Stories tagged: "labor rights"


FILE - Freight train cars sit in a Norfolk Southern rail yard on Sept. 14, 2022, in Atlanta. The Biden administration is saying the U.S. economy would face a severe economic shock if senators don't pass legislation this week to avert a rail worker strike. The administration is delivering that message personally to Democratic senators in a closed-door session Thursday, Dec. 1.  (AP Photo/Danny Karnik, File)
Biden Signs Bill to Block Rail Strike to Protect Economy; Senate Voted Down Effort to Give Rail Workers Paid Sick Days

Democratic lawmakers tried to pass a second bill that would have added paid sick days to the agreement, but were unable to reach the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate, due to most Republican senators opposing the measure.

A North Carolina labor organizer talks about the value of Black, working-class voters in the 2022 election. (Shutterstock)
Republicans Don’t Want Black, Working-Class Voters To Turn Out

A worker from Charlotte on how crucial it is for working-class North Carolinians to vote this year. 

America's central bank approved an historic interest rate hike Wednesday. But what does that mean for your groceries? (Shutterstock)
Here’s What the Historic Interest Rate Hike Has To Do With Your Groceries

 It’s the biggest single rate increase since Bill Clinton was president. But will it help? 

Starbucks employees and supporters react as votes are read during a union-election watch party in New York in 2021. The labor movement at the coffee giant is gaining steam in the U.S. Workers at a Boone location became the first Starbucks location to unionize in NC in May. (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex, File)
How Workers at a Boone Starbucks Beat the Odds to Start a Union

In May, a western NC coffee shop became the first location in the state to form a labor union.

State leaders and labor advocates gathered in Raleigh in April to remember the 189 documented deaths that happened on the job in NC in 2020. That's the last year in which the full total is known. (Photo: NC State AFL-CIO)
189 NC Workers Died on the Job in 2020. Here’s How Labor Leaders Honored Them.

NC’s Labor Department and union leaders pledged to work together to improve worker safety and hold negligent companies responsible. 

People march during a protest in support of Amazon and Starbucks workers in New York City on November 26, 2021. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)
NC Starbucks Workers Join Push for Unions Across the South

Starbucks employees in Charlotte rallied for a union this week, joining a growing movement for labor rights across the South and beyond.

Wiggins' father, a lumberjack, died on the job when she was a child, and she later lost several children to whooping cough because the mill would not allow her time off to take care of them. She began organizing among her neighbors, Black and white, for more pay and better working conditions, arguing their case to lawmakers and anyone who would listen until she was ultimately assassinated.
Ella May Wiggins Gave Her Life for NC Worker Rights

Ella May Wiggins, a North Carolina textile worker, battled for all workers’ rights, establishing an early interracial labor union in the 1920s.