State Workers in NC Demand Raises, Safe Staffing, Housing and Healthcare, not Corporate Tax Breaks!

State workers who were on the front lines through the pandemic are frustrated at the current budget proposals coming from both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly. On August 12, over 100 people, including members of UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, marched with the statewide NC United for Survival and Beyond to demand a “People’s Budget.” The coalition of community, faith, local elected officials and labor organizations held a mock funeral procession and speak-out rally in the state capital highlighting the urgency of passing a budget that addresses the needs of the people.

Regional Presidents Tour Locals

As COVID-19 cases dropped in the early summer, and before the surge of the Delta variant in late summer, UE’s two elected regional presidents took the opportunity to get out and visit locals in person. Both regional presidents emphasized the importance of face-to-face contact in maintaining rank-and-file unionism. Western Region President Charlene Winchell said, “It was good to be back on the road,” and she praised “the hospitality that I felt from every local.” Eastern Region President George Waksmunski agreed. “It was very rewarding to get out there and see our members.”

Local 221 Contract Brings Over $100K in Wage Gains to VT Head Start Workers

A new agreement negotiated by Local 221 with Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA) will bring significant wage increases for workers at this Head Start agency which serves Vermont’s northeast counties, one of the poorest parts of the state. The most underpaid workers will see increases of up to 28 percent. Read more »

Local 222 Wins First Contract for Wallingford Food Service, Wage Increases for New Fairfield Custodians

Food service workers at the Wallingford school district were holding their first membership meeting as new Sublocal 92 of amalgamated UE Local 222 on March 12, 2020, when they learned that the schools they worked in were being closed for an indefinitely amount of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more »

FEATURE

75 Years Ago, NC Tobacco Workers Challenged Jim Crow with “Civil Rights Unionism”

September 5 marked the 75th anniversary of a National Labor Relations Board election that took place at the China American Tobacco Company in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was the first NLRB victory in eastern North Carolina for the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural & Allied Workers of America (FTA-CIO), part of a campaign that would bring nearly 10,000 tobacco “leaf house” workers, most of them African-American women, into unions. Read more »

Remembering September 11, 2001

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred as UE was preparing for our 66th convention. UE’s General Executive Board, meeting three days later, issued a prescient statement, stating that “As we mourn and as we rage, we also declare our resistance to efforts to use this tragedy to curtail our civil liberties or to engage in military adventures that can lead only to more carnage and senseless loss of life.”

On the opening day of the Convention, Gene. Sec.-Treas. Bob Clark placed a wreath in remembrance of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11 on the stage. It remained there throughout the week.

STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL EXECUTIVE BOARD ON THE TRAGIC EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 (Adopted Friday, September 14, 2001)

Like all Americans, the members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) are devastated by the mind-numbing loss of life caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. We share the sense of loss and violation, despair and outrage. We mourn as our nation mourns.

The horror visited upon our nation that Tuesday morning should never have happened; it should never happen to another people again, anywhere. Innocent people suffered deaths more horrific than could be imagined in nightmares. Many of the slain were union members, murdered at their place of work and on the job. With profound sorrow, we mourn our fallen brothers and sisters and express our solidarity with the families of the victims.

We condemn unreservedly the hidden, unseen, faceless killers who are responsible for this crime against humanity. We demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

We are resolved not to yield to Terry or to terrorists’ designs. Democracy is too precious. We continue with plans for our convention — the highest expression of our union democracy — with renewed commitment to freedom and solidarity. We shall not be stopped by cold-blooded, calculating killers.

And we shall not allow our grief and righteous anger to be polluted by hatred and bigotry. We recall with pride that weeks after Pearl Harbor, as UE mobilized to win the war for freedom, our union condemned anti-Japanese racism as fundamentally opposed to that great cause. Today’s war against the terrorism of an evil few must not be confused with attacks on an ethnicity or religion. Verbal slurs and physical assaults against our Arab-American and Islamic neighbors and co-workers must be countered, condemned and stopped.