AFL-CIO leader: Come November, NC workers will be voting with unions in mind

Editor’s note: The writer is president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO. She wrote this for Labor Day.

Workers across the country and here in North Carolina are fed up and they are organizing. This year, baristas at Starbucks in Boone, journalists at the Charlotte Observer, and health care providers at eight health clinics in central North Carolina organized and won unions.

Warehouse employees at Amazon in Garner and sound engineers at Moog Music in Asheville are among the other workers in diverse occupations in our state who are in the midst of organizing campaigns.

All this organizing is contagious — each victory inspires other workers to mobilize. Nationally, the number of petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board by workers who want to join together in unions and negotiate for a fair return on their work is up 69% compared to last year.

This wave of worker organizing is no accident. During the pandemic, workers kept this country running by clocking in every day and risking their own health to make sure we had food, medical care and other necessities. After all that sacrifice, front-line workers are tired of being relegated to the back of the line when it comes to sharing in corporate profits.

Companies like Starbucks are enjoying record profits and CEO pay increases. According to research from the AFL-CIO, the average S&P 500 CEO earned $18.3 million in compensation last year — a 18.2% increase from 2020. And while CEOs are quick to blame worker wages for inflation, last year worker wages rose only 4.7%.

The rise in organizing and collective action is the culmination of decades of worker frustration driven by low wages, unsafe workplaces, unaffordable health care, and a lack of dignity and respect on the job. Working people understand that joining together in a union is the key to gaining higher pay, better benefits and stronger workplace protections.

Labor unions are the single most powerful tool we have to fight for our rights in the workplace and in our democracy.

Unfortunately, billionaires and corporate interests have spent years stacking the deck against workers by getting anti-worker laws passed that make it increasingly difficult for us to exercise our freedom to organize and collectively negotiate. That’s especially true here in North Carolina where, for over 60 years, our state law has denied teachers, firefighters, school bus drivers, and other state, county, and city workers the right to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.

Support is growing to repeal that unfair, Jim Crow-era law, which is why the surge in worker organizing is happening not just at the workplace, but also at the ballot box. Workers are tired of corporate-backed politicians who consistently put profits above people.

This November, working people will cast votes for candidates who promise to raise the minimum wage, strengthen labor rights, expand healthcare access, provide paid sick leave, and pass other policies that raise the standard of living for all of us.

Working people recognize the power we have when we stand together. This is why we will mobilize at the polls, we will rally at the capitol, we will unionize at our workplaces, and we will keep organizing until there is shared prosperity for all.

This story was originally published September 5, 2022 at 4:30 AM with the headline "AFL-CIO leader: Come November, NC workers will be voting with unions in mind."