Posts tagged North Carolina
Opinion: An educator is leading NC’s battered ranks of teachers to unionize
July 31, 2023 // After two years of pushing unionization as a volunteer, Mangrum has taken a part-time, paid consulting role with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second largest teachers union with 1.7 million members. Her job is to explore the union’s potential to organize a significant share of the state’s 94,000 public school teachers. “We have members across the state,” Magnum said. “Two years ago we didn’t have any.” Just how many, she wouldn’t say, but she allowed that it’s more than 100
Say No to Julie Su as Labor Secretary
July 25, 2023 // She also established a Criminal Investigation Unit, consisting of a specialized labor police force that would be deputized against businesses.
Kansas City, KS-based union in turmoil as execs head to court over president’s ouster
June 15, 2023 // The Kansas City, Kansas-based union filed a civil suit against three of its executives, requesting a temporary restraining order to prohibit the removal of International President Newton Jones after they issued a finding that Jones misused union funds for personal gain. Jones is refusing to step down, denying any wrongdoing and contending the officers had no authority to remove him. A hearing on the restraining order is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 20 in the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas. Chief Judge Eric F. Melgren, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, will hear the case. Jones, 69, also filed internal disciplinary charges against the three international vice presidents who removed him and another who brought forth the allegations, saying the four violated the union’s constitution. The remaining international vice president has sided with Jones against the others.
Boilermakers union president ousted after claims of ‘shocking’ corruption
June 7, 2023 // The action to remove Jones comes as a federal criminal investigation into the Kansas City-based union’s activities is underway, The Kansas City Star has learned. Several sources confirmed that they have been interviewed by the FBI in recent weeks. The union’s executive committee found that Jones ordered the union to pay his wife, Kateryna, more than $100,000 plus benefits “for apparently no union purpose while she was living in the Ukraine” and spent more than $20,000 in union funds for flights to Ukraine “to visit his wife and to go to the home which he owns in the Ukraine.” Jones and his wife also turned in about $40,000 in receipts for meals in North Carolina — some “quite lavish and expensive” — with no justification for the expenses.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders hosts rally in Durham to raise minimum wage
June 2, 2023 // Sanders addressed the crowd of supporters virtually because of the debt ceiling vote. Right now, the minimum wage in North Carolina is $7.25. Sanders hopes to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour. The rally to raise the wage tour will continue over the next couple of days and will make stops in Nashville, TN and Charleston, S.C.
REI Workers in North Carolina Go on Strike, Protest Unfair Labor Practices
May 5, 2023 // REI workers at a store in Durham, N.C. are going on strike to protest management’s response to their unionization efforts. Employees at the store filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on April 13 to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 1208. They said they are striking because of an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge they filed against management, citing “illegal discipline of workers who are involved in the union organization efforts,” a release said. According to a release, REI put an active union organizer on “‘administrative leave’ without clear information about his status.” The employees are also calling on management to “cease manipulating the election process.”
In NC, no worker has to join a union. My constitutional amendment will keep it that way.
April 21, 2023 // The ability to work freely without coercion is an integral part of our workforce ethos in North Carolina. We have been a right-to-work state since 1947, and the facts show that this status has benefited our workers and helped grow our economy. Right-to-work refers to the ability of workers to choose whether or not they want to join and pay dues to a labor union. In other words, workers are not coerced into joining a union by being required to pay dues as a condition of employment. Instead, people have the ability to choose whether or not they wish to join a union when seeking a job in which the employer is affiliated with a union. In the words of national labor expert F. Vincent Vernuccio, senior policy advisor with Workers for Opportunity, “Right-to-work simply means a union cannot get a worker fired for not paying them.”
50-state report: GOP-led states are in best economic condition
April 13, 2023 // “The states that followed the free market formula of keeping taxes low and keeping regulations limited, empowering workers, empowering taxpayers across the board are the fastest growing states in America,” Williams said.
Union of Southern Service Workers rallies at Labor Department to protest unsafe work conditions, deliver complaint
April 6, 2023 // The new Union of Southern Service Workers and affiliated workers staged a rally outside the U.S. Department of Labor’s downtown Atlanta office on Tuesday to demand stronger workplace protections and federal enforcement of safety regulations. About 50 USSW organizers and workers from Family Dollar, Waffle House and other companies converged on the Department of Labor’s office at 61 Forsyth St., before marching to Centennial Park.
Labor union wants more SC auto workers, manufacturers split on response
January 18, 2023 // The UAW has about 55,000 members working in the southern states — about 15 percent of union active members nationwide — building Daimler trucks in North Carolina, SUVs in Tennessee, and automotive and airplane parts in Alabama. About 2,500 members live in South Carolina, but most are retirees or surviving spouses. The number of working UAW members in South Carolina statewide is 364. Palmetto state’s lack of members is consistent with the state’s overall ranking of having the lowest percentage of unionized workers nationwide — just 2 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.