AFL-CIO

Workers from all walks of life walked a picket line outside Rep. Renee Ellmers' (R-2nd) district office in Dunn, NC, today. We walked to remind the Congresswoman that North Carolina, like the rest of America, wants to work! Ellmers needs to focus on what matters - fixing our JOBS CRISIS. The top 1% can take care of themselves. We need Ellmers to represent the Other 99% for a change.

Occupy Wall Street has been an inspiration to me as it has been to many. Many people - tens of thousands of people - now feel empowered by the idea that, as Woody Guthrie sung to us, this land is our land, so we need not be afraid to occupy it, to take it back from the 1% who would steal it from the other 99% of us. So in that spirit, I want to share this video I put together for work.

Misplaced anger and missed opportunities:

Casting North Carolina as an anti-union bastion with "regressive policies aimed at diluting the power of workers," more than a dozen trade unions affiliated with the national AFL-CIO have told the Democratic National Committee that they will sit out the 2012 convention in Charlotte.

Right assessment, wrong response. You don't change the hearts and minds of people by absenting yourself; you make the biggest splash you can. And you damned sure don't leave your local affiliates out to dry:

This is a cross-post from AFLCIONC.org

Protesting GOP budgets which give to the rich, take from the rest

About three dozen North Carolinians who are fed up with calls by Republican leaders for everyone else to sacrifice so they and their corporate campaign backers can continue to sacrifice nothing walked a picket line outside the headquarters of the North Carolina Republican Party in Raleigh, on April 29.

Picketers carried signs that read, “Corporate Welfare: GOP Approved”, “Hands off my Medicare”, “GOP: No Millionaires Left Behind”, “GOP Loyalty: Wall St, not Workers”, and “Shame on Ellmers” – referring to U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-2nd).

With no apparent sense of irony, a representative of the NC GOP came outside during our picket and offered picketers some cake. Yes, you read that right. The Republican response to picketers upset by their immoral state and federal budgets which give to the rich by taking from the rest was, “Let them eat cake.”

Sometimes stories happen because of planning; other times serendipity intervenes, which is how we got to the conversation we’ll be having today.

In an exchange of comments on the Blue Hampshire site, I proposed an idea that could be of real value to unions, workers...and surprisingly, employers.

If things worked out correctly, not only would lots of people feel a real desire to have unions represent them, but employers would potentially be coming to unions looking to forge relationships, and, just to make it better, this plan bypasses virtually all of the tools and techniques employers use to shut out union organizers.

Since I just thought this up myself, I’m really not sure exactly how practical the whole thing is, and the last part of the discussion today will be provided by you, as I ask you to sound off on whether this plan could work, and if so, how it could be made better.

It’s a new week...so let’s all put our heads together and rebuild the labor movement, shall we?

James Andrews is the president of the AFL-CIO. He got us riled up at Monday's breakfast with a great speech. Then on Tuesday morning I heard him talking with a reporter. His answers were so good, I knew I had to get him on tape. Our interview went so well that it stretches 14 minutes. So I split it in two.

Watch the clips to hear his take on the impact of race on the issue and how we're going to engage white voters across North Carolina. He also asks me some great questions about how young people look at labor organizing, social security, and health care.

Here's the first video:

Part 2 is below the fold.

By Mark West
Larry Little is an avid basketball fan in general, and a huge UNC Tarheel fan in particular. He has videos of UNC games dating from 1979. In October Of last year, Larry got a rare opportunity to visit the hallowed halls of UNCs home court, the Dean Smith center. I was with Larry on that occasion, and I witnessed the excitement of his thrill of a lifetime. Larry was as giddy as kid on Christmas morning. The pictures on the walls in the hallway of the Dean Smith center came to life for him. I, not being as big of a fan, was Larry’s classroom and he was the instructor.

He tells me about this guy and that guy. “This is Michael Jordan” he says, he played on the 1982 championship team. This one played in 1987, here’s Julius Peppers who now plays football for the Carolina Panthers, “He played both basketball and football for UNC in 2000” Larry says, and “UNC went to the final 4 that year, what a great athlete Julius Peppers is” he says. In the trophy room of the Dean Smith center is where Larry took over one hundred pictures of the history of UNC basketball, including pictures of the bust of the great Dean Smith himself.