In the South, workers choosing to unite and triumph

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Socialist-Progressive

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 — [e-mail] 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.

[Sherman A1]

1. K&RTHANKS

Thanks for posting.