. We call on UNC to support that and to sit down across the table with workers in Chapel Hill to negotiate on the basic issues affecting their lives.”</p>

<p>The North Carolina legislature will take up the bill to repeal G.S. 95-98 in the summer of 2008. UE 150, along with the North Carolina NAACP and many other progressive organizations, is leading a major state-wide campaign to raise public support and put pressure on the politicians to repeal the statute.</p>

<p>Cheema explained, “We know what it’s going to take. We need a grassroots movement to empower rank-and-file workers and build community support to abolish General Statute 95-98.”</p>

<p>He continued, “Here at UNC, outreach to students can help shift the balance of power in our favor. Students should understand the pain and troubles of workers. UNC is a good school and they have many classes on labor rights and poverty issues – but students need to go beyond textbooks and see the reality for workers on this campus.”</p>

<p>In the coming weeks, UE 150 will continue to build up momentum by holding a town hall meeting to address the issue of collective bargaining in North Carolina and the struggle to repeal G.S. 95-98.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/NNqKSutW.jpg" alt="Students on front a banner." title="Students on front a banner. Members of Students for a Democratic Society and Student Action with Workers chanted \&#34;Down with censorship, Up with collective bargaining!\&#34;, held signs and spoke in solidarity with UE 150 and the campus and city workers of Chapel Hill. \(Fight Back! News\)"/></p>

<p><a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:ChapelHillNC" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">ChapelHillNC</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:StudentMovement" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">StudentMovement</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:News" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">News</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:SDS" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">SDS</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:UELocal150" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">UELocal150</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:NC9598" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">NC9598</span></a> <a href="https://fightbacknews.org/tag:InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign</span></a></p>

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      <guid>https://fightbacknews.org/uncue</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:38:45 +0000</pubDate>
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