State workers may need to buy some purple T-shirts.
The State Employees' Association of North Carolina is now affilliated with the Service Employees International Union.
At a convention on May 3, the state workers' group voted by a 78 percent margin — 524 out of 671 delegates — to affiliate with SEIU, a national labor union representing 1.9 million people known for its purple shirts.
"This vote marks the largest union victory ever for working people across the South — especially in North Carolina, which previously had the lowest rate of unionization in the country," said SEANC executive director Dana Cope in a statement.
SEANC hopes to use the resources of SEIU to fight a 1959 law restricting state workers from collective bargaining. Currently, North Carolina is the only state with that prohibition.
The group will now be known as SEANC, SEIU Local 2008.
Comments
Re: SEANC turns purple
May 5, 2008 - 4:55pm — bad122452The State of Virgina has that stipulation to as far as prohibiting collective bargaining.It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get this law changed. North Carolina is a right to work state also. This will prohibit assements aganst non union members.