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

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.

#CharlotteNC #ImmigrantRights #News #UE1110 #ChicanoLatino #UELocal150 #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #BankOfAmerica

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.

The petition demanded that Bowles overrule the UNC-Chapel Hill administration’s censorship of an informational article on collective bargaining that was slated to appear last summer in the University Gazette, an official newsletter of the university. The article was submitted by the university’s Employee Forum as part of their regular yearly contribution to the Gazette, but was cut by the editors on the grounds that it was an “opinion piece.” Union organizers, workers and students say it was deliberately censored in order to suppress the growing movement among workers at the university for union recognition and collective bargaining rights.

Speaking at a press conference outside the General Administration office, Barbara Gear, a transit worker and member of North Carolina Public Service Workers Union (UE Local 150), said, “We’re here to speak up. A lot of people don’t even know what collective bargaining is. Where I work, everyone is afraid. We live in fear that we’ll get fired for union talk, for being around union organizers. Things are real bad, but everyone’s afraid, no one wants to lose their job.”

Gear continued, “I’m speaking out because it’s got to start somewhere. We have to get together to stand up for our rights. Working to build the union, that’s our main task right now.”

The protesters demanded that the university administration apologize and sit down at the table with workers to discuss their needs. The petition also expressed the signatories’ strong “support for UNC and Triangle area workers in their struggles to exercise their right to collective bargaining and support the repeal of Jim Crow-era N.C. G.S. 95-98, which criminalizes that right for public workers.”

Domenic Powell, member of Student Action with Workers (SAW), said, “We refuse to tolerate the censorship of collective bargaining issues. It’s a violation of human rights. We’re demanding the reversal of the censorship and that the university administration promote, not censor, dialogue on collective bargaining.”

Activists from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE), and the Young Democrats endorsed the protest. Tamara Tal, graduate student member of SDS, said, “Petitioning allowed us to talk with hundreds of people – students, workers and community members. North Carolina has a racist law, G.S. 95-98, that doesn’t allow public sector workers to negotiate contracts with the state. Talking about the censorship raised a lot of awareness and the petition shows the broad support that exists for workers rights.”

Focusing on the next steps in the campaign, Tal said, “We’ll continue to grow and broaden ourselves as a movement. We have four student groups, town and university workers, UNC hospital workers and community activists all involved. We’re going to build these connections for the future so we can unite all those who want to fight for change and build the struggle.”

#ChapelHillNC #StudentMovement #News #SDS #SouthernLaborMovement #UELocal150 #UniversityOfNorthCarolinaChapelHill #NCGS9598

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

#ChapelHillNC #StudentMovement #News #SDS #UELocal150 #NC9598 #InternationalWorkerJusticeCampaign

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