UE in the News

Mental health workers from multiple N.C. Department of Health and Human Services facilities, including Central Regional Hospital and the Murdoch Center, rallied at Butner’s Gazebo Park last week, demanding better pay and safer staffing conditions and an end to North Carolina’s continued reductions to corporate tax rates.

“The pay has gotten so bad that I don't know anybody that works at Murdoch that doesn't have to have a second job to survive,” Thomas Harris, who has worked at the Murdoch Center for 10 years, said.

Employees at the rally said that they received a 0% raise last year, and only a 3% retention raise this year. The raise also comes with the requirement to remain at the job for 12 months after to keep the entire sum. Employees who leave before then have to pay part of the amount back. [ ... ]

“Ain't nothing we can do about it, except what we're doing right now. We need more out here,” Charles Owens, employee at the Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro and vice president of the Cherry-O’Berry North Carolina Public Service Workers Union chapter, said. “10, 20 people, we can say some stuff. Two, three hundred–they gotta listen now.”

UE Local 150 President Willie Brown and member Charles Owens were featured in this Washington Post article about how “millions of Americans — even those earning good money — are straining to make ends meet.”

Willie Brown, 55, a municipal worker in Durham, said he has cut back in the face of higher gas prices that are costing him $400 each month just for commuting. He’s buying less beef — up 13 percent from a year ago — and stopped snacking on Doritos after repeated price hikes.

“There’s a lot of things that I’ve once liked in my life that I just have to do without,” he said.

Charles Owens, 62, works at state-run Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, about 50 miles southeast. Under the budget proposal moving through the state legislature, he and other state workers would get a 3 percent annual raise.

That won’t even offset last year’s increase in workers’ share of health care costs, not to mention overall inflation of 4.2 percent, he said. Under a banner of “employee health not corporate wealth,” Owens helps lead a union campaign for more generous benefits.

A registered Republican and U.S. Navy veteran, he was an enthusiastic Ronald Reagan voter who is angered by what he describes as Trump’s “corruption.” He wants the Democrats to win the House and the Senate in November, to serve as a check on the president. But his expectations of change are low.

“The Democrats are so focused on beating the Republicans, that they’re not coming up with any specific things to help anybody. It’s like, ‘let’s get them out of here so we can fix this.’ But if you don’t have an idea of what to fix, when to fix it, why am I even voting?” he said.

[UE Local 1186 President Mike] Tomaloff, who helped organize the forum, said Tuesday’s event was just the beginning. “We got to work with a lot of people like OPEIU and SEIU and other local unions and organizations. I think that’s ... one of the real stories here, on top of this great forum where they answer to us while they’re asking for our votes,” Tomaloff said. “A lot of great labor leaders and organizers in the community came together and we’ve done this and we hope to keep going and doing more and bringing in more people – more local labor organizations, more unions, and more working people because we need to have our voice heard.”

Wake County Public Library (WCPL) workers and supporters rallied outside a county commission meeting Tuesday evening to protest what they say is chronic understaffing within the library system. Workers say recent reductions to a staff that was already stretched thin has hurt morale and caused services like family storytimes, job help appointments, and offsite events to be scaled back.

“We’ve been struggling to keep the same level of service going … over the past year,” librarian and Wake Library Workers United member Zac Morgan told the group of 40 Wake County library workers, patrons, and volunteers gathered outside the Wake County Commons building in Raleigh. “I think we’ve done a good job of that, because we’re total badasses when it comes to what we do, but I know it’s wearing a lot of people out.”

Members of the New Seasons Labor Union have won their first collective bargaining agreement with New Seasons Market, and they hope it will set a new standard for grocery workers across the state. The contract covers about 850 workers at 10 stores across the Portland metro area.