Labor's sweat in campaigns paid dividends

Organized labor took a risk this year, pouring money and manpower into campaigns in North Carolina, traditionally one of the most anti-union states in the country.

But the gamble appears to be paying off, with labor playing a role in the election of such Democratic allies as U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan, Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, U.S. Rep.-elect Larry Kissell and helping carry the state for President-elect Barack Obama.

Now union leaders hope to translate success at the polls to victories in the halls of Congress and the state legislature. They will be advocating a broad agenda that includes making it easier nationally for unions to organize plants and for public employees in North Carolina to engage in collective bargaining.

The push comes at a time of renewed labor activity in the state.

"I have been fighting for essentially the last 15 years for the labor movement to pay more attention to North Carolina," said Chris Chafe of Carrboro, executive director of the 6 million member Change to Win federation that includes the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union.

Labor or labor-related groups poured at least $4.7 million into this year's campaigns for state office in North Carolina -- more than double their 2004 spending, according to campaign finance records. Most of the money went to Democrats.

There were at least 1,000 union members on the ground in North Carolina, knocking on doors, manning phone banks and distributing literature at plant gates, according to labor leaders. There were particularly strong union efforts in the blue-collar areas of Charlotte, which may have contributed to Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican, losing his gubernatorial bid.

Unprecedented effort

"This was absolutely the biggest effort we have ever made in North Carolina," said Jack Cipriani, 60, of Greensboro, who is the Teamsters regional vice president for an area that stretches from Maine to South Carolina.

The labor movement has often found North Carolina fallow ground. At the height of the state's industrialization in the 1920s, state and local governments used their power to crush the labor movement sometimes using bullets and billy clubs. There is a plaque in state AFL-CIO headquarters commemorating six workers killed by sheriff deputies at a Marion textile mill strike in 1929.

There were other factors involved as well. North Carolina's industrial work force was recruited off the farms and went to work in mill villages. That made organizing workers here harder for unions than with immigrants working in big cities.

North Carolina had the lowest rate of unionization of any state until earlier this year, when the state employees association affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. The low rate of unionization has been a key recruitment tool used by state and local leaders when wooing companies to open plants here.

One area where labor is making gains is among North Carolina's 500,000 public employees.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina advocates for state workers but cannot negotiate contracts for them.

The Teamsters have also been gaining ground among public employees. Officers in the Raleigh Police Department and in the state Capitol Police are Teamsters members.

A 1959 state law, though, forbids public bodies from engaging in collective bargaining. North Carolina and Virginia are the only two states with such a ban.

The Democratic-controlled legislature has been reluctant to change that. Lawmakers have argued it could damage the state's ability to recruit industry.