On July 3 – the day before Independence Day – a bill to revoke the ban on collective bargaining and contracts for state and local government employees was approved by a majority of a House judiciary committee. This is an important first step toward repealing North Carolina´;s unjust 50-year-old General Statute 95-98, and giving public employees the right to bargain.
Committee passage of House Bill 1583, sponsored by Rep. Dan Blue (D-Wake Co.) who also chairs the judiciary committee, is a significant victory for UE Local 150, its labor and civil rights allies, and the International Worker Justice Campaign initiated by UE. It is important to note that no member of the state legislature would even dare to introduce a bill for bargaining rights until two events shook up the political status quo in North Carolina. Those events were the September 13, 2006 strike by Raleigh municipal sanitation workers, who have been organizing with UE; and the March 2007 ruling by a UN agency, the International Labor Organization (ILO), that GS 95-98 violates international labor and human rights standards. This ruling was the result of an ILO complaint filed by UE.
The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee for consideration. UE 150 is meeting with its allies and preparing to mobilize its members and friends to push forward with this freedom struggle that is growing in political clout.