Yesterday I asked you to join with American Rights at Work to contact your Senator and ask them to approve the bill that would allow basic collective bargaining for public safety officers. Today it has been approved by a Veto-proof margin.
From AFL-CIO Now Blog (5/13/08):
North Carolina's anti worker measures now losing ground
The U.S. Senate today moved a step closer to approving legislation that would protect the collective bargaining rights of tens of thousands of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and other public safety officers.
By a 69–29 vote, the Senate killed a filibuster led by several extreme anti-worker Republican senators against the workers’ rights bill. Eighteen Republicans joined all Democrats in backing the move to end the filibuster. The vote on final passage is expected later this week.
Some 20 states do not fully protect the bargaining rights of firefighters, police officers and other first responders. Two states—Virginia and North Carolina—prohibit public safety employees from collectively bargaining.
With final passage near certain, the only thing that stands in the first responders’ path to securing the workplace rights most other workers enjoy is a veto threat from the Bush administration. But today’s veto-proof vote, coupled with last July’s 314–97 House vote, provides more than the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to overturn a veto.
North Carolina's anti-worker laws and failures of labor law enforcement have been reported on this site and at Union Review for a while now, from breaking the bylaws of NAFTA by outlawing collective bargaining and freedom of association for public employees, in which Mexico filed charges with the United Nations International Labor Organization, to the recent Charges filed by over 40 North American unions against the state to the blatant discrimination and disregard for safety standards in the states meat cutting industry . You can check out the stories below
- More than 40 North American labor unions file charges against North Carolina's anti-union policies (4/26/08)
- Doctors come forward to Congress explaining how they are coerced to mistreat and under treat injured workers (4/21/08)
- U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry(3/08/08)
- North Carolina who was recently sued by Mexico for labor rights violations is at it again, coercing county employee out of Worker Compensation. (2/14/08)
- NC: The Human Cost of the poultry Industry by The Charlotte observer(2/10/08)
- North Carolina Violates NAFTA ?? - Right to Freely Associate/Organize/Bargain Collectively (11/07)
- Who's the Greediest Grinch of 2007? (12/07)
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