Workers Who Win South Can Change The Nation
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As we approach the massive One Nation Working Together march on Oct. 2, MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, says the road to an economy that works for all must first come through the South.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. realized the only way to win freedom for people of color everywhere was to win it first in the most difficult place—the segregated South. Union leaders must also direct their attention and resources to the South, where union membership is small and violent anti-union tactics are widespread.
In her Point of View column on the AFL-CIO website, McMillan says:
The southern United States is the center for exploitation of workers of all colors. Employees in the South have the lowest wages, the fewest worker protections and the least union representation. And nowhere are the harmful effects of globalization and flawed trade deals more evident than in the South.
USW Tells China to Stop Treading on U.S. Tire Makers
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Chinese tire makers are treading on the U.S. tire industry, dumping more than 46 million low-cost tires into this country last year alone to be sold in stores like Wal-Mart, among others. The result, unfortunately, is all too familiar: Cheap imports = lost jobs and shattered communities.
The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents most of the U.S. tire workers, is demanding that the Obama administration act forcefully to restore a balanced trading field. The union wants the administration to impose tough tariffs on Chinese tires for at least three years.
Last month, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) ruled in favor of a USW petition filed under Section 421 of the Trade Act of 1974. The USITC found that tariff relief was needed to urgently reduce those tire imports. Evidence showed that more than 5,100 domestic consumer tire production jobs were lost between 2004 and 2008 by the flood of Chinese tire imports that undersold producers in the United States. Domestic tire companies have announced they will close more plants and eliminate another 3,000 jobs by the end of this year.
7-Year-Old Joins Thousands Writing to Congress for Employee Free Choice
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Among the thousands of people writing letters to Congress in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, we had to point out this one. The author, Alycia Melvin, is just 7 years old.
Alycia is the granddaughter of a Machinists (IAM) member from North Carolina, and she tells Sen. Kay Hagan that when she grows up, she’d like to have the same choice they did: to join a union. She asks Hagan to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Alycia Melvin deserves to grow up in a world where she has the opportunity—just as her grandparents did—to join a union and bargain for a better life. She deserves the chance to have a say in her future workplace, and the power to get a fair contract, good benefits, good pay and equal treatment.
