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Omaha Steve

(99,061 posts)
Sun Sep 14, 2014, 06:34 PM Sep 2014

In the South, workers choosing to unite and triumph


X post in Labor

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/11/4142671_in-the-south-workers-choosing.html?rh=1




Striking fast food workers sit in front of a McDonald’s restaurant to block traffic in Durham.
COREY LOWENSTEIN — clowenst@newsobserver.com Buy Photo

BY MARYBE MCMILLAN
September 11, 2014

Summer has long been the season of revival for Southerners. This summer is different in only one way: Under the tents filled with fried chicken and gospel hymns, workers are signing union cards.

All around the South, workers are organizing, and they’re not alone. Clergy and community leaders are supporting workers’ efforts to gain fair wages and union representation.

Witness what has happened here in the past month alone. Scores of farmworkers in the fields of Eastern North Carolina signed union cards. Actor Danny Glover traveled to Lumber Bridge to rally support for poultry workers trying to organize. Dozens of congregations across N.C. talked about the value of unions as part of the first annual Labor Sabbath. Workers and civil rights leaders toured the state on Labor Day with rallies for higher wages in Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte. And then last week, hundreds of fast food workers in North Carolina participated in a nationwide strike for a wage of $15 per hour and a union.

When ministers preach about unions and workers take to the streets in the least unionized state in the country, it’s clear that the labor movement is far from dead. It’s being reborn in the unlikeliest of places – the once union-averse South.

FULL story at link.

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In the South, workers choosing to unite and triumph (Original Post) Omaha Steve Sep 2014 OP
Kudos to these courageous people. Having spent my entire life in the South, raccoon Sep 2014 #1
I read somewhere that even here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt....... socialist_n_TN Sep 2014 #2
In the South? Now I know it's snowing in hell! deafskeptic Sep 2014 #3
K&R n/t Joe Shlabotnik Sep 2014 #4
k&r Starry Messenger Sep 2014 #5
Much harder tooeyeten Sep 2014 #6
Doing what it takes. K&R nt TBF Sep 2014 #7

raccoon

(31,089 posts)
1. Kudos to these courageous people. Having spent my entire life in the South,
Sun Sep 14, 2014, 07:28 PM
Sep 2014

I can tell you it's full of uninformed ninnies who think unions are evil.

Little do they know where we'd be if there'd never been any unions in this country.


socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
2. I read somewhere that even here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt.......
Sun Sep 14, 2014, 07:37 PM
Sep 2014

Tennessee, we've actually had a rise in union organization this past year. So there does seem to be some truth to this.

deafskeptic

(463 posts)
3. In the South? Now I know it's snowing in hell!
Sun Sep 14, 2014, 08:27 PM
Sep 2014

It's a good thing too and very heartening. I heard about a food worker strike in my hometown Richmond VA on the eastend/henrico county recently. I never did like right to work laws.

tooeyeten

(1,074 posts)
6. Much harder
Sun Sep 14, 2014, 09:17 PM
Sep 2014

Than it looks, it will be about their stamina and persistence versus the money of the powerful and their political puppets.

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