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.
Charlotte, NC – Chanting, “The banks got bailed out, and the workers got sold out!” and “Bail out the workers and not the banks!” more than 20 people gathered here for a spirited rally in front of the Bank of America corporate headquarters. Called by UE Local 150, the action was in solidarity with the workers of UE 1110 who have occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago. Participants marched together into the office building to deliver a letter to Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America chairman and CEO, demanding that the Bank of America use some of the $25 billion bailout funds to provide credit to save the jobs at the Chicago plant.
Students and Workers Blast Censorship at UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC – A delegation of fifteen city and university workers, student activists and union organizers delivered a petition of over 500 signatures on Oct. 26 to the University of North Carolina System General Administration, charging that workers’ voices were being silenced at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The petition was addressed to Erskine Bowles, who is president of the UNC general administration, and who is responsible for all 16 state universities in North Carolina.
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.
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’ rights to collectively bargain.