Workers in North Carolina have been hit hard by the US eco-nomic crisis. More than 41,000 workers across the state lost their jobs in March, driving unemployment to 10.8 percent. North Carolina’s jobless rate is among the country’s most severe, surpassed only by Michigan, which is at 12.6 percent. Harry Davis, Appalachian State University banking professor and chief economist for the North Carolina Bankers Associa-tion, said he expects North Carolina’s unemployment to rise to 12 percent by summer and for layoffs to continue until this time next year.

In little more than a week, the Charleston sanitation workers have gathered hundreds of signatures in support of their efforts to establish a union to protect their safety and defend their rights on the job. Members of Local 1199, which represents the sanitation workers, and their allies have spread across the city to take their case directly to the voters.

The six day plant occupation by more than 200 UE 1110 members at the Republic Windows and Doors Company in Chicago, IL, in addition to demanding that the company follow the union contract and the laws, was also a workers struggle for human rights against capital.

Remarks delivered at an ISO forum on the Freightliner 5 at the University of North Carolina Greensboro on 3/26/09