Baldemar Velasquez, the president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, a union that represents tobacco farm workers in North Carolina and the American South, said “We’re back again for our eighth year,” Velasquez said. “We’ll keep coming back until Reynolds American decides to really do something about the conditions farm workers endure in North Carolina tobacco fields.”

The delegation going inside the meeting is expected to focus on the three areas FLOC has been broaching with the tobacco industry: reliance on human trafficking for their labor supply on contract farms; squalid conditions found in the labor camps; and the state of fear of retaliation for workers who complain about these abuses.

Velasquez believes that only when migrant farm workers have a recognized worker organization can their complaints about their working and living conditions be effectively addressed. He wants Reynolds American put into practice the company’s commitments to human rights and sign an agreement guaranteeing freedom of association on their contract farms. After nearly three years of discussions Reynolds American has yet to sign an agreement with FLOC.

Velasquez said, “It took us five years just to get a meeting and we’ve been waiting for nearly three years for a signed agreement. How many more years will it take before Reynolds American signs an agreement with FLOC guaranteeing freedom of association on their contract farms?”

#WinstonSalemNC #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #AFLCIO #immigrantRights #NorthCarolina

Raleigh, NC – Chants of “Free, free Palestine!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” rang out at the North Carolina Capitol grounds today, July 19, as about 250 people rallied to protest the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza. Many protesters waved Palestinian flags and distributed leaflets to passersby.

So far over 300 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli assault on Gaza. Among the dead are dozens of children.

Speakers at the rally denounced Israel's siege of Gaza and the U.S. support for the occupation. They spoke out in solidarity with the people of Palestine. “I will not apologize for the right to self-defense,” one speaker emphasized as the crowd cheered. “We should never forget we have a right to resist occupation.”

Organizers with the Justice for Rasmea Odeh campaign (http://www.stopfbi.net) collected petition signatures and distributed information to people at the protest, many of whom were outraged at the government's prosecution and committed to support the campaign as the trial approaches on Sept. 8 (http://www.stopfbi.net/events/9-8-14/all-out-detroit-defend-rasmea-odeh).

#RaleighNC #Raleigh #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #Israel #NorthCarolina #RasmeaOdeh #MiddleEast

Asheville, NC – On Aug. 8, protesters gathered in downtown here, to rally for an end to the attacks against women and against abortion restrictions in North Carolina. The event was organized by WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend).

Protesters chanted, “When women's rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!” referencing the latest abortion restrictions in North Carolina that were first snuck into an Anti-Sharia Law bill, then ultimately added to a Motorcycle Safety Bill.

Emily Parker, an organizer with WORD, spoke saying, “The war on women is apparent. Right now in North Carolina you cannot receive an abortion procedure. Although it is not technically illegal, there are no clinics for one to go to. Femcare in Asheville is being pushed around by right-wing bullies who don't want women to have the right to choose.”

Protesters rallied in support of Femcare, the only abortion provider in western North Carolina which was recently shut down for nearly 24 health and safety violations. This was a clear politically-motivated attack against women. Several protesters noted that the violations don't seem to be serious and that it was very suspicious that they should be inspected and closed right after this bill was passed.

“Femcare has been safely serving this city since 1985. Their staff is nothing but kind and helpful. Their facilities are nothing but safe and sanitary. Femcare has never had an infection since it has opened. Thanks to the new restrictive abortion bill, they are being forced to temporarily shut their doors even though they would've been the last remaining clinic in the state. The North Carolina government says these new laws will ensure women's safety but in reality they are causing women physical harm and hardship,” Parker said.

Protesters marched through downtown Asheville carrying signs that read “End the war on women,” and “We won't go back, we'll fight back!”

#AshevilleNC #PeoplesStruggles #abortion #NorthCarolina #feminism #WomensRights #AbortionBan #Rally #WomensLiberation

Fight Back! interviewed Sarah Buchner, a call center worker at SITEL Corporation in Asheville, North Carolina. The New South is notorious for low-wages and big corporations calling all the shots, but brave new leaders like Buchner are arising to organize unions. Their yearlong struggle for respect, better benefits and good wages is gaining power and impacting the local area.

Fight Back!: Tell us about SITEL and your job.

Sarah Buchner: SITEL outsources calls for Fortune 500 companies, with 29 call centers in the U.S. and many more overseas in 25 countries. In Asheville, SITEL handles calls for two major U.S. banks and a health insurance company. I take phone calls for the health insurance client, helping small employers and consumers with their billing. We are evaluated on a number of things, such as following a script and how quickly and accurately calls are documented. We are under a lot of pressure and constantly monitored.

Fight Back!: Please describe the conditions, wages, and benefits.

Buchner: The turnover rate at SITEL is outrageous. It doesn’t have to be, but people leave for better jobs. That is the basic reason we want a union, to have good jobs. Politicians championed SITEL as a major job creator in 2010 with 600 workers, but numbers are down. There are lots of empty seats in our work area now.

Workers start at $8.00 an hour and top out at $9.50. At six months we are offered healthcare plans that are costly, with a high deductable. At $9.50, it takes four hours of work to cover the co-pay for one doctor visit. Many just can’t afford it. SITEL also offers a 401K-retirement account. I recently received a letter from the company explaining, “this chart assumes a $30,000 annual salary.” This is a slap in the face. Working full time, I make about two thirds of that. I’m not even on the chart.

The Friday in between paychecks is dubbed “Broke Friday.” Many workers are on food stamps because SITEL refuses to pay a living wage. SITEL’s solution to this is a “food pantry” that they encourage us to donate to as a resource for our co-workers.

Fight Back!: What sparked the struggle to unionize in Asheville?

Buchner: Things started in July of 2011 with a management memo announcing the switching around of the men and women’s bathrooms, to construct more men’s. The restrooms are on each end of a very long building with cubicles to seat hundreds of workers between them. On the left side, women were reduced from eight stalls down to one stall and two urinals. This situation dragged on for months, and many women, some with disabilities, were losing their 15-minute breaks because of the long distance to use the other bathroom. They got upset enough to start a petition. One worker contacted the IBEW union Local 238 and they filed an unfair labor practice against SITEL. Management then threatened to fire employees for standing up to them and voicing legitimate concerns.

SITEL immediately hired a union-busting law firm from South Carolina, Ogletree Deakins. Management began holding small anti-union meetings with all employees, giving them an unsigned memo. Part of it reads, “There is nothing that a union could deliver that can't be obtained by open and frank discussion between the Company and our employees. We have a real open door policy that works. My door and all management doors are always open.” Still people begged management to fix the bathroom situation and were ignored, until May of 2012. Almost a year! So we learned the only way for workers to achieve dignity and respect is to organize and take a seat at the table with one voice. SITEL knows this, and is doing everything in its power to spread misinformation and fear.

Fight Back!: What are the demands of the workers?

Buchner: Our demands are for higher wages, better benefits, and dignity and respect. We deserve to be treated as individuals with different abilities and needs. Instead management views us as a number on spreadsheet, reprimanding us about our call statistics and for spending too much time trying to help our callers. We have very little opportunity to advance and be recognized for our dedication to the work we do. With the bathrooms, SITEL management was not taking us seriously until we came together to stand up for our rights, which is exactly what unionizing allows employees to do.

Fight Back!: What are the latest developments in this campaign?

Buchner: Management is increasingly hostile, removing union literature from people’s desks. A new policy limits workers to five personal items. This includes books, magazines, and photos of families and friends, even children’s artwork. It is worse in other areas, where not even magazines are allowed.

Sometimes we feel like verbal punching bags. We take stressful calls from customers who are unhappy about a fee or a rate increase and having these little comforts on our desks can make a big difference. Employees are growing angrier, realizing that SITEL does not have our best interests at heart. The IBEW union has filed several unfair labor practice claims against SITEL and there will be hearings in August. One alleges SITEL maintains and enforces an illegal social media policy.

Fight Back!: North Carolina has few unions – how does this impact your organizing?

Buchner: We are in the South. I’ve had dozens of conversations with people who do not know what a union is, but that is changing. Some even thought unionizing was illegal in North Carolina. I grew up here and did not learn about unions until I attended college. It is something that was glossed over in high school and the perception of unions boils down to what people hear in the corporate media. It is a real challenge to combat this, but more and more of our coworkers join the union drive and have a positive outlook. It is exciting! They are realizing that alone they must accept the current working conditions and wages, but united we can have a voice to rival even a giant company like SITEL. There is power in a union!

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Organize-Sitel-Asheville/155407664576975

#AshevilleNC #SITEL #callCenters #unionOrganizing #IBEW238 #InternationalBrotherhoodOfElectricalWorkers #NorthCarolina

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression condemns the sentencing last week of three young Muslim men in North Carolina to between 15 and 45 years in prison each. Before sentencing, the judge noted that she had received hundreds of letters in support of the three men urging her to hand down the minimum sentence. Despite this, Ziyad Yaghi, Omar Aly Hassan, and Hysen Sherifi received nearly maximum sentences for a 'terrorism' case. Even the LA Times was critical because “prosecutors named no targeted victims...places, times or dates of attacks.”

At no time was a specific plot to harm anyone presented to the jury. Instead the U.S. prosecutor focused on the ideas held by the defendants. This includes opposition to the Iraq war, and verbal support for the Iraqi resistance in the case of Omar Aly Hassan, as well as on their Islamic faith. The U.S. Prosecutor said “corrupted ideology was the substance of the conspiracy” and that the defendants intended to wage “jihad”.

Jurors were visibly confused and misled during the proceedings. During the trial, transcripts of audio recordings were presented to the jury, much of which was in Arabic or in English with some religious terms used. Playing just two minutes of audio recordings sometimes required 20 minutes of translation and explanation of Islamic terminology. The paid federal informants were often the ones translating terms for the jury, even though many of these terms, like “jihad” for example, have multiple and complex meanings and interpretations.

Over 900 footnotes were in the transcript to translate these terms. There were no Muslims among the mostly white jury in one of the more conservative counties of North Carolina.

During the trial, prosecutors focused on inflammatory remarks made by the defendants in posts to Facebook and other social media. The defendants expressed regret at some of the posts made when they were teenagers. Before he heard his sentence Omar Aly Hassan said “I did make mistakes in my life, I did say some dumb things, but I am no terrorist.”

It is highly unlikely that non-Muslims would currently be convicted or sentenced to life in prison for making the same comments.

Preemptive prosecution, abusing the judicial system

Yaghi, Hassan, and Sherifi were tried and convicted thanks to the U.S. government's use of “preemptive prosecution”. Preemptive prosecution means the U.S. government will target individuals based on what they say or believe, rather than what they have done. Defense attorneys were unable to convince the jurors, who were at times sleeping and disinterested, that the evidence presented was well within the defendants' first amendment rights to free speech. Much of the evidence presented was from audio conversations between paid federal informants and other alleged co-conspirators. One defendant, Ziyad Yaghi, is not heard anywhere in the 750 hours of audio surveillance entered as evidence in the case; the Hassan family says that Omar Aly was not on any of the tapes either. Yet they are now imprisoned for decades.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression joins with other civil liberties organizations and the defendants' families in condemning the unjust conviction and sentencing. It is a horrible miscarriage of justice that condemns three young men to life in prison by playing up Islamophobia in the courtroom and an FBI and U.S. government intent on finding terrorists where there are not any.

Committee to Stop FBI Repression January 21, 2012

#NorthCarolina #NC #OppressedNationalities #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #Muslims #ZiyadYaghi #OmarAlyHassan #HysenSherifi #PoliticalRepression

Resistance in the U.S. to attacks on the public sector is growing.  Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is unleashing a major assault, seeking to take away collective bargaining rights from state and possibly all public sector workers, including threatening to call out the National Guard against worker resistance.

The labor movement and the students are fighting back.  Labor, including public and private sector unions held a rally in Madison at the State Capital, turning out 30,000 people, demanding that the Governor’s bill be defeated.

High school students throughout Wisconsin walked out of their schools to protest against this attack, which also affects their teachers and education. The Madison School Superintendent was forced to close the schools on Tuesday after 40 percent out of 2,600 members of the teachers union called in sick. The students see their actions as part of the growing struggles for people’s democracy that took center stage by the mass actions of the youth and workers in Tunisia and Egypt.

The U.S. South is been a bastion of right-to-work laws, denying public sector workers the right to collective bargaining.  Dr. Martin L. Kings lost his life supporting the struggle of the Memphis, Tennessee sanitation workers who were fighting for this right, which he saw as a next phase of the Civil Rights struggle.

North Carolina and Virginia have specific laws making it illegal for workers and state and local governments to bargain for union contracts. Most of these laws were enacted during the period of Jim Crow, when Blacks were denied the right to vote and had no representatives in Southern state legislatures. When the state and local governments deny their own workers this basic right, it sends a message to all workers in the region, that the governments are hostile to unions.

The lack of a concerted movement to organize public sector workers throughout the South based on a program that includes winning collective bargaining rights, has been a major factor weakening the few efforts to organize unions in the South.

The major restructuring of the core industries of the U.S. economy over the past 30 years, resulted in shifting more than 1/3 of the auto industry and other formerly unionized manufacturing to the South. There are more union members in the state of New York, than in all of the 11 Southern states combined.

The largely un-unionized South has undermined labor’s strength as a national movement.  Organizing labor in the South must be addressed, if the U.S. labor movement is to survive and be a powerful force for workers in the U.S. and global economy.

The economic crisis is increasing the competition between the states for industries and investments, in their efforts at economic recovery.  The unionized states outside of the South, in their efforts to shift more public resources to private corporations through privatizations, tax breaks and major incentives, are sharpening their attacks on public sector unions to compete with the Southern states and low wage labor internationally. Attempts to roll back collective bargaining are now occurring in Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, as well as Wisconsin. Right to work bills are pending in about a dozen Northern states. Public service jobs, wages and benefits are under attack just about everywhere.

National resistance to the attacks on public sector, must therefore link the struggles against attacks to eliminate existing public sector rights to collective bargaining, with the struggles of public sector workers concentrated in the South, who are denied this right.

The NC Public Service Workers Union UE-Local 150 has been in the forefront of the movement to repeal the ban on collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in North Carolina. Through its International Worker Justice Campaign, it has won a ruling from the International Labor Organization finding the U.S. and North Carolina out of compliance with international laws.

In addition to fighting for collective bargaining rights, UE150 is initiating campaigns for legislative and local government workers bill of rights, pressing to make the terms and conditions of public sector workers a part of the political agendas.

Public sector workers and unions throughout the South must form a Southern Alliance for Collective Bargaining Rights, to launch a region-wide movement.  The South must become a strategic battleground for the U.S. and international labor movement, demanding that the U.S. and the South comply with international human rights standards.

From Wisconsin to North Carolina, Virginia and throughout the U.S. South: Public Sector Workers Demand Collective Bargaining Rights Now!

#NorthCarolina #NC #UELocal150 #NC9598 #CollectiveBargaining #GovernorScottWalker #Wisconsin #NorthCarolinaPublicServiceWorkers

Traducción por Evette Cruz

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Cómo ha impactado la lucha de los recolectores de basura a otros trabajadores en el sector público de Raleigh? ¿Qué papel ha jugado el movimiento al revocar la ley NC 95-98?

Saladin Muhammad: Sí, trabajadores de la ciudad en otros departamentos han comenzado a participar en el sindicato. También lo han hecho trabajadores del estado. El sindicato de trabajadores de servicios públicos de Carolina de Norte, UE Local 150 lanzó la campaña internacional de justicia para los trabajadores en 2004 para construir un movimiento por los derechos de los trabajdores en negociar colectivamente y revocar la ley NC 95-98. La lucha actual le da atención a la huelga como una de las pocas opciones de los trabajadores cuando no hay derecho a negociar. Muchos aliados y fuerzas que en silencio han dicho que apoyan el derecho de negociar colectivamente han salido públicamente con su apoyo como resulta de esta lucha. Presentando nuestro caso a la comunidad ha sido una parte importante de esta lucha. Esta lucha ha podido limitar el asunto de la huelga como argumento utilizado por la gerencia en contra de los sindicatos.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Cuál es el significado de la lucha de los recolectores de basura en Raleigh dentro de la meta a largo plazo de organizar el sur?

Saladin Muhammad: Esta lucha ayuda a crear una alianza de labor, fé y comunidad como un frente unido para la justicia social con potencial de construir un movimiento democrático unido por justicia social y ecónomica y poder político para afro-americanos y trabajadores en el sur. La gente entiende la conección entre las condiciones de trabajo y la calidad de los servicios ofrecidos.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Qué viene proximamente en la lucha de los trabajadores de recoleción de basura?

Saladin Muhammad: El sindicato tendrá una reunión de trabajadores municipales para alentar a trabajadores de las ciudades en todo el estado para desarrollar un programa de acción estatal. Los foros están siendo organizados en varias ciudades en las próximas dos semanas titulados, “Insuficiente personal y pago, demasiado trabajo.”

#NorthCarolina #NC #AfricanAmerican #SaladinMuhammad

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?

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.

Fight Back!: What is the significance of the Raleigh Sanitation workers' struggle in the long-term goal of organizing the South?

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.

Fight Back!: What is next for the Sanitation workers struggle?

Saladin Muhammad: The union will hold a municipal workers' 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.”

#NorthCarolina #NC #AfricanAmerican #NC9598 #InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign #UE

Over a year ago I became aware of Andy Stern’s proposals for change within the AFL-CIO. At first I thought this was a good thing – to have discussion in the labor movement about our direction. For example, under both Sweeney and Stern there has long been a call to the international unions to put more resources into organizing. What seemed lacking was an examination of how organizing campaigns had been done in the past and what needed to be changed.

In North Carolina we tried to have a general discussion, but without real substance to the issues. The discussion stalled at the need for democracy and anger at Stern’s proposal for forced mergers between unions. The discussion that I wanted never happened, because there was nothing concrete in the SEIU proposal, other than the forced mergers, for people to latch onto and talk about.

As the months passed, other unions joined with Stern: UNITE HERE, the Laborers and the Carpenters. The Carpenters had already disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO and had a history of raiding other unions, collaborating with management and having a top down, corrupt leadership. When they came on board, some of us really began questioning what was going on. The sense of unease increased with the inclusion of the Teamsters.

Even coming to Chicago, I was hoping there’d be some kind of discussion, and there just wasn’t at all. The Change to Win Coalition (CTW) had submitted a number of resolutions, but when the CTW unions decided to boycott, that ended any hope for discussion. Without another side, the convention was dominated by anger at the CTW for splitting the labor movement and increased support for Sweeney to keep the labor movement together.

In talking with many other delegates it was very unclear what the differences were between the Sweeney camp and the CTW Coalition. There certainly didn’t seem to be the ‘irreconcilable’ differences stated by Stern that would cause a split. At the Convention there was much talk of why this unholy alliance and how much of a coalition was it really? The general sense was that each union had their own agenda, with the bottom line being money, power and ego.

The Central Labor Councils: CLCs

What was most positive to me from all of the convention were the rank-and-file members of the CLCs getting together every night to discuss what was happening. The councils had become much more active since the 1995 Convention. When Sweeney first came to power in 1995, plans were laid to build up the CLCs. For a while this happened. In our small council, we are all volunteers, so we really benefited from staff from Washington helping to set up programs, figure out budgets and plan educational events.

There were national conferences of CLCs. We were recognized for what we are – the grassroots of the AFL-CIO. But over time, the emphasis shifted from organizing and education of union members to ‘politics’ – Democratic Party politics.

Where the split will be felt most sharply is within the Central Labor Councils. They will be hurt by the disaffiliation of per capita dues but more hurt by the loss of members who are working together on organizing campaigns, living wage campaigns, campaigns to Save Social Security etc.

The disaffiliated unions (including now the United Food and Commercial Workers) stated that they wanted to remain involved in state federations and CLCs. Sweeney looked like the bad guy by saying that those unions can not be involved in CLCs. A resolution was passed by the remaining Executive Board to up their dues and give a portion of that increase to the state federations and CLCs most affected by the disaffiliating unions (read: “AFL-CIO wants to make it easier for those bodies not to take money from the disaffiliates.”). On the last day of the Convention the E-Board and Sweeney made it very clear, in a letter and remarks that, “You are either in or you’re out.”

The really bad part will be the raiding of other unions for their members; this has a history between SEIU and AFSCME in particular, where they have both fought over the same bargaining units. So much for ‘new’ organizing. This raiding only weakens the solidarity of the labor movement. At the convention it was announced that SEIU has already begun raiding an AFSCME unit in California, which in turn was payback for AFSCME raiding an SEIU unit in Illinois.

Small councils like Western North Carolina, big councils and state feds and rank-and-file workers in the whole country have a common experience of having been left out of the equation by the top officials. Now we are going to have to cope with this new situation. How will we unite labor when we’re no longer in one federation? How will we stop raiding? If there’s a strike, delegates at the convention pledged, “We’re union members, we’ll support any union on strike.” But if there’s no federation affiliation between two unions at an employer, will members of one federation cross the other’s picket lines?

Labor Unity in the Councils

I think that people in the CLCs are determined to stick together. Pressure is on the internationals to allow, if not affiliation, at least participation with the labor councils. We want the money, but we also want members. Some locals send a check in every month, but they don’t send anybody as delegates. You have money, but what can you do without people?

#NorthCarolina #NC #Commentary #AndyStern #AFLCIO #CentralLaborCouncils

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?

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.

Fight Back!: What is the significance of the Raleigh Sanitation workers’ struggle in the long-term goal of organizing the South?

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.

Fight Back!: What is next for the Sanitation workers struggle?

Saladin Muhammad: The union will hold a municipal workers’ 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.”

#NorthCarolina #NC #Interview #Interviews #AfricanAmerican #WorkersAndGlobalization #SouthernLaborMovement #UELocal150 #UELocal160 #NC9598