Today's Teamster News 10.29.15

TEAMSTERS
Port truck drivers and warehouse workers strike together for better wages and 'employee' status  KPCC  ...Truck drivers who haul cargo at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are on strike again this week - this time with some new comrades on their picket lines: warehouse workers. Workers from California Cartage, a warehouse at the Port of L.A., have joined striking truckers who drive for Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistics, creating the potential for disruption at two key links in the cargo supply chain...
CA Port Driver Strike Lingers  Go By Trucks  ...Drayage drivers for two trucking companies at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have entered their 15th week of striking. The drivers, who are classified as independent contractors for XPO Logistics and Pacific 9 Transportation, are seeking employee status. Teamsters and the organization Justice for Port Truckers are backing the strike...
Teamsters at Sysco Ratify New 3-Year Contract  Local 117  ...In the end, solidarity won the day. On Saturday, October 24, Teamster drivers and warehouse workers, employed at Sysco, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract. In contract negotiations, Sysco was proposing a two-tier system which would have divided the group and rolled back industry standards with respect to wages, health and welfare and seniority. But Teamsters at Sysco would not be pushed around...
Union Begins Coca-Cola Negotiations, Trades Initial Contract Proposals  Local 727  ...The Teamsters Local 727 Coca-Cola Bargaining Committee met with Coca-Cola representatives on October 28 to kick off new contract negotiations. Both the union and management traded initial, non-economic contract proposals. Economic proposals for wages, pensions and health and welfare will be forthcoming. After several hours of deliberations following the exchange, both sides agreed to reconvene on Thursday...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Provision On Trade Disputes Draws Criticism  NPR  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement the Obama administration is trying to sell to Congress includes a seemingly obscure and controversial provision. It's called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS among wonks. Under the system, cases are arbitrated by one of two bodies - the World Bank or a division of the United Nations. To date, the U.S. has been sued 17 times and won all its cases...
Froman tells UK: No to EU means no to trade deal  Politico  ...Michael Froman, U.S. trade representative, said the U.S. is “not particularly in the market for free trade agreements with individual countries.” The Obama administration has focused on wrapping up multilateral trade deals like TTIP (with the EU) and TPP (with Pacific partners). The Americans hope to finalize the deal with Europe before President Obama leaves office, an official said last week...
House uses rare procedure to revive Export-Import bank  USA Today  ...The House launched a rare effort Monday to circumvent Republican leadership in hopes of reviving the Export-Import Bank, which conservatives managed to choke off earlier this year. Business groups have pushed hard to renew the bank's charter. The bank provides loans and loan guarantees to allow foreign customers to buy U.S. goods and services...
Ontario mayors urge Trudeau to protect auto sector from TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...Fresh discontent is surfacing over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Canada signed in the dying days of Stephen Harper’s government. Mayors representing 20 Ontario cities, from Oshawa to Windsor, with a significant number of auto-sector jobs on Wednesday called on Mr. Trudeau, the prime-minister-designate, to protect their industry from being sideswiped by the TPP...
Greece’s Bailout Deal with Europe Is Starting to Show Cracks  Foreign Policy  ...The European Union’s agreement to provide Greece with the 86 billion euros, or $95 billion, bailout that Athens needs to stay solvent is beginning to show signs of strain, with creditors threatening to delay an October payment as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras struggles to implement promised austerity reforms...
Austerity cuts are causing mental distress and are linked to rise in suicides, health professionals warn  Independent  ...In the UK, suicide rates rose in 2011 and 2012. Men especially seem to be at risk: the male suicide rate is the highest it's been since 2001 and, for men between the ages of 45 and 59, the highest since 1981. After five years of austerity, families, charities, mental health professionals, campaigners and researchers have been highlighting what they regard as the profound effects on mental health...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
McCrory signs controversial immigration bill  Winston-Salem Journal  ...North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation Wednesday that targets “sanctuary cities” and immigrant identification, turning back pleas from advocates to veto a bill that they say harms immigrants and businesses that rely on immigrant labor. While protesters have been a constant presence at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh to urge McCrory to veto the measure, there were no protesters seen around the sheriff’s office...
Campaign to ditch workers' comp  Fort Stockton Pioneer  ...A series of new laws has cut workers’ compensation benefits, given employers and insurers more control over medical care, and made it more difficult for workers to qualify for coverage. But other than Texas and Oklahoma, no state has allowed companies to simply opt out. One Texas lawyer is helping companies opt out of workers’ compensation and write their own rules. What does it mean for injured workers?...
Can Fast-Food Work Ever Be A Decent Job? These Swedish McDonald's Workers Say Yes  Fast Coexist  ...What can a union do for low-wage workers? Comparing the lives of McDonald's workers in Chicago and Sweden shows the difference organizing can make. "Life is pretty hard right now," says KeJioun Johnson, a 20-year-old, part-time McDonald's cashier who lives with his single mom (a part-time bus driver) in government-subsidized housing...
Jersey City council expands paid sick leave law  NJ.com  ...Almost everyone working in Jersey City will be able to accrue paid sick leave, thanks to a measure adopted by the City Council tonight. The council in 2013 made the city the first in the state to mandate that most private employers provide their workers with paid sick leave. The council voted 7-1-1 to approve the measure (Ord. 15.145)...

U.S. LABOR
Michigan Transit Workers Fight To Prevent City Bus System From Eliminating Their Pensions  In These Times  ...For the drivers behind the wheel of this top-of-the-line fleet, not all is well: Grand Rapids bus drivers are without a signed union contract, because city officials want to cut their pension funds. One Rapid board member has called the current pension system a “terrible plan” and claims the board wants to “do better” for drivers, the board claims the pension fund is $2.6 million in the red. The drivers disagree...
UAW-GM workers set to vote on agreement with 'significant gains'  MLive  ...In a proposed agreement with General Motors, the UAW touts "significant gains" for workers, though only voting will tell if the rank-and-file agrees with this sentiment. In the proposed deal, workers would have traditional wages within eight years. It's similar to an agreement reached with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles...
In Historic Ruling, NLRB Says Tucson Taxi Drivers are Employees  Market Watch  ...In a groundbreaking ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Tucson, Arizona, has determined that more than 200 taxi drivers employed by AAA Transportation/Yellow Cab are employees and are therefore eligible for union representation. The ruling is the first of its kind for taxi drivers...
When Bank Workers Occupy the Banks  The Nation  ....After about eight years of seeing Main Street households get owned by Big Finance, front-line bank workers are now trying to reclaim Wall Street, branch by branch. In Los Angeles, where communities are still reeling from the financial crisis, front-line bank employees, and activists last week occupied the lobbies of Wells Fargo and Bank of America and demanded fair terms for the customers and the workforce...
Workers Pay The Price For Amazon’s New One-Hour Delivery  Think Progress  ...Amazon’s one-hour delivery option launched in the Bay Area this week, but the workers behind the scenes of the “Prime Now” service say they’re paying a steep price to make the super-fast turnaround a reality.
Prime Now drivers are suing Amazon over pay that amounts to less than the California minimum wage. Drivers in the Los Angeles market make $11 an hour, but buy their own gas, insurance, and auto maintenance service...  
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Amid Flood of Dark Money, Groups Make Simple Request of FEC: 'Do Your Job'  Common Dreams  ...Decrying the unprecedented flow of so-called "dark money" into the U.S. political process, a coalition of civic and religious organizations, environmentalists, and academics on Tuesday submitted comments to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), calling on the agency to—put simply—do its job...
Criminalizing the Classroom: Inside the School-to-Prison Pipeline  Democracy Now  ...New York City has more than 5,000 police officers patrolling the city’s schools—that’s more than the combined number of school guidance counselors and social workers. Nationwide, more than 17,000 officers work in the school. What happens when students are arrested in the classroom?...
A GOP Debate Without a Winner—Or Much of a Point  The Nation  ...Donald Trump lost interest mid-way through the third Republican presidential debate. It’s a bad night for Trump when his most memorable line is a closing-statement claim of credit for negotiating a shorter debate: “I got it down to two hours so we can get the hell out of here.”  The billionaire contender’s disdain for the whole affair was appropriate after an empty night of whining about the media...
The Budget Deal Clears the House of Representatives  The Atlantic  ...The final major vote of John Boehner’s drama-filled tenure as House speaker turned out to have very little drama at all. A bipartisan majority in the House on Wednesday afternoon easily approved the two-year budget agreement that Boehner negotiated with fellow congressional leaders and the Obama administration. The vote was 266-167...
Immigrant Women Launch Indefinite Hunger Strike, Asking To Be Freed From Detention Center  Think Progress  ...Detained women seeking asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief began an indefinite hunger strike at an immigration detention center in Texas on Wednesday night, sending hand-written letters to the federal government calling for their release. At least 27 immigrant women refused dinner on Wednesday at the T. Don Hutto detention center...

Court ruling on Texas voter suppression is a positive step

Texas lawmakers tried to silence the voices of thousands of their residents at the voting booth. They've created rules that disproportionately impeded minorities, poor, elderly and young people. But last week a federal appeals court let the state know its voter suppression efforts went too far.

The Lone Star State jumped quickly to alter its rules after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in 2013 that curtailed enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Even though experts have repeatedly stated that illegal voting is an insignificant issue trumped up by elected officials with their own political agendas, the Texas Legislature decided to disenfranchise some 600,000 people in the state anyway.

As The New York Times explained:

The case is one of a few across the country that are being closely watched in legal circles after a 2013 Supreme Court decision that blocked the voting act’s most potent enforcement tool, federal oversight of election laws in numerous states, including Texas, with histories of racial discrimination. 

While the federal act still bans laws that suppress minority voting, it has been uncertain exactly what kinds of measures cross the legal line since that Supreme Court ruling.

The Texas ID law is one of the strictest of its kind in the country. It requires voters to bring a government-issued photo ID to the polls. Accepted forms of identification include a driver’s license, a United States passport, a concealed-handgun license and an election identification certificate issued by the State Department of Public Safety.

Another case is currently being heard in federal court in North Carolina, where state lawmakers also instituted draconian voting requirements against their own residents. Plaintiffs in North Carolina NAACP v. McCrory are rightfully questioning the trimming or eliminating measures that had been adopted over the previous 15 years in an effort to help boost electoral participation by minority and younger voters in North Carolina.

The Texas ruling is a step in the right direction, but is still far from settled given that a lower court judge will be tasked with deciding whether the state "acted with discriminatory purpose." What is truly required is a process that allows all qualified voters to go to the polls and carry out their constitutional rights, instead of letting lawmakers try to monkey wrench the proceedings.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Our elected officials shouldn't be making a mockery of it.

Turning the tide on voter suppression

Voting rights is a key issue of our time, challenging democracy and the ability of the American people to participate in the electoral process as guaranteed under U.S. law.

N.C. residents took to the streets against voter suppression.

Many states in recent years have approved rules that tamp down on the ability of particularly minority voters to make it to the polls. An ongoing federal lawsuit challenging restrictive voter suppression rules approved by North Carolina lawmakers in 2013 stands as one of the leading examples of how legislatures across the country have tried to tip the scales toward a more corporate-friendly landscape.

As part of North Carolina NAACP v. McCrory, plaintiffs are rightfully questioning the trimming or eliminating measures that had been adopted over the previous 15 years in an effort to help boost electoral participation by minority and younger voters in North Carolina.

It appears even some of the proponents of those changes have had a change of heart in regards to the provisions they enacted two years ago. Gov. Pat McCrory (R.), for instance, recently signed into law changes that lessened the identification requirements to vote.

Efforts to defeat voter suppression or even make state laws less restrictive are actually on the rise, according to a panel that discussed the issue at the Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix last week. In fact, DeNora Getachew, campaign manager and legislative counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, said four times as many bills to expand voter rights were introduced in 2014 than to restrict them.

The trends we have seen ... is that the trend is actually in favor of increasing access to voting.

Participants from Nevada, Oregon and New Mexico discussed how building coalitions were essential to their efforts either to defeat stricter voting rules or to get measures passed that made it easier for state residents to cast a ballot. And in some instances, the results were truly monumental. In Oregon, for instance, the state earlier this year approved automatic voter registration.

The Teamsters have been active for years in registering union members to vote. That is the way this country makes sure the voices of all Americans are heard. Oregon is doing that. North Carolina isn't. Others need to follow the more inclusive model.

The amorality of R.J. Reynolds, ALEC member

Yesterday's demonstration for morality in Asheville, NC

The shameful treatment of tobacco workers for R.J. Reynolds, ALEC member, recently reduced two members of the British Parliament to tears. They saw men doing grueling work for $7.25 an hour, living in squalid shacks with out hot water or flush toilets. They heard of the sexual abuse women endured just to keep their jobs.

They were touring North Carolina's tobacco fields with U.S. Rep. (and good Teamster friend) Marcy Kaptur. This is what they saw, according to Kaptur in the Nation:

During my visit, I found workers who labor eleven hours a day under grueling conditions at high season for $7.25 an hour. As many as twelve men sleep jammed inside ramshackle, dilapidated trailers or barracks. There is no hot water, no decent laundry facilities, no air-conditioning, substandard electrical and gas wiring, and flush toilets are a luxury. I saw injured workers, including one man who had lost part of his index finger in a work accident, who lacked basic protections and health care. I heard women testify of the sexual abuse they face to secure work and pay, but still they and their children live in squalor in the richest nation in the world. 

My counterparts in the British Parliament, Ian Lavery and Jim Sheridan, were also shocked by what they described as human rights violations. Mr. Lavery said rapists and murderers have it better in prison than many of the tobacco workers in Carolina. Both he and Mr. Sheridan broke down in tears more than once at what they witnessed. 

As my compatriots emphasized, these workers are making only small requests: to establish a guest worker program to end the human trafficking, to end the squalor workers now live in because of poverty wages and to ensure channels of redress without fear of retaliation. We came away with the realization that Americans and the world will not tolerate this level of injustice; they will work to correct it, but these injustices must be brought to light through awareness. 

R.J. Reynolds is a major supporter of ALEC, which seeks to control state politicians and plunder state treasuries. ALEC-allied politicians in North Carolina got control of the lawmaking process in 2012 and immediately passed laws that gave more money to the rich, less to the poor, cut education funding, cut unemployment benefits and made it harder for people who aren't Republicans to vote.

The Rev. William Barber sees a moral crisis in North Carolina. He is leading the Moral Monday movement to bring justice and morality to the state. Last year, Barber began more than 60 weeks of Statehouse demonstrations that resulted in more than 1,000 people arrested for civil disobedience -- and volunteers who are trying to register 50,000 new voters.

Yesterday, Barber led a demonstration of 3,500 in Asheville, urging people to vote out extremist politicians. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times,

The crowd on Monday was about 3,500, according to a police estimate...(Barber) fired up the crowd with a speech that hit many of the themes of the speeches he has given across North Carolina in the last year... 

Barber said lawmakers are hurting schools and children by not adequately funding education. They have taken away rights through sweeping restrictions on how people vote, he said. They have raised taxes on working people and cut taxes for the rich and corporations, he said...
Barber urged every person at the rally to register 10 to 15 new voters. 

"Today is not just Moral Monday but it's the moral march to the polls," he said. "We must blow the minds of MSNBC and CNN when November comes. We must make them say we ain't never seen nothing like this before. It's time for the new South to rise again."

Rev. William Barber, the Moral Monday preacher who found his legs

When he was in his 20s, the Rev. William Barber contracted a painful form of arthritis that prevented him from walking for 12 years. But he found his legs again, learning to walk and to lead North Carolina citizens in the historic Moral Monday protests.

Mother Jones profiled Barber in April:

When he was in his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful arthritic condition affecting the spine. Still wearing his long black robes, the 50-year-old minister recounted how, as he'd proclaimed in a rolling baritone from the pulpit that morning, "a crippled preacher has found his legs."

In 2012, extremist Republicans took control of North Carolina's Legislature. They already had the governor's office. They began to pass laws that gave more money to the rich, less to the poor, cut education funding, cut unemployment benefits and made it harder for people who aren't Republicans to vote.

"That's when a group of us said, 'Wait a minute, this has just gone too far,'" Barber said. He believed we needed to kind of burst this bubble of 'There's nothing we can do for two years until the next election.'"

On the last Monday of April 2013, Barber led a modest group of clergy and activists into the state legislative building in Raleigh. They sang "We Shall Overcome," quoted the Bible, and blocked the doors to the Senate chambers. Barber leaned on his cane as capitol police led him away in handcuffs. 

That might have been the end of just another symbolic protest, but then something happened: The following Monday, more than 100 protesters showed up at the capitol. Over the next few months, the weekly crowds at the "Moral Mondays" protests grew to include hundreds, and then thousands, not just in Raleigh but also in towns around the state. The largest gathering, in February, drew tens of thousands of people.

In a recent speech to the American Federation of Teachers (shown above), Barber recounted some of the success of the 62 straight weeks of protest. The Moral Monday movement has broken out in nine other states. Fifty young people are organizing and registering voters in 50 North Carolina counties with a goal of 50,000 new registered voters in 10 weeks.

Barber and his moral agenda have changed public opinion. Gov. Pat McCrory's approval rating has fallen to 39 percent with disapproval at 45 percent. A majority of North Carolinians, Barber said, disagree with using public money for vouchers. Most would rather give pay raises to teachers than cut taxes, most disagree with voter suppression and most oppose tax breaks for the wealthy.

Barber describes his appeal as moral. "In this moral crisis we need a moral movement. not a Democratic or Republican movement," he says. He frequently quotes Martin Luther King, Jr.:

 If you ignore the poor, ignore health care and education and living wages, one day the whole system will collapse and implode...the costs are too high if we don't address systemic racism and extremism and poverty It cost us the soul of our nation. Every time we fail to educate a child on the front end of life it costs us on the backside of life.

Here's what else Moral Monday has accomplished:

• 62 straight weeks of Moral Monday, 120 actions
• 1,004 people arrested in statehouse for civil disobedience, more than any time in U.S. history
• 80,000 showed up in Raleigh in winter, the biggest march since Selma in 1965
• 50 young people organizing in 50 counties registering 50K new registered voters in next 10 weeks
• 1,000 clergy came together
• Labor unions, civil rights groups, environmentalists, immigrants and women working together.

"We are showing people there is higher ground," Barber said. "We need a conversation that understands that some issues are not just  policy issues, they're not left vs. right issues, they are the centerpiece of our deepest tradition, our faith, our values and our sense of what is right."

Today's Teamster News 07.10.14

Teamster News
Buy American: It Makes Dollars And Sense  Detroit News   ...a proposed 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal could take away the federal government’s ability to enforce a law allowing it to favor American companies when purchasing goods...
Chelsea City Employees Get 2 Percent Raises, City Manager's Contract Extended  Chelsea Standard   ...Police Officer's Association of Michigan (POAM) and Teamsters Local 214 recently negotiated with the city, in closed sessions, and have reached collective bargaining agreements for fiscal year 2014-15...
Truckers Strike Briefly Shuts 4 Terminals At L.A., Long Beach Ports  Los Angeles Times   ...On Tuesday picket lines moved to some port terminals ... In a brief escalation of the day-old strike, dockworkers walked off the job at the Evergreen, APL and Yusen terminals in Los Angeles around 9 a.m., and at the Long Beach Container Terminal an hour later...
Labor Dispute Briefly Shuts LA, Long Beach Ports  Grand Island Independent   ...Nearly 1,000 dockworkers briefly walked off their jobs Tuesday at the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, disrupting the movement of international cargo before a mediator ordered them back..
Union Workers Picket Outside EVSC Administration Building  WTVW  ...Teamsters Local 215 members take an old school approach to grab attention and a few honks...
GET Drivers Poised To Strike Next Week  Bakersfield Californian   ...Bakersfield public bus drivers are poised to walk off the job Tuesday unless there is a breakthrough in labor contract negotiations. Members of Visalia-based Teamsters Local #517 voted Sunday to authorize a strike, half a dozen drivers with Golden Empire Transit District said...
Teamsters locals sued over ‘illegal strikes’  Post-Tribune   ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 142 in Gary and Local 179 in Joliet, Illinois, used several strikes in 2012 to get Roberts Pipeline to use Teamsters members on its construction projects, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hammond...
Trade
U.S. International Goods and Services  Bureau of Economic Analysis   ...total May exports of $195.5 billion and imports of $239.8 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $44.4 billion, down from $47.0 billion in April,  revised... 
State Battles
Why is Wisconsin lagging other states on jobs? (opinion)  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ... well over 400,000 Wisconsin workers were forced to cut their spending significantly. Some of that reduced spending would have been on goods produced elsewhere ... But much of that reduced spending would have been on locally produced services — restaurant meals, trips to the Dells and hair salon appointments — reducing job growth in Wisconsin. That's where the job gap shows up — in about 30,000 fewer private service-sector jobs than expected, over the past three years...
Courtroom Drama: Voting Rights Paid for in Blood Under Siege in North Carolina  American Prospect   ...Glazier laid out how his Republican colleagues—with almost no study or debate—stripped away more than a decade’s worth of reforms that had dramatically increased ballot access for African Americans...
L.A. Hotel Workers Could Get $15.37 An Hour - The Highest Minimum Wage In The U.S.  CNN Money   ...Now, Los Angeles hotel workers might be outdoing them all with the country's highest minimum wage: $15.37 an hour, thanks to a new city ordinance that is expected to pass by Labor Day...
War On Workers
Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers  New York Times   ...Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials...
Corporate Tax Behavior So Bad Even Fortune Magazine Can’t Stomach It  American Prospect   ...There is “a new kind of American corporate exceptionalism...: companies that have decided to desert our country to avoid paying taxes but expect to keep receiving the full array of benefits that being American confers, and that everyone else is paying for...
Is wage stagnation keeping homebuyers away?  Housing Wire   ...In Atlanta, asking prices rose 15.7% while wages only rose 0.8%. In Bakersfield, California, asking prices rose 13.9% while wages actually dropped by 0.3%...
Is Uber Above The Law? Probably Not  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...The Virginia and Ann Arbor showdowns come amid an escalating series of legislative skirmishes on both sides of the Atlantic, with divergent results. Last week, Pittsburgh judges issued their own cease-and-desist instruction to Uber and Lyft, while a London agency rejected a complaint against the companies brought by taxi drivers, granting Uber a reprieve until courts rule on legal challenges to their operation later this year...
How Corporate Tax Cheats Still Get Billions In Government Business  Think Progress   ...Despite supposed bans on companies that move offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes getting federal contracts, more than a dozen large off-shored companies get more than $1 billion a year from government work, according to a Bloomberg News investigation...
Miscellaneous
NSA Spied On Five Politically Active Citizens, The Intercept Reports  Huffington Post   ...The National Security Agency spied on five American citizens despite a lack of any finding that they posed a threat to national security, The Intercept, an investigative outlet co-founded by Greenwald, is reporting Wednesday...
US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research  The Guardian   ...The activities of users of Twitter and other social media services were recorded and analysed as part of a major project funded by the US military, in a program that covers ground similar to Facebook’s controversial experiment into how to control emotions by manipulating news feeds...

Moral Monday protesters look ahead to November elections

Moral Monday Block Party! | June 23rd, 2014 from Eric Preston on Vimeo.

Fifteen people were arrested for civil disobedience in the latest Moral Monday protest (on Monday, of course) against the North Carolina Legislature's efforts to impoverish working people. According to reports, Moral Monday activists will turn their attention to getting out the vote for candidates who support working families.

After the arrests at the teach-in/pray-in/sit-in event, a block party broke out in front of the Capitol.

WFMY reported,

The NAACP says the latest arrests put the total number of people arrested since the "Moral Monday" protests started last year at over 1,000. 

This week's rally included a series of seminars in the halls of the Legislative Building just before the House and Senate went into session that focused on how to get people to the polls in November and organize local protest groups. 

General Assembly Police asked the protesters to leave shortly before the 15 arrests, saying the group was disturbing the business of the House and Senate.

Moral Monday activists object to the Legislature raising taxes on the poor and middle class while lowering them for the rich. They oppose new voter suppression laws, cuts to education, cuts to unemployment insurance benefits and weaker environmental protections. Their agenda comes straight from the playbook of ALEC, the corporate dating service for corporations and state lawmakers.

Moral Monday protests embarrassed North Carolina's lawmakers, so they tried to ban them after 900 activists were arrested last year. This year they passed a law letting police arrest anyone who poses a threat to create a disturbance. So just the possibility of an 'imminent disturbance' could get you arrested in North Carolina.

A state superior court judge temporarily suspended the law as overly broad. He schoolchildren were often the loudest visitors to the Statehouse.
The Moral Monday actually began in 2006. Campaign for America's Future explains:

The movement had its beginnings in 2006, when Rev. Barber and others, recognizing the need for a new form of “fusion politics,” began building the Historic Thousands on Jones Street movement (HKonJ)... 

“We recognized that many of the same political forces that are against, say, gender rights, are often also against education equality, environmental justice, and policies that help the poor,” Barber said, explaining the beginnings of the Moral Mondays movement.  “And so we said that we needed in North Carolina — and we said this is when Democrats were in office — to have a new form of fusion politics if we were going to really address the South...”

The new “fusion politics” fuses together political issues that are often seen and addressed as separate concerns. This “fusion” is reflected in the 14 point agenda of the HKonJ movement, which embraced issues like public education, livable wages, health care, voting rights, environmental justice, collective bargaining and workers’ rights in the context of “liberty and justice for all.” 

North Carolina tries to stifle dissent (VIDEO)

North Carolina's anti-worker Legislature is trying to severely limit protest outside the Statehouse, after hundreds were arrested last year for demonstrating against laws that raised taxes on the poor, lowered them on the rich, slashed education and suppressed voting.

The protests became known as the Moral Monday movement, and they undoubtedly embarrassed North Carolina lawmakers.

WNCN reports:

The new rules, which were changes to existing rules, were passed Thursday by the Legislative Services Commission. The committee had not met since 1999, and the rules had not been altered since 1987... 

Rep. Larry Hall, A Democrat and the House minority leader, said, "This is not regarding safety. This is limiting people's ability to have their voices heard." 

The new rules do not allow groups to "disturb, or create an imminent disturbance," at the General Assembly. 

They state that visitors may be asked to leave the Legislative Building if they are found to be disturbing "the General Assembly, one of its houses, or its committees, members, or staff in the performance of their duties."

The Rev. William Barber, who led the Moral Monday protests, said the protests will start next week even if the new rules are passed:

Barber said the protests will replicate last year's and arrests will be up to the Legislature's police. 

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Barber said,"Speaker Thom Tillis and the extremists he leads are attempting to undermine, stifle and stop the voice of the people." 

Barber said that courts would uphold the North Carolina Constitution, which states, "The people have a right to assemble together to consult for their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to apply to the General Assembly for redress of grievances." 

Barber said the new rules violate the First Amendment rights to free speech and are "highly offensive and prejudicial to African Americans, minorities, women, the poor, LGBT people and faith communities who have been historically criticized for being abnormal to the so-called mainstream of our country whenever they have chosen to protest."

NC cook fired for comment to anti-worker governor

Groveling governor. 

If Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein or one of the Koch brothers said, 'Thanks for nothing' to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, do you think they'd get fired?

Of course not. They'd probably get some sort of groveling response from McCrory, who is used to groveling to rich sociopaths. McCrory, after all, is a puppet of North Carolina one-percenter Art Pope.

Honest working-class people don't have the same protections wealthy crooks have. They are vulnerable to the whims of arrogant politicians and employers. Their path to wealth is blocked by the vagaries of a system stacked against them. When billionaire sociopaths like Sam Zell say poor people just have to work harder to get rich, they presume the playing field is level for everyone. It isn't.

The story of Drew Swope, a 45-year-old cook at Reid's Fine Foods in Myers Park, N.C., shows why wealth doesn't come to everyone who just works harder. McCrory came into Reid's Fine Foods and Swope, realizing who he was, said, "Thanks for nothing." McCrory's security detail complained and Swope was fired.

Here's why Swope is angry at McCrory: He signed bills into law that raised taxes on Swope while slashing them for billionaires; cut unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless; made it harder for working people like Swope to vote; and cut pre-K for 30,000 kids while shifting $90 million from public to corporate for-profit schools.

The Rev. William Barber, who has led the growing Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, had this to say about McCrory and North Carolina's anti-worker Legislature:

They’ve drank all the Tea Party they could drink and sniffed all the Koch they could sniff.

Dimon, Blankfein and the Koch brothers have done far, far worse than make snide comments to a sitting governor. Dimon, as JPMorgan CEO, and Blankfein, as CEO of the Great Vampire Squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money Goldman Sachs, nearly destroyed the global financial system through their recklessness and almost-certain criminality. Blankfein probably perjured himself before Congress. Dimon had to shell out $20 billion to settle accusations that JPMorgan defrauded clients. The Koch brothers' company, Koch Industries, sold oil equipment to Iran, stole oil from Indian reservations and was convicted of felonies three times in state and federal courts.

None of them is at risk of being imprisoned, let alone fired. 

Today's Teamster News 01.17.14

Trade leak feeds Democratic insurgency  Politico   ...Democrats in Congress are fuming over the leaked environmental provisions of a massive Pacific trade deal that would dwarf the North America Free Trade Agreement, casting further doubt on President Barack Obama’s trade agenda just as his administration kicks it into high gear...

U.S. Trade Representative Dodges Senate Fast Track Hearing  Public Citizen   ...with not a single House Democrat sponsoring the Fast Track bill, the GOP House leadership has insisted that the White House present a list of 50 House Democratic votes for the bill before a vote will be scheduled...

Teamsters Call On Gate Gourmet To Protect Workers  teamster.org   ...Gate Gourmet employees, D.C. Jobs with Justice, local faith leaders, and union representatives from the Teamsters and UNITE-HERE delivered a message to Gate Gourmet at its U.S. headquarters and GateGroup CEO Andrew Gibson on Thursday, calling on the company to provide a real wage increase and affordable health care for thousands of workers across the country...
Advocates for Workers Raise the Ire of Business  New York Times   ...new types of worker advocacy groups have sprouted nationwide, and they have started to get on businesses’ nerves — protesting low wages at Capital Grille restaurants, for instance, and demonstrating outside Austin City Hall in Texas against giving Apple tax breaks...
Wall Street Mega Banks Own Tankers, Pipelines, Utilities, Mines, Metal Warehouses – And That’s Not the Worst of It  Wall Street on Parade   ...U.S. bank holding companies owned 16 utilities; 479 insurance companies; 2,388 real estate firms; 1,682 healthcare and social assistance companies; and 5 mines. We know from more recent revelations that Wall Street’s largest banks own at least 104 metal warehouses with complaints coming from beer and soda manufacturers that these firms control the London Metal Exchange and are rigging the price of aluminum to the detriment of both the manufacturers and consumers...
Workers at an Amazon Warehouse Reject Forming a Union  New York Times   ...In the first unionization vote ever held at an Amazon facility in the United States, a small group of technical workers at the company’s warehouse in Middletown, Del., voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday against forming a union...
United Continental to furlough 685 flight attendants  Reuters   ...United Continental will furlough about 685 flight attendants, as the U.S. airline company looks to prune its expenses as part of a $2 billion annual cost-cutting plan announced last year...
Income gap poses biggest threat to global community, warns WEF  The Guardian   ...World Economic Forum survey identifies inequality as biggest flashpoint as well as extreme weather and unemployment...
Gov't Charges Wal-Mart With Labor Violations  Associated Press   ...Federal officials filed a formal complaint Wednesday charging that Wal-Mart violated the rights of workers who took part in protests and strikes against the company...
'I Had a Middle Class Job and I Still Ended Up on Food Stamps at 60'  AlterNet   ...Welcome to the new reality of the working poor...
Another Trade Unionist Murdered in Colombia - Demand Justice!  iuf.org   ...Ever Luis Marín Rolong, a regional leader of the SINALTRACEBA brewery workers union, was murdered on January 4 by unknown gunmen. The next day the President of SINALTRACEBA received death threats from paramilitaries. The Teamsters support the IUF campaign demanding justice for Ever Luis and an end to anti-union violence in Colombia. Click here to send a message to the Colombian government...
Mexico enacts soda tax in effort to combat world's highest obesity rate  The Guardian   ...Health officials in the United States look to Mexico's new law as an walexperiment in curbing sugar consumption...
Washington State Bill Proposes Criminalizing Help to NSA, Turning Off Resources to Yakima Facility  Truthout   ...the bill prohibits state and local agencies from providing any material support to the NSA within their jurisdiction. This includes barring government-owned utilities from providing water and electricity. It makes information gathered without a warrant by the NSA and shared with law enforcement inadmissible in state court. It blocks public universities from serving as NSA research facilities or recruiting grounds. And it bans corporations who continue to do business with the NSA from holding any contracts with the state...
My Doctor Can Disclose My Medical Records to the NSA Without My Authorization  Fire Dog Lake …And your doctors can disclose yours, too…
NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep  The Guardian   ...The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents...
The Malware That Duped Target Has Been Found   Wired   ...The malicious program used to compromise Target and other companies was part of a widespread operation using a Trojan tool known as Trojan.POSRAM...
You'll Be Shocked at What 'Surveillance Valley' Knows About You  AlterNet...   The most intimate details about a person’s life, packaged and sold over and over again to anyone willing to pay...
It's An Exceptionally Bad Time To Be A Recent College Grad  Huffington Post   ...Those sad stories of 20-somethings with college degrees toiling away at service jobs in restaurants, coffee shops and department stores are more than just colorful anecdotes. It's truly a terrible time for recent college graduates to find jobs, according to recently released data...
Goldman Sachs pay employees average of $383,000 after profits rise 5%  The Guardian   ...US bank's 32,900 global employees to hear size of individual bonuses, while fixed-income trading operation had fall in profits...
Judge Disallows Plan by Detroit to Pay Off Banks  New York Times   ...He ruled that Detroit could not proceed with a plan to pay $165 million to two big banks to extricate itself from some long-term financial contracts that have been costing the bankrupt city tens of millions of dollars a year. “It’s just too much money,” Judge Rhodes said...
North Carolina's poorest hit by federal cuts: 'Unless someone helps, we're bust'  The Guardian   ...As Congress wrangles with whether to restore long-term unemployment benefits, North Carolina is already experiencing the hardship likely to unfold unless the program is restored...
NC Republicans Raise Taxes on Working Families While Giving Huge Tax Breaks to Millionaires and Corporations  The Real News   ...residents with average incomes of nearly $1 million will receive a total tax cut of nearly $10,000, while the corporate tax rate will decline from 6.9 percent to 5 percent next year and could fall all the way to 3 percent if revenue goals are met in 2017...
Florida Isn't Apologizing For Lax Oversight At Abusive Youth Prisons  Huffington Post   ...The head of Florida's juvenile justice department defended her agency's oversight of private prison contractors before a state Senate panel on Wednesday amid allegations of violence and mistreatment inside the nation's third-largest juvenile corrections system...
Senators Raise Concerns About Fast Track at Hearing  teamster.org   ...Several Senate Democrats voiced opposition today to legislation that would allow a quick up-or-down vote with limited debate on proposed trade deals...

Today's Teamster News 10.17.13

Gov't reopens after Congress ends 16-day shutdown  Associated Press   ...The government reopened its doors Thursday after a battle-weary Congress approved a bipartisan measure to end a 16-day partial shutdown and avert the possibility of an economy-jarring default on U.S. obligations...
Government shutdown has cost US economy $1.5bn a day, S&P says  The Guardian   ...Ratings agency says impasse has shaved 0.6% off US GDP in the fourth quarter – equivalent to taking $24bn from the economy...
The Perpetual Budget Crises Have Already Cost 900,000 Jobs  ThinkProgress   ...The reliance on crisis-driven governing since the House changed hands in the 2010 elections has already cost 900,000 jobs, according to a study commissioned by the conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation...
South Dakota's cattle cataclysm: why isn't this horror news?  The Guardian   ...Ranchers in South Dakota lost tens of thousands of cattle from a freak storm. Thanks to the shutdown, no one is paying attention...
U.S. Standard of Living Index Sinks to 10-Month Low  Gallup   ...The index is a summary of whether Americans are satisfied with their current standard of living and perceive it as getting better or worse...
Greek union calls general strike for Nov 6   Associated Press   ...Greece's largest labor union has called a new general strike for Nov. 6, warning that unemployment has reached "nightmare" levels and that working rights are continually being eroded by austerity measures...
ILA Strike Closes Baltimore Port  Journal of Commerce   ...The Port of Baltimore closed Wednesday when International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike after voting down a proposed local contract with the Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore...
San Francisco Bay-area rail strike again averted; Morning commute to proceed as talks continue  Associated Press   ...San Francisco Bay-area commuters again waited late into the night before federal mediators announced late Tuesday that a planned rail strike would once more be delayed and contract negotiations would continue...
DHL, BP Sign Five-Year Freight Forwarding Deal  Journal of Commerce   ...DHL has signed a new, five-year agreement to provide global freight management and forwarding services for BP, the London-based oil and gas company...
‘Black Bloc’ anarchists emerging as a force amid unrest in Brazil  Raw Story   ...On Tuesday, they fought police in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo at the close of a march by striking teachers, hurling firebombs and tearing metal shutters from buildings to use as shields against police who responded with tear gas and pepper spray...
Group Says Haitian Garment Workers Are Shortchanged on Pay  New York Times   ...Garment factories in Haiti, the backbone of an effort to revive the country’s earthquake-shattered economy, have seriously shortchanged workers of their wages to keep costs of their T-shirts and other export goods low, according to a report issued by a labor rights group...
Fast-Food Giants Make Billions While Their Workers Use Billions In Welfare Benefits  AlterNet   ...Two new studies profile the worst employers in America...
UN Official Slams GOP as Shutdown Delays US Human-Rights Review  The Hill   ...A United Nations official tore into House Republicans this week after the government shutdown forced the Obama administration to postpone a long-awaited review of its compliance with its international human-rights obligations...
Outsourced Cities, Brought to You by CH2M Hill  Center for Media and Democracy ...When Wall Street collapsed the economy in 2008, one company was eager to buy public assets from cash-strapped governments. Across the country, for-profit companies are engaged in a hostile takeover of our schools, roads, prisons, drinking water, and even government itself...
JPMorgan paying $100M, admitting manipulation of prices in settlement over $6B trading loss  Associated Press   ...JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay a $100 million penalty and admitted that it “recklessly” distorted prices during a series of London trades that ultimately cost the bank $6 billion in losses...
Employers grapple with workplace safety amid new gun laws  Kansas City Business Journal   ...Offices around the nation are struggling with laws that allow employers to ban guns in the workplace, but not in the parking lot, The Wall Street Journal reports...
Calif. Governor Signs Prevailing Wage Bill  Reuters  ...Starting Jan. 1, 2015, charter cities in California will be required to pay prevailing wages for public works construction projects or face not receiving any state funding, according to Senate Bill 7 that was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday...
North Carolina is first state to cut welfare amid federal shutdown  Reuters   ...North Carolina has become the first state to cut off welfare benefits to poor residents in the wake of the partial federal government shutdown, ordering a halt to processing November applications until a deal is reached to end the federal standstill...
About half of Maidenform’s 1,330 employees to lose jobs in Hanesbrands deal  Winston-Salem Journal   ...Hanesbrands Inc. said it will close the New Jersey headquarters of Maidenform Brands Inc. as part of a large-scale merger of the two apparel companies, resulting in the loss of nearly half of Maidenform’s 1,330 global workforce...

Rural residents raise hell at Moral Monday protest

Scores of Moral Monday protesters came to tiny Yadkinville, N.C., last night to fight the repressive anti-worker policies approved by Gov. Pat McCrory and his legislative allies this year. The rally was the 19th such event held since late April. Nearly 1,000 people were arrested at weekly protests held in the state capital earlier this year.

Laid-off worker Philip Diehl addresses crowd at rally.

Jobs and education were again at the top of the agenda for demonstrators. Several said the event gave those living in rural North Carolina the chance to have their voices heard in Raleigh. They oppose decisions to cut unemployment benefits and public education and the failure to expand Medicaid coverage for 600,000 residents.

Philip Diehl, who was laid off his job with Freightliner Trucks, said workers are hurting while McCrory doles out fat salaries to his staff. Protesters are just trying to make a difference, he told the Winston-Salem Journal:

You are fed up with the way things are going. You are trying to peacefully change things.

Christopher Petree, president of the Yakin County Association of Educators, tweeted that the governor and the Legislature are motivating the public to action:

Shout out to the @NCLeg and @PatMcCroryNC for bringing out the activist in me. You all know how to rally the masses!

The event closed with a candlelight vigil to remember all state residents who have been damaged by the extreme policies approved by lawmakers this year.

Week after week, North Carolina residents are pushing back on an agenda crafted by state budget director Art Pope, a multimillionaire who helped underwrite the campaigns of Gov. McCrory and his cronies in the Legislature. It is largely modeled on the pro-corporate, anti-worker platform of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

And more demonstrations are expected. In addition to the ongoing Moral Monday events, North Carolina teachers are currently mulling whether to hold a statewide walkout Nov. 4 to protest policy changes and poor working conditions in the classroom.

Stay tuned.

Moral Monday protests gain momentum in North Carolina



Students took the lead on the march around the governor's mansion.

Two Moral Monday events drew more than 500 people who protested North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and his legislative allies for curbing voting rights, slashing education spending and refusing federal dollars to expand Medicaid. The rallies held yesterday marked the 18th week since late April that North Carolinians gathered to protest the state government’s actions. About 925 people were arrested during the demonstrations for nonviolent civil disobedience.

At a youth-led demonstration in Raleigh, some 250 people marched around the governor’s mansion to demand a roll back on the voter suppression and education cuts enacted in July. Some also carried three children’s coffins to honor the memory of four little African-American girls killed in a Birmingham, Ala. church bombing 50 years ago yesterday during the height of the civil rights movement in the South.

College students from around the area came to the protest to show they are concerned about the state’s future. They held signs reading “We will fight for our future,” “Reinvest in public education,” and “Take your hands off our voting rights.” Dylan Su-Chun Mott, a member of the University of North Carolina’s Student Power group, said students need to stand up and be heard:

[The UNC-system Board of Governors] is trying to tell us that the only thing we are in school for is to get jobs. … More importantly, we are learning to be fully participatory citizens in this, our great democracy.

Meanwhile, about 300 people gathered in the small town of Wentworth in north-central North Carolina. to protest education and Medicaid cuts. The event was held in the district of Senate leader Phil Berger.

Rev. Nelson Johnson of Greensboro’s Beloved Community Center said that Berger and other elected officials have forgotten the main purpose of government:

Mr. Berger, government and our democracy is supposed to work for the people and not against the people.

 Week after week, North Carolina residents are pushing back on an agenda crafted by state budget director Art Pope, a multimillionaire who helped underwrite the campaigns of Gov. McCrory and his cronies in the Legislature. It is largely modeled on the pro-corporate, anti-worker platform of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

McCrory says the changes will help everyone in the state, the numbers just don’t bear this out.  In fact, they show the state spent $100 million less on public schools, cut taxes only on out-of-state corporations and the wealth and made benefit cuts that hurt low-income citizens, not help them.

The next rally is scheduled for Yadkinville on Sept. 23.

Two NC Moral Monday protests draw hundreds

Hundreds of Moral Monday demonstrators turned out in two North Carolina counties yesterday to demand better wages and an end to attacks on workers, voter suppression and education cuts.



Protesters want to clean up the state capital.

Some 300 people turned out at a protest in Southern Pines in the central part of the state, while about 30 gathered in Jacksonville, in eastern North Carolina. In both places, people said they want their voices heard in Raleigh. They said they felt locked out of the legislative process, which resulted in cuts to unemployment benefits and Medicaid as well as tax increases for the middle class.

Chris and Katherine Stevenson, who attended the Southern Pines event, were both arrested during protests at the Statehouse earlier this year. Mrs. Stevenson said it is important to let lawmakers know that people across the state want change:

What is happening now is not going to solve the problems.

Greg Humphries, who came to the Jacksonville rally, agreed. Jobs and equality are essential, he said:

There ought to be equality in all aspects of government especially in pay. I believe that all people ought to get a good salary.

The demonstrations were just the latest in the effort to bring the Moral Monday movement statewide. The protests began in April in the state capital and continued through July, resulting in about 925 arrests. The state chapter of the NAACP, which served as main organizer, then took the rallies across the state to both rural and urban locations. An event held in Asheville last month drew about 10,000 people.

Gov. McCrory and the Legislature are fulfilling the corporate policies pushed by greedy billionaire Art Pope, an ALEC disciple and Benedict Arnold Koch brothers buddy who got himself appointed state budget director after financing a number of radical politicians’ campaigns.

The Legislature's attacks on middle-class North Carolinians are spreading through the state. A small coastal hospital announced it was closing down in the coming months because Gov. McCrory decided not to expand Medicaid. The expansion would have been funded by the federal government.

NC Moral Monday protests go statewide

N.C. NAACP President William Barber addresses crowd in Manteo.

Three Moral Monday rallies held across North Carolina yesterday drew upwards of 3,800 people to protest the anti-worker agenda approved by Gov. Pat McCrory and the Legislature this year. Protesters took aim at the new voter suppression law as well as severe cuts to unemployment benefits,  Medicaid and education.


Police estimated the event in Charlotte drew as many as 3,000 people, while smaller demonstrations in the mountain community of Burnsville and coastal community of Manteo drew about 500 and 300 people, respectively. At the center of all the rallies were regular people sounding off against pro-corporate policies pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and state budget director Art Pope, a top money-man for Gov. McCrory and his legislative cronies.

Jeanne Milliken Bonds (Twitter handle @JeanneBonds4NC) was among many who shared their disgust with the state’s political leadership on social media:

#moralmonday grows; state #brand declines. 7 months #gop #ncga #ncgov Moderate, modern state #brand replaced w right-wing economic failure

Curtis King (Twitter handle @piecesofceekay) hailed the Charlotte protest, saying it showed the resolve of the state’s residents:

Rain didn’t stop the enthusiasm of Moral Monday. Thank U #NCNAACP & other advocates for speaking out. “Forward & Not One Step Back.”

Yesterday’s events were a continuation of weekly protests that began in Raleigh in late April and resulted in about 925 arrests. Since the events ended in the state capital late last month, the state NAACP has begun taking the event on the road, and two weeks ago a demonstration in Asheville drew nearly 10,000 people. Organizers say they intend to hold rallies in all of the state’s congressional districts in the coming months.

ALEC and Pope have stoked the anger of many in the state this year by helping to jam through the Legislature a big business agenda that raises taxes on average workers to help companies, while at the same time axing essential programs that benefit the middle class.

NC claims voter suppression championship, faces lawsuits

North Carolina is No. 1 -- in voter suppression. Gov. Pat McCrory ensured that yesterday when he signed into law legislation that makes it harder for the poor, minorities, young people, seniors and the disabled to vote.



It's back to the future for voting rights in North Carolina.

Two separate lawsuits were filed in federal court just hours after the governor signed the measure, and a third is expected to be filed in state court today. Meanwhile, Rep. G.K. Butterfield is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to weigh in to protect voting rights in North Carolina.

Following the lead of a repressive Legislature that also gutted unemployment benefits, Medicaid and education spending this year, McCrory inked a measure that supposedly cracks down on illegal voting in the state. Problem is North Carolina has only had two such cases between 2000 and 2010, as Ari Berman points out in The Nation.

The facts, however, are irrelevant to those behind the effort. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) pushed the entire corporate-empowerment agenda approved by state lawmakers this year.  The Legislature’s attacks on working people in North Carolina sparked a backlash as thousands have joined weekly Moral Monday demonstrations. More than 900 protesters have been arrested since April for acts of civil disobedience. The governor and his cronies -- such as state budget director and campaign money-man Art Pope -- have succeeded in disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of state voters who noticeably tilt against the political party that instituted the changes:

316,000 registered voters don’t have state-issued ID; 34 percent are African-American and 55 percent are registered Democrats. Of the 138,000 voters without ID who cast a ballot in the 2012 election, 36 percent were African-American and 59 registered percent Democrats. The new [law] does not allow student IDs for voting, and would charge $10 to obtain an ID unless a voter signs a form saying they cannot afford it under penalty of perjury, making it among the most restrictive laws in the country.

Already, there are signs that the suppression of voting in the state is being implemented at the local level. The Wataugh County Board of Elections jammed through changes yesterday that closed a polling place on the Appalachian State University campus, even though the move creates a super-precinct that is more than double the size of the next largest one.

The decision brought shouts and boos from the 60 people in attendance and disgust from one board member, Kathleen Campbell. She opposed the move and said she was not told of the plan beforehand.

You can’t just come in here like gangbusters. You guys are really out of line.

Well said.