The North Carolina chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) held its three-day convention this month in Wilmington. The AFL-CIO is the largest federation of labor unions in the US, representing nearly 15 million workers. Speakers at the convention raised the alarm over the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers, its attacks against collective bargaining, and the potential privatization of veterans’ health care. They called for solidarity among workers, saying that unions must present a united front or risk losing hard-fought worker protections and many of their jobs entirely.
Christine Surrette, who serves as vice president of District 4 of the American Federation of Government Employees, warned federal layoffs — which have cut more than 200,000 government employees since January — will slow economic growth and erode public safety.
“It’s going to affect our veteran hospitals, our veterans — a lot of veterans are being laid off,” Surrette said. “I mean, National Park Services, we don’t have enough people to work for them now.” Those impacts are not contained to the federal workforce. “There will be no work for the contractors,” she said. “No matter what union we’re in, what city we’re in, it’s across the nation.”
Jemma Superville, an assistant director with National Nurses United, warned that the administration’s demonization of VA staff and the stripping of funding are part of an attempt to privatize the agency entirely. The privatization of veteran health care, she warned, would lead to less reliable and less appropriate care, pointing out that veterans deal with a unique set of health issues and circumstances for which private hospitals lack training or experience.
NC AFL-CIO general counsel, Trisha Pande, spoke on changes to the National Labor Relations Board under the Trump administration. “There’s no sugarcoating it — our labor laws and our federal agencies are under attack. But unions have come together to challenge those attacks in court,” Pande said. “We are fighting not only through legal action, but with our voices, our votes, and our solidarity.”
The convention concluded with the election of a new state chapter president, last year’s Democratic candidate for NC Commissioner of Labor, Braxton Winston. Following his election, Winston said a goal of his as the chapter’s new president will be to grow labor organizing in the state.
“For too long, working people in North Carolina and across the South have been told to work harder and accept less,” he said in a news release. “But we are here to declare something different – that every worker deserves dignity, security, and power.”
Guest speakers, Governor Josh Stein and NC Associate Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, both promised to fight for workers’ rights in a state that often ranks as one of the best for businesses but one of the worst for workers.
Following the end of the convention, Winston and a crowd of AFL-CIO members marched to Senator Ted Budd’s office nearby and rallied outside. VA nurses and veterans from the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force all demanded that Budd back the rights of federal workers and help restore collective bargaining agreements with the Department of Veterans Affairs. They called for him to support the Protect America’s Workforce Act and the VA Employee Fairness Act, intended to protect federal workers and restore their collective bargaining rights.
“The VA must be fully funded for the veterans who earned it, not gutted to billionaires that put profits over patients,” said Wray Faulkner, a nurse with the Durham VA. “This attack on our union rights is only the beginning. Every worker in this country is at risk. And when they starve the VA of funding, they weaken the public services we all rely on.”
Neither Senator Budd nor any member of his staff met with the protestors, who were told the office was closed.
