Today's Teamster News 09.23.14

Teamster News
More Labor Problems at Buffett's NetJets  IBT   ...As contract talks drag on at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers are picketing at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC). NUC is a coalition between the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), the pilots' union, and the Teamsters, which represents all of the other unionized NetJets employees...
Trade
TTIP: don’t mention the job losses  The Broker   ...The headline finding from the official assessment of TTIP is that there will be a loss of at least one million jobs in the EU and US as a direct result of the agreement’s coming into force...
State Battles
Moral Mondays battles low pay, injustice, racism and more  Indianapolis Star   ...About 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday to fight for better pay, affordable health care, equal justice and other causes...
Google: We’re parting with the climate change skeptics at ALEC  Washington Post   ...Google is going to stop funding a key conservative group because of its stance on climate change, executive chairman Eric Schmidt revealed Monday...
Declining median incomes becomes anti-Rick Scott talking point for Fla. Dems  St. Peters Blog   ...Average household incomes in South Florida are declining. A study released Thursday by the U.S. Census bureau shows median income in 2013 at $46,946 down from $48,275 in 2010...
Christie's Pension Overseer Invested New Jersey Money In Fund He Is Linked To Privately  International Business Times   ...Grady was pushing to invest New Jersey public money into the same Blackstone fund in which his own firm was investing -- without disclosing that fact to N.J. officials...
In Brownbackistan, Everything Is Awesome! And Don’t Let Any Liberal Tell You Different  Salon.com   ...You’ve got runaway incompetence in the state administration; heavy-handed partisanship, with conservative Republicans crushing moderate Republicans after the familiar pattern; corporate money—Koch Industries is based in Wichita—sloshing around like a vast underground aquifer. You’ve got privatization, deregulation, and an enthusiastic race to the bottom...
Nikki Haley Busted Inflating Job Numbers...Again  FitsNews   ...For a third time, a mainstream media outlet in the Palmetto State has caught S.C. Gov.Nikki Haley inflating her administration’s job numbers...
State Has No Budget For Voter ID, Agencies Say  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Three state agencies charged with implementing voter ID for the Nov. 4 election say they have no additional money set aside to help voters and state workers comply with the newly reinstated requirement...
War On Workers
Obama Administration Issues New Rules to Combat Tax Inversions  Wall Street Journal   ...The Treasury Department tightened tax rules Monday to deter U.S. companies from moving their legal headquarters to lower-tax countries, part of a White House effort to slow a wave of so-called corporate inversions that effectively reduce federal revenues...
Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market  Wall Street Journal   ...But it has frightened communities across the country where first responders fear the fireballs that have erupted in the past year after some oil-train derailments. Federal regulators recently proposed new rules to require sturdier cars to carry oil, lower speed limits on some shipments and testing of the volatility of the crude transported by train...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online As 'Nudge' To Employers  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work. The agency estimates that tens of thousands of injuries go unreported...
D.C. Cab Companies Blame Steep Declines In Revenue On Ridesharing  WAMU   ...The rise of the “ridesharing” service UberX is bleeding traditional taxicabs in Washington. Although precise District-wide data is not available, taxicab company managers and individual drivers said their business is down at least 20 percent — and in some cases much more — because they cannot compete with the unregulated, low-price competition of UberX...
Oregon Residents Challenge the State "Right-to-Farm" Law  The Progressive   ...Such so-called "right-to-farm" laws insulate agricultural operations -- including large industrial livestock confinement operations and, in Oregon, private timber companies -- against lawsuits as long as they're following what is (or, in some cases, may become) a "generally accepted" farming or forest practice. These can include heavy aerial pesticide applications...
U.S. Home Sales Falter as Investors Pull Back  Wall Street Journal   ...The decline reflected fewer purchases by investors, who helped fuel the housing-market rebound. The share of overall sales that went to investors fell to 12% last month, the lowest level since late 2009. Investors accounted for as much as 23% of sales in early 2012 as they bought up properties, many in foreclosure, at bargain prices...
Lincoln County worker killed in dump truck wreck, fire  The Clarion-Ledger   ...A Lincoln County road crew member was killed in what appears to be a wreck in which his dump truck left the road, hit a tree and caught on fire, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing...
Construction worker killed falling from building in Waterloo  CTV News   ...An 18-year-old man is dead after falling from a building at the Barrel Yards development in Waterloo...

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."

Today's Teamster News 07.20.14

Trade
Backroom talks on dangerous TTIP agreement must end (opinion)  EurActive   ... TTIP will work to boost corporate power, make it harder for states to regulate markets in the interest of citizens, and attack workers' rights, as well as consumer protection criteria, and environmental standards...
TPP a bade deal (opinion)  Daily Camera   ... the TPP is shrouded in secrecy, with participants, negotiators, even Congress sworn to keep the details private. Of course, multinational corporations have access to the actual language, just not you and I...
State Battles
Sam Brownback’s Kansas Catastrophe  Daily Beast   ...a state Supreme Court decision ... found that Brownback and the legislature had cut funding for schools unfairly and too deeply in 2011, and would have to find budget savings elsewhere...
Republican Mayor Partners With Moral Monday Movement, Walks 273 Miles For Health Care Access  Huffington Post   ...A Republican mayor has partnered with the progressive-backed Moral Monday movement to protest the closure of his small-town's hospital. Belhaven, North Carolina Mayor Adam O'Neal set off on a 14-day, 273-mile walk to Washington, D.C. on Monday to draw attention to what he calls the "medical desert" ...
States That Raised Minimum Wage See Faster Job Growth, Report Says  NPR   ...In a report on Friday, the 13 states that raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1 have added jobs at a faster pace than those that did not...
War on Workers
Austerity Is Poisoning The Economy, In 2 Charts  Huffington Post   ...The broad spending cuts that were the fruits of the Republican Congress' budget obsession of the past few years have already cost the U.S. economy $351 billion in lost economic activity, according to a new study...
Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans  Washington Post   ... the NSA is building a data center in Utah five times the size of the U.S. Capitol building, with its own power plant that will reportedly burn $40 million a year in electricity...
Between Suspicious Deaths and Cy Vance Criminal Prosecutions, Technology Jobs On Wall Street Are Now Among the Most Dangerous in America  Wall Street on Parade   ...the Judge’s decision “represents a damning indictment of those assistant U.S. attorneys, assistant district attorneys and FBI agents who have now twice pursued an unlawful prosecution of an innocent man at the behest of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs...”
Walmart Investors - Worry Plenty About Tracy Morgan Lawsuit  Forbes   ...Walmart isn’t doing all that well.  It is losing customers, even as the economy recovers.  For a decade Walmart has struggled to grow revenues, and same store sales have declined – only to be propped up by store closings.  Despite efforts to grow offshore, attempts at international expansion have largely been flops.  Efforts to expand into smaller stores have had mixed success, and are marginal at generating new revenues in urban efforts...
Miscellaneous
The rise of data and the death of politics  The Guardian   ...Jim Farley, a senior Ford executive, acknowledged that "we know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you're doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you're doing. By the way, we don't supply that data to anyone..."

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."

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.” 

Today's Teamster News 03.14.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Host UPS Workers Union Network Meeting  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union this week is hosting an international delegation of representatives from trade unions that represent UPS workers worldwide to share information and coordinate strategies...
Teamsters reject CCTA offer; bus drivers set to strike on March 17  VtDigger.org   ...Members of the drivers’ union, Teamsters Local 597, voted 54-0 on Wednesday to reject the latest offer from the Chittenden County Transit Authority. CCTA has 68 drivers; all are in the union...
Clara Day: A Teamster’s Life  teamster.org   ...She was a powerful voice in support of the civil rights movement...
Trade
Who is funding China's military rise? We are.  manufacture this   ...China has accumulated a massive trade surplus with the U.S., and they're using it on a military spending spree...
James P. Hoffa: U.S.-Korea Pact Shows the False Promises of ‘Free’ Trade  Detroit News   ...Michigan has lost 2,800 jobs from the pact and seen a $518 million drop in net exports to Korea. Overall, more than 40,000 Americans are now out of work due to the agreement...
Administration Uses Data Omissions and Distortions to Try to Hide Dismal Korea FTA Realities  Public Citizen   ... U.S. monthly goods exports to Korea are down 11 percent, imports from Korea have increased and the U.S. monthly trade deficit with Korea has swelled 47 percent...
Europe and U.S. divided on trade issues  Pork Network   ...Europe's reluctance to buy hormone meat or genetically modified food from the United States has exposed an "enormous gulf" that threatens the world's biggest trade pact, industry and labour groups told EU and U.S. negotiators on Wednesday...
Japan, U.S. make 'bit of progress' in trade talks -Japanese official  Reuters   ...Plans for a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), have been bogged down amid a stand-off between the United States and Japan over market access...
State Battles
Again, Florida trying to restrict voter rights  Bradenton Herald   ...Florida is once again trying to constrain voter rights by restricting satellite locations where citizens can deposit absentee ballots...
The Real Story Behind the Detroit Pension Fight and What it Means to America's Future  Huffington Post   ...pension underfunding and corruption go hand in hand: areas which have seen pension crises tend to have high rates of corruption, as measured by such indicators as the number of public officials who wind up in prison. Pay-to-play schemes are rampant, and reports of bribery, such as those revealed in Detroit, are common...
Right-to-work bill dies in House committee  The Richmond Register   ...The sponsor of a right-to-work law in Kentucky knew it had no chance of passing a House committee Thursday. But that didn’t stop Rep. Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, the House Minority Leader, and several others from making their case before the House Labor and Industry Committee in a room filled to overflowing, mostly with union members who oppose the measure...
Appeals Court Resurrects Initiative Petition Drive For Campaign Donation Limits  St. Louis Public Radio   ...The Western District Court of Appeals of Missouri has resurrected an initiative-petition effort to restore campaign donation limits in Missouri. But the proposal’s backers may not have enough time to collect the signatures needed to get their proposal before voters...
Scott Walker Will Push Wisconsin State Legislature To Modify Voter ID Requirements  Huffington Post   ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) told reporters Tuesday that he considers voter identification laws the most "pressing" election-related issue in the state, and as such will direct the state legislature hold a special session to modify a law that has been blocked by courts since 2011...
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of North Carolina's 'Moral Monday' protest movement comes to Madison  The Daily Page   ..."The parallels between North Carolina and Wisconsin are undeniable," Wendell Harris, vice-president of Wisconsin NAACP, said in a news release. "We welcome Rev. Barber -- one of the greatest civil rights leaders of our time -- with great enthusiasm..."
The War on Workers
McDonald’s Workers File Wage Suits in 3 States  New York Times   ...McDonald’s workers in California, Michigan and New York filed lawsuits this week against the company and several franchise owners, asserting that they illegally underpaid employees by erasing hours from their timecards, not paying overtime and ordering them to work off the clock...
Wall Street Bonuses Are Bouncing Back, While Everyone Else's Wages Are… Meh  Business Insider   ...Average Wall Street bonuses have exploded, reaching a height of nearly $218,000 in 2006 - seven times larger than the average bonus of $29,800 in 1985.  ... Household income fell from a post-crash peak of about $55,600 to about $51,000 in 2012 - an 8% drop - declining in each year from 2008 to 2012...
Jobless deal comes down to wire  Politico   ...Senators struck a bipartisan deal on Thursday to revive expired long-term jobless benefits following months of dramatic stops and starts on the issue...
Obama says it's time to change overtime rules  CNN   ...Current rules governing overtime pay are "wrong," President Barack Obama said Thursday as he signed an order directing his administration to reexamine how employees are paid for working more than 40 hours per week...
Study Proves Campaign Donations Buy Access  firedoglake   ...this may be painfully obvious. Just in case you, for some reason I can’t fathom, had doubts that money buys influence in Washington our friends in the ivory tower decided to perform a scientific experiment to prove it...

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. 

80K march against North Carolina's anti-worker government

Raleigh, N.C., yesterday. Photo: Planned Parenthood

The Washington Post is finally getting around to telling us that 80,000 people -- maybe even 100,000 --protested North Carolina's anti-worker, ALEC-dominated government -- yesterday.

Ari Berman at The Nation had the story when it happened.

North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement held a massive “Moral March” in Raleigh today which began at Shaw University ... Tens of thousands of activists—from all backgrounds, races and causes—marched from Shaw to the North Carolina State Capitol, where they held an exuberant rally protesting the right-wing policies of the North Carolina government.

They're protesting the state's Republicans, who took over the legislature in 2010 and the governor's office in 2012 with the financial support of greedy billionaire Art Pope and with their marching orders written by ALEC.

Here's what they did:

• eliminated the earned-income tax credit for 900,000 North Carolinians; 
• refused Medicaid coverage for 500,000; 
• ended federal unemployment benefits for 170,000; 
• cut pre-K for 30,000 kids while shifting $90 million from public education to voucher schools; 
• slashed taxes for the top 5 percent while raising taxes on the bottom 95 percent; 
• axed public financing of judicial races; 
• prohibited death row inmates from challenging racially discriminatory verdicts; 
• passed one of the country’s most draconian anti-choice laws;  
• enacted the country’s worst voter suppression law, which mandates strict voter ID, cuts early voting and eliminates same-day registration.

Writes Berman:

The fierce reaction against these policies led to the Moral Monday movement, when nearly 1,000 activists were arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience inside the North Carolina General Assembly. Rallies were held in more than thirty cities across the state and the approval ratings of North Carolina Republicans fell into the toilet. Sample signs at today’s rally: “OMG, GOP, WTF. It’s 2014, not 1954!!!” “Welcome to North Carolina. Turn Your Watch Back 50 Years!”... 

The Moral Monday protests transformed North Carolina politics in 2013, building a multiracial, multi-issue movement centered around social justice such as the South hadn’t seen since the 1960s. “We have come to say to the extremists, who ignore the common good and have chosen the low road, your actions have worked in reverse,” said Reverend William Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP and the leader of the Moral Monday movement, in his boisterous keynote speech. “You may have thought you were going to discourage us, but instead you have encouraged us. The more you push us back, the more we will fight to go forward. The more you try to oppress us, the more you will inspire us.”

Here's what the Moral Monday protesters want:

• Secure pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that insure economic sustainability;
• Provide well-funded, quality public education for all;
• Stand up for the health of every North Carolinian by promoting health care access and environmental justice across all the state's communities;
• Address the continuing inequalities in the criminal justice system and ensure equality under the law for every person, regardless of race, class, creed, documentation or sexual preference;
• Protect and expand voting rights for people of color, women, immigrants, the elderly and students to safeguard fair democratic representation.

Berman predicts the movement will continue to grow this year. Let's hope.

Today's Teamster News 01.20.14

Group Focused on Government Ethics Puts Scott Walker on List of “Worst Governors in America”  Center for Media and Democracy   ...Walker made the list of most ethically challenged public officials due to poor marks in several categories, including cronyism, scandal, mismanagement and excessive partisanship. The report reviews his promotion of the Koch Brothers' agenda -- the Kochs are some of his biggest campaign donors...
Rising Tide of Public Outrage on the Verge of Stopping a Shady Corporate Deal in Washington  Alternet   ...Turn up the heat: election years are a terrible time to pass anything controversial and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is becoming politically toxic...
US trade debate prompts fears of delay in talks  Financial Times   ...A heated debate over trade in the US Congress risks stalling two trade negotiations that cover 70 per cent of the global economy, senior international officials have warned...
7 Reasons We Don’t Want ‘Fast Track’ Trade Deals  Buzzfeed   ...It’s a policy designed to ensure that Congress passes any and all trade deals the administration negotiates. Kind of like if your teacher had to give you an A no matter how pathetic your work actually was...
NYC Politicians and Workers Ready to Battle Over Horse-Drawn Carriages  skift.com   ...It’s one of the first items on New York City Mayor Bill) de Blasio’s to-do list, but his efforts to ban the carriages could bring up much larger issues of employment and the importance of tourism...
Palmer farm against ending NYC horse carriages  WWLP.com   ..."We believe it's going to add to a current terrible crisis in homelessness with the horses we already have in the country,” said Pamela Rickenbach. "And more than the horses losing their jobs, the families that would lose their jobs also."...
The Undeserving Rich (opinion)  New York Times   ...for the past three decades and more the main obstacle facing the poor has been the lack of jobs paying decent wages...
‘Dark money’ and corruption, here and abroad (opinion)  Washington Post   ...A surge in independent spending is invading the election of state supreme court justices, and much of it comes from hidden sources. ... (In 2011-12) special-interest groups spent an unprecedented $15.4 million on TV ads and other election materials in state judicial campaigns during that period...
US tech firms make eleventh-hour attempt to halt tax avoidance reforms  The Guardian   ...Silicon Valley has launched a last-ditch attempt to derail plans devised by the G20 group of countries to close down international loopholes that are exploited by the likes of Google, Amazon and Apple to pay less tax in the UK and elsewhere...
The robots are coming for white-collar jobs  Macrobusiness   ...Take, for example, the autonomous driverless cars under development by Google. They are a prime example of a how a human worker, such as long-haul truck and taxi drivers, could soon be replaced by machines – just like a scene from the 1990s futuristic movie Total Recall or the 2000s film Artificial Intelligence...
Walmart under fire after customer takes photos of tanks full of dead and dying fish  Daily Mail   ...A New Jersey Walmart customer has become the owner of a number of fish she purchased after discovering a dozen dirty fish tanks filled with dead and dying fish at her local store...
Google is hiring security guards to protect its work buses in San Francisco following protests over tech workers driving up city rents  Daily Mail   ...In San Francisco, many long-time residents believe the influx of richly compensated workers at Google and other big technology companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc has pushed rents to unaffordable levels in neighborhoods that once were homes to the working class...
Moral Monday A Branding Exercise Blaming Republicans for Stuff Democrats Helped Them Do (opinion)   Black Agenda Report   ...The problem is that Democrats enabled and helped Republicans to enact the immoral policies which Moral Monday spokespeople inveigh against in the first place...
What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend? (opinion)  New York Times   ...a little extra money may confer long-lasting benefits on poor children...

Today's Teamster News 11.03.13

Canada's CN Rail reaches tentative deal with Teamsters union  Reuters   ...Canadian National Railway Co , the country's largest rail operator, agreed to a new labor contract for some 3,300 conductors, trainmen, yardmen and traffic coordinators represented by the Teamsters union, the railway said Thursday...
Arkansas Best, teamsters ok five-year contract  Log Cabin Democrat   ... The contract will take effect on Nov. 3, 2013 and run through March 31, 2018...
Portrait of the NSA: no detail too small in quest for total surveillance  The Guardian   ... It is indiscriminate in the information it is collecting. Nothing appears to be too small for the NSA. Nothing too trivial. Rivals, enemies, allies and friends – US citizens and 'non-Americans' – are all scooped up...
10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy — This Chart Shows How  PolicyMic   ...It's not just the products you buy and consume, either. In recent decades, the very news and information that you get has bundled together: 90% of the media is now controlled by just six companies...
One Thing Major Media Hid From You During the Debate on Syria  PolicyMic   ...at least 22 of the commentators and seven of the think tanks that advocated for military action in Syria had ties to companies that would profit from such a strike...
More on secrets in trade…TPP  Angry Bear   ...“This really is a deal that’s being negotiated by corporations for corporations and any benefit it provides to the bulk of the population of this country will be purely incidental.” ... “There would be no reason to keep it so secret if it was in the interest of the public...
The Global Corporatocracy Is Almost Fully Operational  naked capitalism   ..."...we are witnessing the advancement of a new and unprecedented global project of transatlantic corporate colonization.“... as a recent leak of part of the TPP document has shown, the new rules would limit how governments regulate such public services as utilities, transportation, healthcare and education, including restricting policies meant to ensure broad or universal access to those essential needs...
Now Is Time To End Trade Deal Job Growth Lie  teamster.org   ...The recently implemented U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement was supposed to create 70,000 new jobs, yet in the 18 months it’s been in place it has cost this country 40,000...
You Can Go To Jail For An Overdue Library Book  Consumerist   ...A Texas man was arrested this week for failing to return a GED study guide he simply spent too long studying — three years — and was sent to jail to mull over his actions, or lack thereof...
Daily Meme: Congress Hits America's Poorest While They're Down  American Prospect   ...Nearly 1 million military vets use food stamps and will see cuts...
GOP 'extremist movement' prompts NC candidate to switch to Democrat  Charlotte Observer   ..."The government shutdown was simply the straw that broke the camels back. I guess being an American just isn’t good enough anymore and I refuse to be part of an extremist movement in the GOP that only appears to thrive on fear and hate mongering of anyone and everyone who doesn’t walk their line.”

Today's Teamster News 11.02.13

George Miranda Named to Board of the Global Gateway Alliance  teamster.org   ...George Miranda, International Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 210, is joining the Board of Directors of the Global Gateway Alliance, an industry coalition dedicated to improving airports in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area...
McDonald's Scam on America  Alternet   ...We're subsidizing the wages and benefits of employees of highly profitable fast food chains. It costs the American taxpayer nearly $7 billion per year...
As Cuts to Food Stamps Take Effect, More Trims to Benefits Are Expected  New York Times   ...millions of Americans receiving food stamps will be required to get by with less government assistance every month, a move that not only will cost them money they use to feed their families but is expected to slightly dampen economic growth as well...
Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement: Job Claims Are Pure Baloney  Economic Policy Institute   ...U.S. trade with Mexico after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has cost the United States nearly 700,000 jobs through 2010. U.S. trade with China has certainly failed to deliver on the promised benefits of growing exports. Since that country entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the U.S. has lost 2.7 million jobs through 2011 due to growing trade deficits with China. And the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) has also resulted in growing trade deficits with that country and the loss of more than 40,000 U.S. jobs...
How the 1 percent always wins: Liberal washing is the right’s new favorite tactic  Salon   ...The famous examples of liberal washing come from the White House. A few decades ago, Democratic President Bill Clinton liberal-washed corporatist schemes like NAFTA and financial deregulation. Today, it is Democratic President Barack Obama liberal-washing the insurance industry’s healthcare initiatives and now joining with a handful of Democratic legislators to liberalwash – and legitimize – the right-wing crusade to slash Social Security benefits...
House Passes Deregulation Bill Written by Citigroup  The Real News   ...the one that was driven by Citibank that would allow a wide range of financial derivatives to be done directly by the bank, which is to say, the insured entity, which is to say, the government would be on the hook if there were losses. And Dodd-Frank was designed to prevent or at least dramatically minimize that. So this is a truly awful bill...
UK Energy Firms Guilty of Market Manipulation to Face Criminal Charges  Oil Price   ...Ed Davey, the Energy Minister, has now stated that the government may charge energy firms that are found guilty of manipulating the markets, with criminal sanctions...
Fannie Mae Sues Banks for $800 Million Over Libor Rigging  Bloomberg   ...Fannie Mae (FNMA) sued nine banks, alleging that their manipulation of the benchmark London interbank offered rate, which four of them have admitted, cost the mortgage-financing company about $800 million...
Wall Street’s favorite Democrat wants your pension  Salon   ...The financial services industry hopes to gain even more control over workers' retirement savings...
North Carolina, Come On and Rise Up  Portside   ...This past summer, "Moral Mondays" in North Carolina emerged as the locus of one of the country's most insistent state-level movements against extremist efforts to slash the social safety net and roll back civil rights...
Top court ruling upholds free speech, union lawyer says  Youngstown Vindicator   ...The Ohio Supreme Court delivered a major victory for labor unions when it ruled in a Mahoning County case. The court ruled that a state law requiring a union to give a public employer and the State Employment Relations Board 10 days’ advance notice of strike picketing does not apply to informational picketing...

Today's Teamster News 10.19.13

Teamsters Stop FMCSA Attack on Truck Drivers  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union helped score a victory for truck drivers this week when H.R. 3095 was signed into law compelling the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to follow the formal rulemaking process to set strict guidelines for when they can require screening, testing and treatment for sleep apnea...
Star-Ledger unions ratify new 4-year contracts, agree to buyouts   Star-Ledger   ...After months of negotiations under the cloud of a threatened shutdown of the state’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger’s production unions, including the Teamsters Union, have ratified new four-year contracts, agreeing to buyout packages for at least 55 workers...
Since End of U.S. Recession, More Seniors in Workforce  Gallup   ... There has been a three-point increase since 2010 in the percentage of Americans aged 65 and older who are in the workforce -- employed full time through an employer, self-employed, working part time, or unemployed but actively searching for work. At the same time, there has been a two-point decrease in the percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 who are in the workforce...
Millennials still lag in forming their own households  Pew Research   ... most Millennials (adults ages 18 to 32) are still not setting out on their own. As of March 2013, only about one-in-three Millennials (34%) headed up their own household...
Is The Debt Still Worth The Degree?  zero hedge   ...The price of a college education has increased 1,000% or more over the past 3 decades...
You Thought the Government Shutdown Was Over. You Were Wrong. New Republic ...It was an awful time. Federal employees had to take unpaid furlough days. Beneficiaries were thrown off of federal programs. Courthouses had to be sold. Federal agencies like the FBI, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health strained to meet commitments, leading to more crime, more outbreaks of disease and less basic research, among other horrors. This may sound like a description of the recent government shutdown, which ended October 16. But this describes the fallout from sequestration...
Pro-Coal Kids' Pages Pulled from Government Site as Public Pressure Increases Alternet ...The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has removed coal-related educational sections from its website, less than two weeks after the launch of a grassroots campaign demanding that the pages be taken down...
Food Stamp Outage Highlights Problems With Privatization of Public Services  Truthout   ...Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a subsidiary of Xerox since 2000 that specializes in privatizing government administrative services for the most economically vulnerable Americans, has taken heat in the past for siphoning excessive fees from welfare recipients, mismanaging Medicaid payment systems, and failing to complete multimillion dollar contracts for public agencies...
"Fix the Debt's" "Fix the Debt Q&A" needs to be fixed (hilarious)  Storify   ..."Fix the Debt" decided to have a Twitter Q&A about fixing the debt. I'm not sure it went the way they wanted...
How Mexico is upending the U.S. auto industry  Washington Post ...More U.S. automakers have been shifting their plants south of the border, attracted by Mexico's lower wages and dense industrial clusters…
States Clamping Down on Workers Mislabeled as Contractors  Bloomberg News   ...When construction slowed during the recession, some companies hired workers and wrongly designated them as independent contractors to avoid paying insurance, taxes, fair wages and overtime...
Scott Walker Steers State Funds to Union Busters  PolicyMic   ...Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) made headlines in 2011 with his plans to bust public sector unions and strip unions of their collective bargaining powers, which led to mass protests in the Madison Capitol building. Now he is back with his latest contribution to increasing jobs in Wisconsin: making them up and steering them to his supporters...
Moral Monday Leader Comes To Boone Oct. 28  High Country Press   ...Moral Monday leader Rev. William Barber II will address “The Necessity of a Moral Movement in North Carolina and the Nation” on Monday, Oct. 28...
BART strike: About 400,000 S.F.-area commuters to be affected  Los Angeles Times   ...Bay Area residents were without commuter rail service and facing a morning of frustration Friday as BART workers went on strike after a week of marathon negotiation collapsed overnight...
Michigan Walmart worker says he was fired for helping assaulted woman  Associated Press ...A Michigan man says he was fired from his job at Walmart after he tried to help a woman being assaulted in the parking lot of one of the retail giant's stores and ended up fighting with her attacker...
Wal-Mart workers on strike, defying firings  The Salon   ...In protest of paltry hours and defiance of firings, over 80 Wal-Mart workers in Hialeah, Florida walk off the job...
The U.S. Blows Everyone Else Out Of The Water In 1 Key Way  Huffington Post   ...That one way? We're really, really good at creating really, really rich people -- like, $50 million-plus rich. Just ignore the fact that our 400 wealthiest people are worth more than the entire bottom half of the country combined. Look at the chart…
Krugman on GOP’s “top-down class warfare”  The Salon   ...The New York Times columnist explains how the GOP policies have stalled a true economic recovery...
McDonald's Has Their Hands in All of Our Pockets  AlterNet   ...Do you want to pay for billion dollar companies to make more money? Of course not, but in recent studies, we learned that we are, in fact, playing billions of dollar to support low-wage fast food workers for America's top seven restaurant chains...
Euro Capitals Tighten Fiscal Leash as EU Polices Cuts  Bloomberg News   ...Even with the 17-nation euro area projecting economic expansion next year, policy makers are keeping a fiscal leash on growth by maintaining austerity policies to save the euro...

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.

Today's Teamster News 09.18.13

Teamsters VP Potter Calls Out NJ Gov. Christie for Misclassification Law Veto  Leslie Marshall Show   ...Teamsters International Vice President Fred Potter tells labor radio host Leslie Marshall that New Jersey Gov. Christie’s priority is not workers since port workers and others are being cheated by misclassification...
Teamsters Union Takes New Tack On Drayage Carriers  Journal of Commerce   ...When long-haul and local truck drivers at Toll Global Forwarding's Cartaret, N.J., location voted this summer in favor of representation by the Teamsters, it was the union's latest successful bid to organize workers on the waterfront...
Drive Up Standards Newsletter Now Available  driveupstandards.org   ...Read the latest issue of the Teamsters school bus campaign newsletter here...
U.S. to Include Home Care Workers in Wage and Overtime Law  New York Times   ...Advocates for low-wage workers have pushed for this change, asserting that home care workers, who care for elderly and disabled Americans, were wrongly classified into the same “companionship services” category as baby sitters — a group that is exempt from wage and overtime coverage...
Labor unions oppose privatizing TVA  Times Free Press   ...Organized labor may have backed President Obama, but America’s biggest unions don’t like the idea he floated in April to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority...
Youth takes on Moral Monday movement  Duke Chronicle   ...Demonstrators carrying three empty coffins led a long, silent procession of more than 200 to Gov. Pat McCrory’s executive mansion Monday...
Google Knows The WiFi Passwords Of Every Android User: Report  Huffington Post   ...Google might have access to WiFi passwords...
  U.S. must take tobacco out of global trade talks (opinion)  San Francisco Chronicle   ...Tobacco companies continue to aggressively market their deadly products across the country and around the world, through insidious ad campaigns. And they have found a new arena to exploit their deadly products: international trade agreements...
Hacker group in China linked to big cyber attacks  Reuters   ...Researchers have discovered a group of highly sophisticated hackers operating for hire out of China, a U.S. computer security company said on Tuesday, and it linked them to some of the best-known espionage attacks in recent years...
The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989  Washington Post   ...The Census Bureau is out with the annual report on incomes and poverty. And while you might think that after years of stagnant incomes and elevated poverty rates, we would be inured to the depressing facts contained therein, it still somehow has the power to shock...
U.S. Banks Say They Are Now Safer (By Their Own Measure)  Reuters   ...The biggest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, said that by their own reckoning they are better equipped to withstand global downturns now than they were in March...
Greek Doctors Join Civil Service Strike As Workers Protest Austerity Cuts To Hospitals, Schools  Huffington Post   ...Greek hospital doctors have embarked on a three-day strike, joining high school teachers who walked off the job a day earlier in a week of public sector strikes protesting planned job cuts...
California Legislature votes to end retroactive tax on investors   Los Angeles Times   ...California lawmakers have sent the governor a bill that would end state efforts to collect a retroactive tax increase from investors. A signature by Gov. Jerry Brown would relieve about 2,000 taxpayers from having to pay $120 million in back taxes...
Americans Are 110 Times More Likely to Die from Contaminated Food Than Terrorism  Alternet   ...In 2011, the year of Osama bin Laden's death, the  State Department reported that 17 Americans were killed in all terrorist incidents worldwide. The same year, a single outbreak of listeriosis from  tainted cantaloupe killed 33 people in the United States. Foodborne pathogens also sickened 48.7 million, hospitalized 127,839 and caused a total of  3,037 deaths. This is a typical year, not an aberration...

Meet Three Billionaires Asking Taxpayers To Buy Them New Stadiums  Think Progress   ...The NFL has 14 owners on the list, more than any other league. And three of the names should be notable, because they are asking taxpayers in their city to help foot the bill for new stadiums or massive renovation projects...
US super-rich hit new wealth record five years after financial crisis  The Guardian   ...the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth a record $2.02tn, up from $1.7tn in 2012...
Progress on Predatory Lending  New York Times   ...Payday loans have long been huge financial traps for cash-strapped, low-income borrowers. Several states have clamped down on these “quick fix” loans, which sometimes carry annual interest rates of 400 percent or more. But a lot more needs to be done...
U.S. Judge: CCA Violated Idaho Contract When It Understaffed Private Prison  Boise Weekly   ...Following years of controversy, private prison Operator Corrections Corporation of America, which operates Idaho's private prison, was told by a federal judge that it was in contempt of court for understaffing the Idaho Correctional Center...
Kansas won't require citizenship proof for driver's license renewals  Associated Press   ...Kansas no longer plans to require people renewing driver’s licenses to produce proof that they are living in the U.S. legally, Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said Monday, confirming a policy shift with implications for the state’s administration of a separate proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters...

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.