Durham Dispatch

Durham Labor Choir, which includes REI Union Durham members, performed at the two-year anniversary rally. The video received more than 12,000 likes. Image credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ60BviNbqZ/ This past Sunday, May 18, Durham REI workers hosted a rally outside their store in Southpoint to celebrate the two-year anniversary of their union election and the accomplishments REI workers have achieved through organizing. The rally included performances by the Durham Labor Choir and speeches from union workers and co-op member allies.   The rally comes on the heels of REI workers’ historic win in REI’s Board of Directors election. For the first time in REI’s history, the candidates the Board of Directors nominated to fill vacant seats were outright rejected by Co-op members. This means their corporate and hand-selected candidates cannot and will not serve on the Board. The win was the result of REI workers and Co-op members standing together to demand that REI be the progressive retailer it claims to be rather than continuing to stall negotiations and work with the same union busting law firm as Elon Musk.   Chris, a Sales Associate at REI Durham, said it best in his speech at the rally: “Public resources are under attack. Public lands are in danger of becoming mining or logging operations just driven by profit and short term gains. And the greatest tool against this greed is organized labor. REI believes itself to be a different kind of retailer. Think of what we can accomplish together - standing together against these attacks - if they bargained in good faith and saw us as partners rather than enemies.”   After the rally, attendees wrote letters to REI’s new CEO, Mary Beth Laughton, calling on her to change course and partner with her unionized employees to return the Co-op to its democratic and values-forward roots.   Missed the rally but want to support? You can write your own letter to Mary Beth here .

On Wednesday, May 21, community organizers with the NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) announced that their two-year campaign against Gateway Women’s Care of Raleigh ended in victory [ 1 ]. Gateway, a crisis pregnancy or anti-abortion center, had been operating at 1306 Hillsborough Street for almost ten years and saw over 1,000 clients in 2023 [ 2 ]. While Gateway’s website describes their mission as providing “free, confidential pregnancy and sexual health services,” their most recent tax filings report their work as faith-based, “empower[ing] women to choose life for themselves and their unborn child” [ 2 ]. The center is not a licensed medical facility, and has been criticized for spreading misinformation and offering unproven “abortion pill reversal” procedures [ 3 ]. Triangle DSA’s Socialist Feminist Working Group began picketing Gateway in 2023. Describing the motivation for the pickets, Working Group Co-Chair Saige S. stated, “Everyone deserves to make informed decisions and access to comprehensive healthcare. Anti-abortion centers have been operating for decades, even more so post-Dobbs, which is why this is such an important issue to shine a light on.” Pickets were supported by local college students with North Carolina State University’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). Triangle DSA estimates over 100 community members in all showed up to the pickets held outside Gateway every few months, holding signs that called out the anti-abortion center and sharing legitimate sources of reproductive healthcare. A key goal of the demonstrations was to warn passersby that anti-abortion centers interfere with reproductive justice by endangering pregnant people whether or not they intend to keep their pregnancy. Clients of crisis pregnancy centers may believe that their prenatal care needs are being met by the centers, meaning complications that arise from pregnancy can go undetected and cause harm to both the pregnant person and their pregnancy [ 4 , 5 ]. In 2024, after learning that Gateway’s landlord Ted Van Dyk was a registered Democrat, Triangle DSA started a petition calling on him not to renew the anti-abortion center’s lease [ 6 ]. Following an unsuccessful conversation with Van Dyk during an August 2024 picket, the organizers decided to escalate their approach [ 7 ]. At the following picket, a sign held by an organizer read “Ted Van Dyk Sells Out Abortion Rights.” Within hours of the protest, Van Dyk contacted the group for the first time to say that the sign wouldn’t change his mind and that there are “far more positive and effective ways to support and advocate for women’s reproductive health.” In early 2025, flyers urging Van Dyk to stop leasing to Gateway began to appear in the landlord’s own neighborhood. Triangle DSA says it only learned about the flyers because the organization was served a cease-and-desist from Gateway that included photos of the literature. While DSA consulted with a lawyer, the chapter’s Socialist Feminist Working Group shifted their organizing to directly support people seeking reproductive healthcare. In February, the group’s first “post-abortion care kit” making party drew over 70 community members to the Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub (RUMAH) on Hillsborough Street. The group ended up with enough extra donated pads, chocolates, and self-care items to put on the whole event again the following month without needing to buy more items for the care bags [ 8 ]. On March 25, a YDSA member spotted what looked like a moving truck in Gateway’s driveway. This prompted the group to dive through public records to investigate whether Gateway was undergoing repairs as the center claimed over the phone, or was moving out. The search revealed that in December 2024, Van Dyk filed for a permit with the city of Raleigh to completely rewire 1306 Hillsborough Street. City inspections at the center in January 2025 determined that the present wiring method was not appropriate for treatment rooms, and that the center lacked tamper-resistant outlets that municipal electric code requires for spaces operating as clinics [ 9 ]. A letter posted to the portal following a subsequent inspection confirmed that Gateway had ceased operations as of March 3 [ 10 ]. With news of Gateway’s departure confirmed, Triangle DSA is already gearing up for their next fight. Socialist Feminist Working Group members plan to research potential vulnerabilities of the six other local anti-abortion centers in the Triangle, from landlords that can be pressured to improperly permitted spaces. The group also hopes to disrupt the demand for anti-abortion centers through expanding access to pregnancy tests and other material aid often peddled by anti-abortion centers such as diapers and baby clothes. With legislative efforts to regulate crisis pregnancy centers stalled in the current NC General Assembly session, Triangle DSA says it hopes to activate the power of community organizing to drive out anti-abortion centers and demand quality, safe reproductive healthcare for all. Work Cited NC Triangle DSA. “Gateway’s Aborted.” Instagram , 21 May 2025, www.instagram.com/p/DJ7bRZPy6TV . Accessed 21 May 2025. “Gateway Womens Care.” ProPublica , 31 Dec. 2023, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/581584775/202402779349300980/full . “Mike Pence to Visit Women’s Health Clinic That Falsely Ties Abortion to Breast Cancer.” CNN , 1 Sept. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics/pence-abortion-breast-cancer/index.html . “The Problems With Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Reviewing the Literature and Identifying New Directions for Future Research.” International Journal of Women S Health , Vol. 14, June 2022, pp. 757–63. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijwh.s288861 . “New Lawsuit Alleges Actions of ‘Crisis Pregnancy Center’ Resulted in Missed Diagnosis of a Life-Threatening Ectopic Pregnancy.” Reproductive Equity Now , 22 June 2023, https://reproequitynow.org/press/new-lawsuit-alleges-actions-of-crisis-pregnancy-center-resulted-in-missed-diagnosis-of-a-life-threatening-ectopic-pregnancy . Stop Leasing to Anti-Abortion Center Gateway Women’s Care , https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/anti-abortion-center-out-of-raleigh . “Activists Picket Against Gateway Women’s Care, a Fake Abortion Clinic Next to NC State.” Durham Dispatch , 27 July 2024, www.durhamdispatch.com/post/feminists-picket-against-gateway-womens-care-a-fake-abortion-clinic-next-to-nc-state . NC Triangle DSA. “ SocFem's Garden Party Social .” Instagram , 16 May 2025, www. instagram.com/p/DJuyafsyljW/ . Accessed 21 May 2025. " Inspection Number: INSP-019049-2025", City of Raleigh . https://raleighnc-energovpub.tylerhost.net/apps/selfservice#/inspectionDetail/inspection/508cc8ab-2297-4eed-adec-044231389167 . " Permit Number: ELENR-009726-2025",   City of Raleigh . https://raleighnc-energovpub.tylerhost.net/apps/selfservice#/permit/33a0d43b-4cb1-47dd-897f-0febea2de968

On May 7, around 150 people gathered at Lyon Park Community Center to launch Durham Rising, an alliance of labor unions and progressive organizations pushing for an improved relationship between Duke University, its workers, and Durham. The new coalition has absorbed and expanded the demands of the earlier Duke Respect Durham campaign. Three of five proposals from Durham Rising call on Duke to make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to local government [ 1 ].   Durham Rising includes the Durham Association of Educators (DAE), UE Local 150, Duke Graduate Student Union (DGSU), and Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW). Progressive organizations such as Siembra NC, Duke Respect Durham, and Durham for All have also joined the campaign.   The town hall was led by Mama Cookie, a USSW leader, and Christy Patterson, DAE’s vice president. Mama Cookie, whose labor activism earned her an official "Mama Cookie Day" on April 3 in Durham, said, “Duke has unions, but they twist them. The people in those unions want to speak out but they’re afraid to speak out. If Duke hears anything, they’re fired.”   Labor organizing has intensified at Duke in recent years. DGSU won its NLRB election in August 2023 and has since fought for $50,000 PhD stipends and other demands [ 2 ]. Separately, in mid-April 2025, Duke facilities workers with AFSCME Local 77 held protests outside Cameron Stadium and Duke Facilities Management over alleged contract violations, according to an email from UE Local 150.   Under a 'Dignified Work' plank, Durham Rising is demanding a $25 hourly wage and respect of union rights for all Duke workers. The coalition argues that, as Durham’s largest employer, the university is able to establish the baseline for local labor practices. Image credit: Duke Respect Durham Patterson asked the crowd, “What’s the percentage of the land? [Duke owns] eleven percent of the land in Durham and they don’t pay taxes!” She added, “And our public schools are under attack. We are struggling to fund our most vulnerable populations but they sit on the land and don’t pay taxes. I want to pause there and give a huge shoutout to Duke Respect Durham.”   Duke Respect Durham began campaigning for PILOT in late 2024. Many of the group's most active organizers are members of NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Duke Respect Durham, and now Durham Rising, argues that PILOT would compensate for Duke's property tax exemption. Durham Rising doesn’t claim to oppose property tax exemptions for all educational institutions. The coalition website makes no mention of NC Central University, which has a modest endowment of $89 million [ 3 ]. The campaign's view is that Duke, with its $11.9 billion endowment, is so incredibly wealthy that continued use of the property tax exemption is a form of neglect toward Durham. The Assembly  has estimated that, “If Duke weren’t exempt from many property taxes, its bill would likely fall somewhere between $11 million and the $50 million the PILOT campaigners calculated”. In that article, the newspaper estimated that Duke paid around $2 million in 2024 property tax [ 4 ].   DAE joins Durham Rising in a position of newfound strength. The teacher's union increased membership from 15 percent to 50 percent in 2024, according to remarks by its officials. In April 2025, the school board agreed to a “meet-and-confer” policy, the closest DAE can get to union recognition. An anti-worker law, NC General Statute 95-98, deprives public sector workers of collective bargaining rights.   Nahshon Blount, a USSW member and Duke housekeeper, spoke at the town hall, saying, “We will not let you pay us poverty wages. Behind the curtain, Duke is running on the back of low-wage workers. We are tired of living paycheck to paycheck, not knowing where our next meal will come from.” He said that Duke workers “need a seat at the table” and demanded “a union for all in this city”. Durham Rising's five demands. Image credit: Durham Rising website ( bit.ly/durhamrising) USSW is a cross-workplace union for low-wage workers in the service sector. Its members can be easily spotted at political events in bright red shirts and easily heard due to their spirited chanting. Only two percent of workers are unionized in North Carolina. In a region that is extraordinarily hostile to organized labor, USSW is a bastion and training ground of progressive workers hoping to improve pay and conditions at their workplace.   Ananda Ghosh, a DPS special education teacher, gave remarks at Lyon Park. He spoke about working with an instructional assistant (IA) and said, “She built really loving strong relationships with the kids, she was really amazing. But she had to work two other jobs to make ends meet and eventually she just had to quit.”   He continued, “When I’m down an IA, I’m not able to take my students to dance class, where they learn that they’re more than just how many words they can read or how many digits they can add up. It’s where they learn that their body is free.”   According to a recent DAE statement, the 2025 budget approved by the school board would cut over 100 DPS staff [ 5 ]. To combat this type of austerity, Durham Rising includes a 'The Public Schools Our Students Deserve' plank that encourages Duke to direct part of a potential PILOT to DPS. This type of arrangement would not be unique. In 2020, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to make an annual $10 million PILOT to Philadelphia Public Schools after years of grassroots campaigning [ 6 ].    Ghosh noted an interesting challenge that Durham Rising will face in dealing with the university, saying, “Out of thirty-seven Duke trustees, at least six are billionaires. Zero are working class. Only one lists a residence in Durham.”   Other organizations that provided speakers for Wednesday's town hall:   ·      DGSU ·      UE Local 150 ·      Durham for All ·      Institute of Southern Studies ·      Duke Respect Durham Work Cited "Duke: Stand Up, Invest in Us." Durham Rising , https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/durhamrisingpetition?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExTEx0eVFkZ05XRlh2aGJaYgEezZ4NZner8bzXc3rF-X5XMmzF9SeL9qMJ7E1fsq5rYz_awjP9Gc14Cc5mjbI_aem_U-C7CxgxsRwgXQtXHXPCVg . “Duke Graduate Student Union Petitions University to Pay Graduate Workers a Living Wage.” INDY Week , 12 July 2024, https://indyweek.com/news/durham/duke-graduate-student-union-petitions-university-to-pay-graduate-workers-a-living-wage . "Board of Trustees Meeting - Endowment Fund Update." NC Central University , 18 Dec. 2024, www.nccu.edu/sites/default/files/2024-12/Endowment-Presentation-12-18-2024.pdf . “What Does Duke University Owe Durham?” The Assembly , 6 Feb. 2025, www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/duke-respect-durham . “Durham Association of Educators - Statement on April 24 Durham Public Schools Budget Vote.” Durham Dispatch , 5 May 2025, www.durhamdispatch.com/post/durham-association-of-educators-statement-on-april-24-durham-public-schools-budget-vote . “Activists Question Whether Wealthy Universities Should Be Exempt From Property Taxes.” The Hechinger Report , 18 Dec. 2020, https://hechingerreport.org/activists-question-whether-wealthy-universities-should-be-exempt-from-property-taxes .

Image credit: Artists Against Apartheid Duke University has escalated its repression against pro-Palestine, anti-genocide protest. Seven members of the Duke community, students and faculty, will be called before the University Judicial Board for hearings that decide whether there will be punishments for nonviolent vocal protest on West Campus on the evening of November 19, 2024. Potential consequences for students range from suspensions to expulsions, among others. For faculty, the hearings determine whether or not they will be fired. [1] In a November 21, 2024 email sent to the entire Duke community, the Provost promised that a nameless group of administrators would conduct a nonspecific “investigation” of the protest, which included about 50 people outside and inside the Social Sciences Building, against former Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who “spent much of his career in the Israeli Defense Forces Legal System and also served as Chief Military Advocate General.” [2] The event, billed as “ A Conversation ,” was sponsored by the soft-money Program in American Grand Strategy at Duke as well as the Duke Provost Office and the Duke Center for Jewish Studies. Protesters inside and outside provided a counter-narrative to this longtime representative of a country committing an unadulterated live-streamed genocide. [3] Prior to the 2024-25 school year, Duke joined countless university administrations panicking against rising student protests and encampments across the US in a coordinated effort to shut down anti-genocide protests, and dissent against university complicity/support for genocide, as universities worked with the same legal and ideological advisors. [4] The result at Duke, a new “ Pickets, Protests, and Demonstrations ” policy and committee, bans protests the university does not authorize and threatens people with disciplinary and legal action for participating in or attending such protests. The PPD policy is ambiguously worded, internally contradictory, and even in direct conflict with other university policies, such as those in the Faculty Handbook. [5] Moreover, its application to the November 19 protest is opaque. Out of approximately 50 Duke community members who gathered, on what basis were seven people chosen? It appears that the Duke administration wants to make an example of select community members in order to intimidate and silence all organized dissent against the genocide. This follows over a year of Duke administrative repression, threats, and instructions to delimit questions and stifle speech advocating for Palestinian liberation from Israeli siege, genocide, and settler-colonialism backed by US military, financial, and moral support. These acts at Duke occurred largely behind closed doors but were directly experienced and documented by tens of students, faculty, and staff across university divisions. PPD purportedly balances “academic freedom” with “order.” But when one reads the policy, this farcical distinction quickly breaks down. For instance, the university separates “noise” from “speech,” and yet, the provost committee says it can apply the policy against people for giving speeches. Duke claims it does not repress speech based on an ideological litmus test yet requires all gatherings to be approved, which is absurd on its face. Historically, unsanctioned protests and actions at Duke have advanced racial equality, created living wages for workers, and ended Duke’s investments in apartheid South Africa. [6] Duke acknowledges that past protests have eliminated injustices, yet insists our community must now either ask for their permission or face life-altering disciplinary consequences. Duke’s “shared values” are “respect, trust, inclusion, discovery and excellence.” The PPD claims to maintain these values. But we insist it matters what we are being asked to respect, which powers we are being asked to trust, and which voices are included. What has Duke allowed us to “discover” when the vaunted Law School has not held any public events on the International Criminal Court or International Court of Justice hearings and decisions with regard to Israel? Or when the Nicholas School of the Environment cancels student group events on the environmental impact of war and genocide? Or when the upper echelons demand obsequiousness to the Israeli-Duke line from faculty and staff in airless meeting rooms and on Zoom? There is no “excellence” in rewarding with massive honoraria those who deny, are complicit in, and profit from genocide. Rather than offering room for “dialogue,” the PPD’s biased deployment demonstrates Duke has already picked a side. Such intellectual dishonesty is unbecoming of a world-class university. In practical terms, the PPD is a dangerous policy that will likely be applied to any form of protest that does not fall within its definition of “order”– anything that uncomfortably challenges university priorities. Are we as a university community that fragile? We demand dissolution of this corrupt policy, and that all disciplinary hearings against our community members be cancelled. This article was first published by Duke Academics and Staff for Justice in Palestine . Work Cited https://dukecommunitystandard.students.duke.edu/appendices/appendix-judicial-system-duke-university/ Mandelblit is known for  facilitating illegal settlements ,  refusal to investigate torture  (resulting in death), and  flagrant disrespect of the International Criminal Court . Despite widespread consensus among major human rigths organizations that Israel regularly violates international law (see footnote 2), Mandelblit has made the preposterous claim that  “Israel does not commit atrocities.” Several human rights organizations have deemed this siege genocide. They include  Al Haq ,  Euro Med Monitor ,  Amnesty International ,  Human Rights Watch ,  and  Doctors Without Borders . A non-exhaustive list of universities with nearly identical policies can be found  here . The AAUP released a  statement condemning these policies as an assault on academic freedom and faculty governance (see also an earlier statement on peaceful protest  here ). Legal experts say that these policies are  in direct conflict with free speech . See also the UN  Special Report  condemning university repression policies. The full statement from the UN is  here . See  Appendix D  on academic freedom, versus  Appendix I  on PPD in the Faculty Handbook, which are in conflict. Oddly, faculty magically turn into students (i.e., under the authority of Student Affairs) when they protest. For more information on the history of student protest at Duke, see the university’s  extensive archival collection .

On April 5, thousands gathered in CCB Plaza and Five Points Plaza to protest the extreme instability of the first few months of the Trump administration. Organized by the Durham Democrats, the "Hands Off" rally denounced the defunding of federal scientific programs, erosion of civil rights, and the president’s authoritarian tendencies.   Turnout was huge by local standards. Organizers estimated that 2,000 people poured into the area between Corcoran Street, East Chapel Hill Street, and West Main Street. It was the city’s largest political street rally since a 2017 protest against the Klu Klux Klan [ 1 ].   Volunteer marshals kept marchers on sidewalks, but that was the extent of visible coordination. Speakers in CCB Plaza may have tried to address the crowd, but there was no sound system. No progressive groups set up tables, distributed literature, or recruited members. Around 11:30 a.m., the crowd began marching down East Chapel Hill Street and circling the block. With no chant leaders, the shouted slogans were spontaneous and random. Outside of Neomonde Mediterranean, a chant of “this is what democracy looks like” faded, suddenly replaced by Chappell Roan lyrics. (Correction: the chant may have been "H-O-T-T-O-G-O, Trump and Musk have got to go!")   Alongside the crowd in CCB Plaza were several metal racks with used clothing. The “Hands Off” rally conflicted with a flea market, which went ahead as scheduled after the political crowd thinned.   Attendees appeared to skew older and whiter. Movements popular with younger, diverse constituencies such as Black Lives Matter, Ceasefire Now, Democratic Socialism, and the Sunrise Movement have received, at best, a mixed reception from moderate liberals. After years of estrangement, anti-Trump factions may struggle to unite.   A newer liberal group, Bull City Indivisible, helped plan the “Hands Off” rally in Raleigh but not the gathering in Durham. However, Indivisible's national organization created the digital sign-up form. Durham Democrats credited two activists, Julia Borbely-Brown and Christine Barboriak, with organizing the event.   US foreign policy was on the back burner. Palestine or Ukraine received scattered support, but there was no visible protest against the government’s bombing of Yemen or threats of war against Iran. National materials for “Hands Off” events mentioned NATO, but the Western military bloc wasn't a noticeable theme at the Durham event.   The most prominent cause was federal science funding, a key part of Durham’s economy. Many signs and posters supported the NIH and EPA. The Trump administration reportedly plans to dismantle the EPA’s scientific arm, the Office of Research and Development (ORD). Many ORD researchers are based at the EPA's RTP facility, which has around 1,300 employees. Hundreds have recently been laid off from RTI International and FHI 360, which are major Triangle-based nonprofits. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), another crown jewel of RTP, is also cutting jobs. Duke University, Durham’s largest employer, began a hiring freeze in March. In 2024, Duke and RTI received nearly $1 billion in NIH grants, which are now at risk [ 2 ].   Organized labor had little visible presence, although a few people wore AFGE shirts. Advocates of class war might have been mollified by chants of “tax the rich” and posters denouncing billionaires.   Progressive rallies are often criticized for a lack of nationalist symbolism. There was little danger of that on Saturday. Across from Pour Taproom, a group held up a 10-foot American flag with wooden supports. Red, white, and blue decorated the edges of homemade posters and some attendees wore flag-patterned plastic cowboy hats. One marcher toted an obscure banner that turned out to be a Bunker Hill battle flag. Another attendee mistook it for Greenland’s flag.   Near the Marriott hotel, someone waved a hammer-and-sickle flag with Donald Trump’s face printed on it. With equal coherence, one marcher carried the flags of three nations - the US, Israel, and Palestine.   If “Hands Off” protests in Durham wished to escalate, the city's recent history provides striking options. In November 2023, Jewish Voice for Peace blocked the Durham freeway, trying to pressure Rep. Valerie Foushee to support a Gaza ceasefire [ 3 ]. Similar actions could be used to urge Sen. Thom Tillis to oppose various Trump policies.   The April 5 rally drew less than one percent of Durham’s population. In the last city council elections, voter turnout was only 12 percent. Although the Bull City is considered a progressive bastion, it remains largely depoliticized and disorganized as federal politics head in an ominous direction.   Work Cited   DeBruyn, Jason. “Thousands of Anti-KKK Protesters March Through Downtown Durham.” WUNC , 21 Aug. 2017, www.wunc.org/news/2017-08-18/thousands-of-anti-kkk-protesters-march-through-downtown-durham . Snipes, Cameron. “Duke, UNC and One Other Entity Dwarf Rest in Triangle NIH Funding.”  Triangle Business Journal , 27 Jan. 2025,  www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2025/01/27/duke-unc-nih-funds-grants-healthcare-research-trum.html . Gordon, Brian. “Durham Protest Calling for Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Ends, Freeway Blocked for Hours.”  Raleigh News & Observer , 3 Dec. 2024,  www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article281363198.html .

On April 30, the US Army Corps of Engineers published the public notices for Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC’s Clean Water Act permit for the stream and wetlands crossings for its proposed methane gas pipeline “Southgate.” The notices are for the Norfolk  and Wilmington  Districts of the Army Corps [ 1 ][ 2 ]. Southgate would travel from the Mountain Valley Pipeline mainline terminus in Chatham, Virginia through Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Rockingham, North Carolina. According to the notices, “the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps)…has found that this permit request meets the terms of EO 14156  and is therefore subject to special emergency permitting procedures to address an energy supply situation which would result in an unacceptable hazard to life, a significant loss of property, or an immediate, unforeseen, and significant economic hardship if corrective action requiring a permit is not undertaken within a time period less than the normal time needed to process the application under standard procedures.” [ 3 ] The Southgate project would extend the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline along a route similar to the proposed Southeast Supply Enhancement Project from Williams Companies’ expansion of their network of Transco pipelines. These projects are also currently undergoing a review process by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The co-location of two high-pressure, large diameter pipelines is of significant concern for local residents in the impacted counties. The application process for Southgate also includes review by the Virginia and North Carolina Departments of Environmental Quality. Their public comment periods are estimated to be in late Spring and early Summer. “Navigating permit processes is difficult enough for communities without the added chaos and confusion created by arbitrary and baseless ‘emergency’ declarations,” said Russell Chisholm, Managing Director at POWHR. “Expediting project approvals without full public participation and rigorous review will have disastrous results for our lands, water and people. Any project, including Southgate, claiming to be in the public or national interest deserves public and national scrutiny.” “For years MVP Southgate—a proposed extension of MVP mainline—has never moved forward and has been denied multiple permits,” said Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck, Director at 7 Directions of Service . “Community members along the MVP mainline route tell us how their lives, their land and their waterways continue to suffer as a result of these pipeline developers, their violations and the lack of accountability. Our regulators must do everything in their power to protect North Carolinians from a similar fate.” This article was first published by POWHR . Work Cited “Public Notice of 404 Permit.” ACE Norfolk District , 30 Apr. 2025, www.nao.usace.army.mil/Media/Public-Notices/Article/4169869/nao-2018-1574-mountain-valley-pipeline-south-gate-pittsylvania-county-virginia . “Public Notice of 404 Permit.” ACE Wilmington District , 30 Apr. 2025,, www.saw.usace.army.mil/Portals/59/docs/regulatory/publicnotices/2025/NAO-2018-1574_SAW-2018-0887_PN2.pdf . "Executive Order 14156." The American Presidency Project . www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-14156-declaring-national-energy-emergency .

Image credit: Durham Association of Educators Last night at the School Board meeting, we picketed at the Fuller Building together, delivered Board member report cards based on which of our priorities they support, and delivered powerful testimony in public comment. It was a proud display of our unity and growth as a union — bus drivers and monitors, media coordinators, cafeteria workers, IAs, EC teachers, parents and more, standing side by side. Despite our union’s call for more transparency and a delay on the vote, the Board of Education unanimously voted to send the Superintendent’s budget request to the Board of County Commissioners with many crucial questions left unanswered. We still have not seen the district’s audit or learned what funds are available in the General Fund, but still the Board approved a budget request that calls for cutting over 100 teachers and other frontline staff, offers no local raises for classified staff, excludes interventionists and other positions from Master’s Pay, and excludes bus monitors from the newly proposed $200/month supplement for bus drivers. All this while also funding 101 directors and supervisors downtown— a number that far exceeds the number of Assistant Principals we have (86) and the number of directors the state allots Durham. Simply put: this budget process was not transparent or collaborative enough and this budget request does not prioritize what students and frontline staff need most. That is extremely disappointing. There are a few bright spots in the budget request that were a direct result of our organizing and are worth celebrating. It includes extending Master’s Pay to social workers, a $200/month supplement for bus driver supplement (a proposal our union leaders brought the district starting in December), and a certified supplement increase - three items that will make a real material difference in the lives of some workers and that were a part of our Spring 2025 priorities. All of our Spring 2025 Articles that we presented to Board members this month received a significant amount of attention in the discussion— it was encouraging to hear five Board members (Wendell Tabb, Joy Harrell Goff, Emily Chávez, Bettina Umstead, Jessica Carda-Auten) specifically lift up our public meetings and proposals. It wasn’t everything we wanted, and we still want to see more action on our priorities this Spring, but it was a sign of the progress we are making thanks to the union power we have worked so hard to build these past 18 months. We have been acting like a union and decision makers are learning to accept this. While we did push the District to be more transparent than they originally intended, and we should celebrate our campaign efforts on that front, the timing of the release of this information made real transparency and collaboration impossible. Much of the crucial information about position cuts was not made clear until this week and some essential questions were still left unanswered. Repeatedly when Board members asked for key information, they received unclear and at times evasive answers from district administration. As with so many other important questions, when Board member Chávez asked administration what it would cost to include bus monitors in the transportation supplement, they could not or would not provide the answer. Administrators said they would need time to calculate the answer and it was too late to incorporate into this budget request even though it only requires knowing how many bus monitors work for the district— we estimate that it would only cost an additional $130-160k to include the 60-80 bus monitors in DPS, which is less than some downtown supervisors are paid. When Board members asked how much it would cost to extend Master’s Pay to all who would have qualified in 2013 (and not just teachers and social workers), again administrators did not have an answer even though that figure has been requested repeatedly since last Spring. When Board member Tabb asked about the audit and the fund balance, it appeared that district administration had an idea of what funds were available, but chose not to disclose that information despite the impending vote. While we understand that our new Superintendent and CFO inherited many of our glaring financial issues from previous administrations, that is not an excuse for the lack of answers that were provided to the public last night before the budget request was passed. After the classified pay debacle and this year’s budget mismanagement, we have learned our lesson once and for all that our students and staff simply cannot afford to blindly trust the decisions and priorities of a few administrators. For years under previous administrations, some of these same Board members and directors insisted to us that workers and community members need to sit back and let administration make all the decisions, and that lack of accountability is exactly what led to all these budget mismanagement issues we are all struggling to resolve now. We cannot repeat the same mistakes moving forward. Next year, we believe Meet & Confer negotiations will help us finally change the broken status quo in DPS, but in order to do that we need Board members who are willing to join us in championing transparency, accountability, and collaboration more than they did in this budget cycle. Our staff and students deserve a transformation of how DPS operates. So what’s next? We will continue to do everything we can to demand answers about our finances and push to reallocate funds towards the things students need most. We also have several non-budgetary proposals in our Spring priorities that require urgent action from the bosses. Last night we invited Dr. Lewis and his team to another public meeting to discuss our Articles (many have already received majority approval from Board members, which you can see here in the report cards we unveiled last night) and modifying the Meet & Confer policy. Protecting students and families from ICE, personal days and inclement weather days for classified staff, printed contracts, and a collective grievance policy are just some of the proposals we hope to finalize collaboratively with the superintendent and his team so that we can end the year on a high-note together. We sent him multiple options for meeting times in mid-May and will update everyone when he RSVPs. In the bigger picture: we have to keep growing our union and inspiring our coworkers across the state. Next year we will have Meet & Confer sessions starting in the Fall, which will put us in a stronger position than ever in district decision making, but we know we’ll need supermajority worker unity to have our voice heard. We’ll also lead our new coalition Durham Rising to demand Duke pay its fair share and more. Next Spring we’ll also have the opportunity to elect a new School Board and we need to channel all our political muscle into making sure we elect leaders we can count on to put students and workers first and hold the administration accountable. And as always, our statewide union must keep leading the fight to beat the privatizers in the General Assembly so that we can finally win all the resources we need. Onwards! This statement was first published by the Durham Association of Educators . Image credit: Durham Association of Educators

Neuse Riverkeeper is asking Durham residents to speak out, and against, yet another development proposal in the Lick Creek watershed. Durham City Council members are scheduled to vote on the Howard property rezoning on Monday, May 5, at their council meeting. The proposal includes construction of 499 residential housing units on 86.4 acres of land adjacent to Lick Creek and the protected Falls Lake drinking-water watershed. “We need people to stand up for the Lick Creek watershed and downstream communities who rely on clean water in Falls Lake,” Samantha said. “It’s going to take all of our voices to get through to a majority of city council members, so we need everyone who can to send a message, or better yet, attend Monday’s meeting in person to tell Durham council to deny more large-scale sprawl in the imperiled Lick Creek watershed.” The project area includes five jurisdictional streams and parts of the North Carolina Natural Heritage designated natural area called the Middle Lick Creek Bottomlands, which contains unique habitat, plant and fish species, she said. Over the past three years, Samantha has documented the impacts of the rampant development of the Lick Creek watershed. A clear line of sediment delineates water flowing from Lick Creek past Rolling View Marina into Falls Lake. “The Lick Creek watershed has already suffered immensely from development pressure, and our ongoing water-quality sampling demonstrates that sediment remains a concerning pollution crisis in Lick Creek,” Samantha said. “Durham City Council should require developments in this area to commit to strong environmental conditions to ensure that no more destruction is caused in this environmentally sensitive area.” Samantha said she is asking Durham City Council to vote against the Howard property proposal unless strong environmental conditions are adopted to the unique forest habitat and water resources on the site and downstream. The council will vote on the rezoning proposal at its meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, May 5. More information about the meeting can be found here . More background information on Lick Creek from Samantha: The Howard property rezoning development includes five state-regulated, jurisdictional streams that flow into the Lick Creek Natural Heritage area.  According to the North Carolina Natural Heritage Area assessment, this remaining forested area is unique for containing mature hardwood forest and significantly rare and vulnerable plant and fish species such as the Carolina darter fish and the Douglass bittercress flower, which have also been documented within a mile of the project area. This project is located in the closest developable land to the Falls Lake Critical Watershed boundary and abuts the city’s Urban Growth Boundary — defined in Durham’s Comprehensive Plan as an area “beyond which annexations and utility extensions should not occur, limiting significant development.”  The currently forested land on the Howard property site is surrounded by recently approved developments and a landscape of clear-cutting and exposed soils. High-density land clearing in the Lick Creek watershed has led to such harmful levels of sediment pollution that sediment plumes can be seen flowing into Falls Lake from the sky. Sound Rivers has documented this pollution for years, but few additional measures have been required of developers to retain sediment on their construction sites.  Durham City Council should take steps to protect our water resources by asking developers to commit to clearing less land of trees, and adopting better sediment and erosion control and stormwater practices. The City of Durham’s Environmental Affairs Board — a volunteer board of environmental experts appointed by city council — stated to Durham Council that “The Howard Property development poses substantial environmental risks with minimal mitigation measures in place,” and called for the developer to incorporate “more stringent commitments to sustainable building practices, retaining tree coverage, reducing impervious surfaces, stormwater management, and biodiversity protection.” This article was published first by Sound Rivers .

Dear City Manager Ferguson and County Manager Hager, The Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit (CAHT) is a grassroots organization with 612 supporters committed to supporting programs, initiatives, and policies that increase affordable housing and public transportation options in Durham City and its surrounding county. Our advocacy encompasses consideration of all social drivers (i.e., housing inventory, rental availability, eviction avoidance, health outcomes, AMI household income levels, environmental impacts, etc.) to promote affordable homeownership, providing neighborhood stability, diversity, and equitable wealth-building, housing security, and safety for all Durham residents. As such, we would like to provide our local government leaders with input on specific items of interest for the FY2025-2026 budget planning process. The four FY2025-2026 City, County, or County-only budget priorities that our organization has endorsed previously and continues to advocate for in this year’s budget process are as follows. Request #1 : Continue funding the GoDurham Free Fares program, which helps alleviate the financial pressure on individuals and families facing economic challenges. The cost would be $1.5 million. Please note that the Coalition also adamantly opposes $2.00 fare proposals, as the increased fares would harm Durham’s struggling residents, who tend to use public transportation. Request #2: Fully fund the HEART program, which provides valuable outreach and tangible support for residents facing eviction and homelessness. Request #3 : Maintain the 2-cent tax increase to the property tax rate implemented in the FY2021- 2022 budget. This increase is needed for: Maintaining progress on developing and redeveloping affordable housing in Durham’s transit opportunity area for households at or below 60% Area Median Income (AMI); Expansion of supportive housing program opportunities; Continuation of the Down Payment Assistance Program for homeownership; Funding the Repairs program for Durham’s low-income seniors; Establishing a contingency fund to enable short-term loans to non-profits and city programs expecting HUD reimbursements; and Implementing a rental assistance program for low-income residents to help offset the loss of federal-funded vouchers and other lost funding, thereby supporting Durham’s most vulnerable citizens. Request #4 : Continue the Low-Income Homeowners Tax Credit Program at its current funding level. Additionally, CAHT requests funding for the following budget items, which are new requests for FY2025- 2026. Request #5 : The redevelopment project for the 505 West Chapel Hill Street police headquarters is progressing slowly. However, the Coalition requests that subsidies be included in the budget to increase the number of affordable housing units in the Peebles Corporation proposal from 110 to 130, representing a 20-unit increase that requires subsidies. Request #6: The allocation of $5 million to thoroughly remediate toxic chemicals (i.e., lead) in the affected parks. We appreciate your consideration of our coalition community budgetary requests and are available to answer any questions regarding the information in this document. Thank you in advance for consideration of CAHT's requests as a member of community of organizations concerned about Durham residents and the area's affordable housing.   Sincerely, Cynthia Williams, Chair of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit of Durham This article was published first by the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit of Durham .

During April negotiations, Duke University administrators reduced their stipend offer to graduate workers and refused compromise on other key issues, according to the Duke Graduate Student Union (DGSU). The setback for Duke workers comes amid a larger attack on higher education by the Trump administration, which has threatened to cut federal funding and demanded crackdowns on dissent.   On April 1, Duke withdrew a previous stipend proposal of $43,680. Neither the university nor DGSU has disclosed the new offer. One of the main campaigns of the union, which has been recognized since August 2023, has been to achieve annual Ph.D. stipends of $50,000 for graduate workers [ 1 ]. That would amount to a living wage for a two-adult, one-child household in Durham County, according to MIT [ 2 ]. Currently, Duke stipends are $30,000 in the first year and around $40,000 in the second year and onward [ 3 ]. The men’s basketball coach earns about $7 million per year, by comparison.   At an April 1 bargaining session, Duke refused to consider DGSU proposals on protections for international workers against ICE, guarantees for sixth year funding, and safeguards against assault and harassment. Administrators also introduced a “Force Majeure” clause into negotiations, a legal tool that would allow them to violate the union contract at will.   During the next meeting with university officials, on April 10, the DGSU sought to limit the scope of Force Majeure. Workers proposed that the clause would not remove the right to strike, that its use would trigger expedited arbitration, and that Force Majeure would not be exploited to deeply cut stipends (only for cancellation of year-over-year increases), along with other modifications. Duke insisted the clause could be invoked without notice and that the union could not strike in response.   At the April 10 session, the union also reiterated that international students would need increased protection and resources given the government's xenophobic and repressive inclinations. Workers proposed six safeguards that included SEVIS monitoring, legal assistance, and protest protections. Administrators replied only that they were “not looking to walk back anything we’ve committed to”.   In the face of setbacks, DGSU has refocused on “bottom line” demands, which are (1) reinstating the $43,680 stipend offer, (2) securing protections for international workers, and (3) guaranteeing funding security.   Duke has a $12 billion endowment, which undermines any claim it cannot afford a living wage for graduate workers. Inadequate payment of graduate workers persists as an issue not just at Duke but across higher education as a whole. According to CSStipendRankings, the only four universities that pay a stipend in excess of “fees and living” are Brown, Notre Dame, Yale, and Princeton [ 4 ].   Labor discontent at Duke extends beyond the graduate student union. From April 14 to 18, Duke facilities workers with AFSCME Local 77 planned protests outside Cameron Stadium and Duke Facilities Management over alleged contract violations.   Duke’s lower stipend offer coincides with the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education. The president has threatened to withhold federal funds from universities unless they agree to numerous demands that include suppression of anti-war students and admission of more right-wing students. Even before such threats, Duke imposed a new “pickets, protests, and demonstrations” policy that constrained unapproved forms of speech and assembly [ 5 ]. This article was heavily based on DGSU Bargaining Bulletins .   Work Cited   “Duke Graduate Student Union Petitions University to Pay Graduate Workers a Living Wage.”  INDY Week , 12 July 2024,  www.indyweek.com/news/durham/duke-graduate-student-union-petitions-university-to-pay-graduate-workers-a-living-wage . “Living Wage Calculation for Durham County, North Carolina.” MIT Living Wage Calculation .  https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/37063 . “Tuition, Fees, and Ph.D. Stipends.”  Duke The Graduate School , 27 Aug. 2024,  www.gradschool.duke.edu/financial-support/tuition-fees-and-phd-stipends . “CSStipendRankings: PhD Stipend Rankings.” CS Stipend Rankings .  https://csstipendrankings.org . “Duke Deploys ‘Pickets, Protests, and Demonstrations’ Policy to Silence Dissent.”  Duke Academics and Staff for Justice in Palestine , 8 Jan. 2025,  www.dukeforpalestine.org/2025/01/08/duke-ppd-silences-dissent .

Image credit: Instagram page of REI Union Durham An REI Union organizer fired in May 2023 has reached a settlement with the outdoor retailer. Steven Pitts, a leader of the union drive at REI’s Durham location, was fired after workers went on strike over withheld benefits. On March 20, REI Union Durham announced the victory and thanked supporters for standing with Mr. Pitts and their cause [ 1 ] [ 2 ]. The workers' statement said, " not only did Steven win what he was owed, but it’s a testament to the power we have when we come together and use our collective voice to stand up for what we deserve!"   Firing employees for union organizing is illegal, but enforcement has been weak since the Reagan administration, allowing companies to dismiss pro-union workers with little consequence. Mr. Pitts’ termination led to increased community support for REI Union Durham and widespread criticism of the company, including by Senator Bernie Sanders [ 3 ].   Since REI Union was founded in May 2022, workers at 11 of the company’s stores nationwide have successfully won union elections. In response, REI retained law firm Morgan Lewis to lead a union avoidance campaign. Anti-union lawyers often make hundreds of dollars an hour in their repellent trade, while the workers they're suppressing make a fraction of that.   Mr. Pitts' settlement was assisted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which took a more worker-friendly stance under the Biden administration, a shift from four decades of heavy corporate bias. Under the Trump administration, the NLRB is being stacked with anti-union figures, including a partner from Morgan Lewis.   REI Union Durham represents workers at the company's location in the Renaissance Center, which is across from the Southpoint Mall. Over the past two years, the local union has managed to find community support and form ties with Durham Association of Educators, CAUSE, Southern Workers Assembly, and other pro-worker groups.   In May 2024, dozens of community members and Durham city council member Nate Baker attended a rally celebrating the one-year anniversary of REI Union Durham [ 4 ]. At the event, supporters called on the company to engage in good-faith contract negotiations. REI has stalled contract negotiations for years, a common union-busting tactic in the US which is illegal in many other countries.   Work Cited   “REI Union Durham post.” Instagram, 20 March 2025, www.instagram.com/p/DHblTvzTHnc/ . “REI Union Durham post.” X (formerly Twitter) , 10 May 2023,  https://x.com/reiuniondurham/status/1656457491629105153 . “Bernie Sanders post.” X (formerly Twitter) , 4 May 2023, https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1654227536669188105 . “Durham REI Workers Celebrate One-Year Union Anniversary With Community Rally.”  Durham Dispatch , 28 May 2024,  www.durhamdispatch.com/post/durham-rei-workers-celebrate-one-year-union-anniversary-with-community-rally

“As the South goes, so goes the nation.”—W.E.B. DuBois “One thing we do not need is more labor unions.  We have gotten where we are without them, and we do not need them now.”— Henry McMaster, Governor of South Carolina, State of the State address, January 2024 So where exactly have we gotten? Currently, workers in the Southern U.S. have the lowest wages in the country leading to the highest poverty levels; we have the weakest worker protections and badly underfunded public services leading to the worst health outcomes and the shortest life spans; and fewer than 5% of workers have collective bargaining.  One must ask, is this their goal for the rest of the country too? How will the South be organized? The short answer: in the same way that all U.S. working class movements have succeeded. The Southern Workers Assembly was created in 2012 to encourage Southern workers to exercise some degree of power over their work lives and their living situation regardless of their union status. Black Americans account for 20% of the population in the Southern states and more than half of all African Americans in the US live in the south. Black men in particular have the highest rate of unionization among all workers in the US.  African American workers have a history of leading successful social movements and, given the historical role of slavery and white supremacy in shaping the Southern economy, labor struggles by Black workers are inherently political struggles for self-determination and against the whole system of racist exploitation. Therefore, the SWA centers our organizing work on recognizing, promoting, and following Black workers and workers of color, all the while seeking to build solidarity across lines of race, gender, and other social categories. Of course, all workers need collective bargaining, but waiting for lightning to strike and spontaneously light the fire for unionism is not a viable strategy. And neither is relying on the occasional NLRB election for three reasons. Reason One — The Numbers Don’t Add Up The labor movement can’t possibly run enough elections fast enough to make a difference. In the U.S. there are roughly 160 million workers, of which about 135 million are covered by the National Labor Relations Act. Twelve million are already in unions. That leaves about 120 million private sector workers eligible for NLRB elections. While 2024 polling showed that nearly 60 million workers would join a union if they could, only 120,000 workers participated in recognition elections, which turned out to be double the number of 60,000 in 2021. At this rate, in 100 years we will have organized only 10% of the non-union workers. Reason Two — Massive Organizing Happens in Sweeps Not One-at-a-Time During the period 1930 to 1941, social turmoil resulted in mass working class organization and collective bargaining in major U.S. industries. SWA identified the necessary elements that were present in the upsurge and uses those lessons to guide our efforts. The first and most important element is the existence of a committed core of experienced activists and organizers in major workplaces linked together in networks that spread throughout both industrial sectors and geographies. Their common intent was to establish collective bargaining as a democratic necessity and thereby win a better life for the entire working class. Many failures taught them through their practical experience to use sympathy strikes, defy injunctions and use brief sit down strikes to win grievances. Other elements – including sharply defined class politics, new legislation encouraging collective bargaining, a few top union leaders who broke politically and tactically with the moribund AFL by refusing to compromise militancy and gave local organizing efforts a national voice and support— were necessary but not sufficient for success. Without the organized pre-existing network of experienced cadre, ready to act once the breakthrough occurred, in this case the Flint sit-down strike victory, massive organizing involving millions would not have spread. Reason Three — Successful Collective Bargaining Requires Significant Power The objective of collective bargaining and striking is to have and exert sufficient power to establish wages and conditions that materially advance the lives of millions. It is inconceivable that bargaining based on one or two workplaces within a non-union sector or corporation or region could result in meaningful collective bargaining. In today’s world, dependent as we are on the NLRB certification to bargain contracts, we must have a strategy that starts with building organization within the shops and workplaces led by a network of cadre, trained worker leaders and organizers, in many important industries and sectors.  These shop floor or workplace organizations may start as organizing committees with an eye toward conducting multiple NLRB elections and thus bringing to bear sufficient power to negotiate contracts in a coordinated way. Or they may build union organizations that take up struggles and campaigns on the shop floor, winning rights and victories that work toward building power sufficient to demand recognition and collective bargaining. Recent Examples: Recent examples of unions successfully winning union elections in multiple locations in the same employer and using a coordinated strategy in bargaining include the Starbucks Workers United campaign of hundreds of coffee shops and the National Nurses Organizing Committee efforts from 2004 to 2010 to organize nurses in the Southern states. Non-union nurses built a network across many hospitals and in several states resulting in dozens of facilities in two for-profit hospital chains winning elections and union contracts.  The work in both campaigns continues but it doesn’t appear that workers in either campaign intended that one shop would take on these corporate behemoths by themselves. Another version of this strategy is the Black Workers for Justice campaigns in the 1980s and 90s to build functioning non-majority unions in multiple locations in the private sector prior to attempting to conduct elections or by establishing meet and confer in the public sector, as public sector unions proliferated in the last several decades.  The method was to build rank and file committees and make workplace demands which were won with collective actions in the workplace. In the non-union South, BWFJ organizers used these methods to build the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150, where collective bargaining is prohibited by law in the public sector.  Several of these committees and UE Local 150 exist to this day and provide leadership to workers in developing local assemblies in SWA. Southern Workers Assembly Strategy SWA learned from our working-class history and developed a strategy that applies to today’s conditions. We created an intentional and deliberate plan of organization and cadre development in multiple workplaces in discrete geographies to lay the groundwork for a “sweep” of workers forming unions. This not only gets us to scale in terms of the numbers needed to really grow the labor movement but also to exert significant power in negotiations that result from multiple elections. We think that a committee of three to five workers in a shop is sufficient to start. Our method is to establish leafleting brigades of local activists and political allies to reach out to workers at their shift change. Lately we have been using social media as a method of outreach as well. Once there are committees in three to five workplaces, an assembly can be established to engage in collective action — mostly public facing campaigns designed to address workplace issues and develop leaders. Currently, we have a network of 17 local assemblies in four states and are always working on developing more. Once we had a few assemblies, we started to conduct worker schools usually twice a year to meet together, build community and network, develop skills, and strategize campaigns. The worker schools were another featured methodology developed by Black Workers for Justice in its 40 year history of organizing.  Several years ago SWA started to create industrial councils in manufacturing, education, hospitality, logistics, and tourism. Our newest council is being established for gig drivers. We developed a ten-point Southern Worker Power Program creating some cohesion among the demands that assemblies and councils could fight for. The program is based on the idea that as workers we have certain rights and therefore we make demands that enforce and enhance those rights. Pieces of the program include demands related to health care, collective bargaining rights, education, ending all forms of discrimination and providing reparations for Black and Indigenous people, demilitarizing the police and ending unpaid prison labor, and a clean environment and taking steps to counteract the effects of climate change. Experience and activism will inform the local assemblies, workplace organizations, and cadre about which of these issues to take on as well as which strategies and tactics will work; sit downs are not likely to be the preferred strategy but other ideas will occur to people. Efforts will fail and workers will learn, new tactics will be devised. SWA attempts to replicate the elements that we have some control over while paying attention to when other conditions become present for a breakthrough.  When that happens, the organizations and cadre that are working in the many non-union workplaces and industries will be looking for it, they will recognize it for what it is, and they will cause a “sweep” into the unions. SWA’s Newest Project: Electric Vehicle Rank and File Project About 15% of carbon emissions in the U.S. come from cars. It is even higher when you calculate in trucks and other forms of transportation. It is important for the climate that people start to drive electric vehicles instead of relying on combustion engines. It is equally important that the workers don’t lose good quality jobs during that transition to a cleaner environment. Recently, SWA embarked on a new project that is very intentional about developing cadre in the new Electric Vehicle industry and associated manufacturing plants. We have done broad outreach to workers intending to go to work in this new industry and network them together so they can have a coordinated approach to organizing in their workplaces. We identified five cities where we would start based on certain criteria. We want cities that have new construction as well as a cluster of other manufacturing plants and would therefore be hiring lots of people.  We think that makes it easier for people to get hired and also, with an entirely new workforce, nobody is disadvantaged in terms of exerting leadership with their co-workers. We also want locations where SWA has a local assembly so that these workers can be networked together both by industry and geography. We have gotten a good start on this work. One day this industry and the South will be unionized. Looking back at the lessons learned from the creation of the CIO and the elements necessary for success, we can’t control for several of them. But we can influence the most important of the elements. We can build organization, develop cadres of leadership in important industries and we can create networks of these shop floor organizations and leaders and the militant minorities in their workplaces. We can take collective action and learn what tactics are effective and which to avoid. We can pay attention to the objective conditions and when conditions exist to have a major sweep of workers into unions, there will be dozens of geographic areas and several electric vehicle locations ready to be part of that.   This essay appears courtesy of International Publishers in New York . This paper will be published in 2025 in the collection “Square Up: Building Labor’s Power in the Second Gilded Age” by Lorri Nandrea and Tony Pecinovsky. This essay was republished from Southern Workers Assembly .