Durham Dispatch

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 .

On March 15, approximately 75 demonstrators gathered in Moore Square to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-war activist from Columbia University. The event featured speakers from UNC Students for Justice in Palestine, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Jewish Voices for Peace, and other groups. Key topics included threats to freedom of speech, continued Israeli attacks on Gaza, and unexpected support for Khalil among North Carolina's Democratic congresspeople. No elected officials attended the demonstration, which was more heavily surveilled by Raleigh police than previous pro-Palestine rallies.   The rally began with chants such as, “Palestine is not for sale, Donald Trump belongs in jail!” before Hashem Amireh was introduced as the first speaker. Amireh, president of the UNC graduate student union, was suspended in May 2024 for Palestine activism [ 1 ].   “We do what we do for the sake of the oppressed,” said Amireh, “For the sake of Palestinians who have endured almost eighty years of dispossession, violence, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”   Amireh, who relies on a student visa, noted that he enjoys fewer legal protection than Khalil, a green card holder. He vowed to continue his anti-war activism despite the increased risk of deportation. As Amireh spoke, audience members held signs with slogans like “Jews say, free Mahmoud” and “Fight Nazis, not students.”   The Trump administration is seeking to deport Mahmoud Khalil using the Immigration and National Act of 1952, which allows the expulsion of non-citizens for almost any reason. Khalil’s deportation could be halted if the judicial branch finds the 1952 law unconstitutional under the First or Fifth Amendments. The Immigration and National Act was passed during the Second Red Scare, an anticommunist hysteria used to undermine various forms of domestic dissent. Forward magazine reports that Democratic Senator Pat McCarran introduced the law in part to keep out “Jewish Holocaust survivors suspected of being Soviet agents” [ 2 ].   The second speaker, Rania Masri of the North Carolina Green Party, discussed recent Israeli attacks on Gaza. She said, “In the past 24 hours alone, twelve Palestinians in Gaza were slaughtered, butchered, shredded by US-made weaponry dropped by the Israeli pilots. That was including four children. Nine people were killed this morning in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza while they were trying to distribute aid." According to NPR , eight of Israel's victims in the Beit Lahiya bombing were staff members of the UK-based Al-Khair Foundation, a humanitarian aid organization [ 3 ].   During her remarks, Masri defended her decision to vote for the Green Party in the 2024 presidential election, and also praised people who voted for PSL. Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein received 0.4 percent of the vote in North Carolina, while PSL’s Claudia Cruz garnered about 0.01 percent. Vice President Kamala Harris lost the state by 3.2 percent.   A speaker for the Palestinian Youth Movement linked recent Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank to Khalil’s arrest: “These struggles are not far from us and the arrest Mahmoud Khalil is a prime example of that. As we all know now, undercover ICE agents kidnapped Mahmoud and claimed they were acting on State Department orders to revoke his student visa. When he explained to them that he had a green card, they claimed they would revoke that instead.”   Dozens of peace rallies have been held in Moore Square since October 2023. Speeches in the park are often followed by police-escorted marches. However, law enforcement presence seemed heavier at Saturday's event, with multiple officers patrolling the square and motorcycle cops stationed at nearby intersections. Raleigh city government and police have never moved to repress the ceasefire rallies, which have been able to maintain a safe, family-friendly atmosphere.   Sandra Korn of Jewish Voice for Peace addressed the crowd. She said, “What we saw in the last couple of weeks was a state-sponsored kidnapping targeting multiple students who spoke out for Palestinian human rights. All people of conscience, including Jewish people, should be demanding Mahmoud Khalil’s release immediately.”   Korn shared the news that North Carolina congresspeople Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross had just signed a letter strongly criticizing Khalil’s detention [ 4 ]. The crowd cheered, pleasantly surprised at the move by two pro-Israel lawmakers.   AIPAC spent around $2 million to help elect Foushee in 2022. In May 2024, Foushee and other lawmakers travelled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2024 to discuss plans for continued wars against Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran [ 5 ]. Netanyahu now faces an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, including starvation and attacks on civilians.   Ross has accepted over $20,000 from AIPAC since 2020 and staunchly refused to support a ceasefire throughout the US-Israeli assault on Gaza. In May 2024, she voted in favor of HR 6090, a bill aimed at suppressing criticism of Israel on college campuses. Though the bill failed in the Senate, similar efforts have succeeded in weakening free speech protections and helped lead to Khalil’s arrest.   The “Free Mahmoud Khalil Now” event concluded with a speaker from Mothers for a Ceasefire, who spoke about other regions where US policies have contributed to ongoing conflicts, such as Sudan, Congo, and Haiti. Circling back to Palestine, she said, “It’s only freedom of speech when they promote a genocide on a nation. However, when we tell our politicians to stop killing children, we are the problem.”   Work Cited   "Something You Can’t Ignore: Q&A with Hashem Amireh, Who Was Suspended Following the Pro-Palestine Protests at UNC."  Indyweek , 12 June 2024,  https://indyweek.com/news/orange/something-you-cant-ignore-qa-with-hashem-amireh-who-was-suspended-following-the-pro-palestine-protests-at-unc/ . Silverstein, Andrew. "McCarran-Walter Act: State Department Plan to Deport Pro-Hamas Students."  Forward, 7 March 2025,  https://forward.com/news/702427/mccarran-walter-act-state-department-plan-deport-pro-hamas-students/ . Lonsdorf, Kat. "Gaza Air Strike: Israel and Al-Khair Foundation."  NPR , 16 Mar. 2025,  https://www.npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-5329257/gaza-air-strike-israel-al-khair-foundation . Foushee, Valerie.  X (formerly Twitter) , 17 March 2025,  https://x.com/ValerieFoushee/status/1901708531016835402 . "Prime Minister Netanyahu to AIPAC delegation of Democratic Congressmen: We must win - there is no substitute for victory."  Israeli PM YouTube Channel , 27 March 2024,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrGI_9FDGR4 .

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 .

Fracked gas plant in NC: Image credit: Duke Energy via Creative Commons Today 150 environmental, social justice, faith and youth organizations and businesses from across the country called on North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein to confront Duke Energy Corp.’s expansion of planet-warming fossil fuels and obstruction of renewable energy solutions [ 1 ]. The letter comes after the town of Carrboro sued Duke Energy — the third-largest corporate polluter in the country — in the first-ever lawsuit against an electric utility for harms caused by the company’s decades-long climate deception campaign [ 2 ]. The town’s lawsuit says Duke Energy’s actions have worsened the climate crisis and cost the town millions of dollars. According to the complaint, Duke Energy executives have known for more than 50 years about the dangers of fossil fuels but have facilitated a nationwide campaign to mislead the public about its climate harms and increased reliance on coal and gas for electricity. Now communities across the state are being harmed as fossil fuels drive up utility bills and pollution and worsen the climate crisis. “The nation and the world desperately need bold leaders to step up as climate champions,” said Jim Warren, executive director of NC WARN. “Gov. Stein must break through the continuing Duke Energy deception and help the public understand that North Carolina cannot allow the continued expansion of fracked gas and the suppression of cheaper, faster, fairer solar power at the local level.” Stein has a history of standing up to Duke Energy leaders and other polluters during his eight years as attorney general. As governor, he should use his powerful voice to help the public understand the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels this decade, the groups say. They are urging Stein to use his broad authority to alter Duke Energy’s business practices to stop increasing fossil fuel power generation and suppressing solar power [ 3 ].  “Gov. Stein must stand up to fossil fuel bullies like Duke Energy, whose anti-climate shenanigans are causing widespread harm to people and our planet,” said Gaby Sarri-Tobar, senior energy justice campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “North Carolinians, like millions of people across the country, are facing life-altering fossil fuel-driven extreme weather and skyrocketing utility bills. And it’ll only get worse as Duke Energy expands fracked gas and blocks resilient and affordable renewable energy solutions like rooftop and community solar. Especially now as Trump and his billionaire buddies throw communities and our climate under the bus, we need Gov. Stein to be the first in line to challenge the polluters who are putting lives in peril.” Duke Energy plans to build 9 gigawatts of new fracked gas plants in the Carolinas alone by 2033, which would saddle families with higher utility bills, worsen air and water quality, and fuel global warming and more extreme weather, like heat waves and hurricanes, in the Southeast [ 4 ]. Meanwhile, in 2023, the corporation generated only 1.4% of its power from solar [ 5 ].  For many years, Duke Energy has obstructed local solar solutions, like rooftop and community solar, despite the many community and resilience benefits distributed renewable energy provides [ 6 ]. “Gov. Stein, as our former Attorney General, you are keenly aware of all the work we’ve done to protect our communities and minimize climate change,” said Bobby Jones, President of the Down East Coal Ash Environmental and Social Justice Coalition. “Yet our communities are still reeling from past hurricanes and heat waves. And many are still waiting on Rebuild NC to restore their homes. We are hopeful that you will help change course for North Carolina and protect the people from Duke Energy’s climate-destroying business plan.” NC WARN and the Center for Biological Diversity welcome additional signers as the campaign continues to grow. This article was first published by NC WARN . Work Cited “Concern Regarding Duke Energy’s Decades-Long Climate Deception and Urgent Need for Solutions.” NC WARN and Center for Biological Diversity . 6 Mar. 2025, www.ncwarn.org/wp-content/uploads/SteinLetter3-6-25.pdf . “Town of Carrboro v. Duke Energy.” Carrboro , 4 Dec. 2024, www.carrboronc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15749/Complaint-Litigation- . “Is Gov. Roy Cooper a Climate Change Pretender?" NC WARN , 9 Nov. 2023, www.ncwarn.org/2023/09/is-gov-roy-cooper-a-climate-change-pretender . Ouzts, Elizabeth. “Regulators OK Duke Energy'S Gas-plant Buildout Despite N.C. Climate Law.” Canary Media , 6 Nov. 2024, www.canarymedia.com/articles/utilities/regulators-ok-duke-energys-gas-plant-buildout-despite-n-c-climate-law . " Advancing Toward a Cleaner Tomorrow, Duke Energy Impact Report." Duke Energy , 2023, s201.q4cdn.com/583395453/files/doc_downloads/2024/05/impact-report-2023-final.pdf . “NC Court of Appeals Upholds Duke Energy Attack on Rooftop Solar.” NC WARN , 17 Sept. 2024, www.ncwarn.org/2024/09/nc-court-of-appeals-upholds-duke-energy-attack-on-rooftop-solar-nc-warn-news-release .

More than 300 previously unknown sediment and erosion control violations at the site of a housing development under construction in southeast Durham has prompted Sound Rivers to amend its federal lawsuit against the developer. The original lawsuit against Clayton Properties Group, Inc., d/b/a Mungo Homes, was filed in September of 2023 by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of environmental organization Sound Rivers— an attempt to stop sediment pollution flowing from the 216-acre housing development into nearby creeks. These creeks, Martin Branch and Hurricane Creek, connect through Lick Creek into Falls Lake, a major drinking-water source for Raleigh and surrounding communities. “These issues came to light through a public records request and the discovery process,” said Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop. “In that process, we learned about these additional violations, which are all violations of the Clean Water Act.” The violations listed include sediment flowing off-site, failure to maintain required sediment and erosion control measures and failure to establish ground cover on exposed soil to prevent it from flowing off the construction site and into neighboring waterways. Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop collects a water sample from a sediment-laden tributary of Lick Creek. “These were issues identified on-site by Clayton’s own self-inspections required by their CWA permit, which requires self-inspections, regularly and after certain rainfall events,” Samantha said. “Right now, the site has so much land exposed and not adequately managed that it’s no wonder nearby creeks are suffering.” In addition to the issues reported by these self-inspections, Durham County sediment and erosion-control inspectors also issued another notice of violation to the developer in December 2024, bringing the total of county-issued NOVs for the Sweetbrier site to three. “This is a bad actor,” Samantha said. “They continue to be a bad actor and violate the law, and our water-quality sampling data continues to reflect the impacts this site is having on the tributaries of Lick Creek.” Since 2022, Samantha has been documenting sediment pollution in streams in the Lick Creek watershed. Sediment is the leading cause of water pollution in North Carolina by volume, and is a known threat to aquatic life and habitat. Developers are required to ensure construction activities do not harm water quality for downstream communities, who rely on water sources for a variety of uses including fishing, swimming, boating and drinking-water supplies. “Ultimately, our goal is to hold this repeat offender responsible by requiring them to clean up their site and pay substantial monetary civil penalties under the Clean Water Act for the damage that they’ve done,” Samantha said. Like the work Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop is doing to protect Lick Creek? Donate today to support her work! This article was first published by Sound Rivers .

On Sunday, February 9, our movement lost another giant when our beloved Reverend Nelson Johnson passed away at the age of 81. Based in Greensboro, Rev. Johnson dedicated his life to building a movement of Black, Brown and working class people for liberation, justice and power. His patient, long-term efforts to build our social movement have helped lay the groundwork for our efforts to build UE Local 150 and improve conditions of working class people, and build a truly people-centered democracy. While a student at NC A&T University in the late 1960s, Rev. Johnson was a leader during the 1969 student protests. In the 1960s and 70s, Johnson was a strong fighter for civil rights and Black liberation as part of the Student Organization for Black Unity and later the African Liberation Support Committee. Through this work, he met leaders and organizers that would later be part of founding UE150. In the late 1970s, Rev. Johnson was part of the Workers Viewpoint Organization. WVO and the movement organized low wage workers at Cone Mills, Duke Hospital, textile mills, and other workplaces, along with tenants in public housing in Greensboro. In retaliation for their successful organizing against racism and to build unions, on November 3, 1979, the Ku Klux Klan murdered five of his close comrades in front of news cameras but were never convicted. As a survivor of the Greensboro Massacre, Rev. Johnson organized an international campaign, which included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, for truth and reconciliation. From these efforts, Rev. Johnson went deeper into community and became a pastor, founding the Faith Community Church and the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro. BCC would become a critical hub for organizing against racism and police brutality for several decades, including hosting weekly community roundtable discussions. In the 1980s, Rev. Johnson also played a key role in founding the Pulpit Forum, a group of Black ministers that would support labor and civil rights fights for many years. One of the forum’s important fights was to organize mostly Black women at a local K-Mart. He was one of eight “clergy arrested in labor protest,” which would define the struggle of the workers at K-Mart’s Greensboro distribution center, and capture its contradictions: a labor protest, but with prayer not picket signs, and those in handcuffs were not union leaders, but the pastors of the city’s leading Black churches. It was a significant success for organized labor in the least unionized state in the nation. It resulted in the signing of union contract by a $30 billion corporation that had thwarted prior organizing attempts everywhere else in the country. Rev. Johnson founded the Southern Faith, Labor, and Community Alliance in 2006. This alliance brought together workers, unions and faith leaders from across the South to help build more unions in the region, an effort in which UE150 participated. In 2008, through this alliance, Rev. Johnson played a critical role supporting workers during the Justice at Smithfield campaign to win a union at the world’s largest pig slaughtering plant in the town of Tar Heel. Rev. Johnson also helped bridge the divisions that the bosses created between Black and Latine workers. In 2008, he helped organize the Black and Brown Unity Conference which brought together Latine workers, including farmworkers, and Black workers, including members of Black Workers for Justice, UE150 and others. Latin Kings leader Jorge Cornell attended this conference. Rev. Johnson and Cornell played a critical role in orchestrating a cease fire to stop gun violence, which upset the Greensboro police. Rev. Johnson supported Cornell’s historic bid for mayor of Greensboro. Cornell was later attacked by federal agents and sentenced on bogus RICO charges. Rev. Johnson led an effort to have President Obama commute his sentence. In 2007, as UE150 was expanding from eastern and central North Carolina to organize state mental health workers in the western part of the state, Rev. Johnson hosted the first ever statewide meeting of the UE150 Council for Department of Health in Human Services at the Beloved Community Center. This meeting launched the Mental Health Workers Bill of Rights campaign. In 2016, when UE150 was working to build the Greensboro City Workers Union, Rev. Johnson played a critical role in helping to build relationships with city council members and eventually winning union payroll deduction. It is not possible to list all the achievements and actions taken by Rev. Johnson to help build a thriving movement for social justice across North Carolina, the South, and the country. He has taught us many lessons. His legacy will live in our daily pursuits for the liberation of our labor. Long live Reverend Nelson Johnson!

On February 21st, Professor Davarian Baldwin addressed about 90 supporters of the Duke Respect Durham campaign at SEEDS, an urban garden and kitchen classroom just east of downtown. Baldwin, the Raether Professor at Trinity College, founder of the Smart Cities Lab, and author of a 2021 book called In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower , used the event to urge Duke University to make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to local government. Despite its $11.9 billion endowment, Duke is exempt from paying property taxes on most of its properties.   In a recent article, The Assembly  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”. The same article stated that the university paid around $2 million in property tax in 2024 [ 1 ].    “The top universities are not just institutions of higher learning,” Baldwin said at the event, “They’re in fact the biggest low-wage employers, the biggest landholders, the biggest health care providers, the biggest policing agents, the biggest governmental forces, in our communities.”   Ivy League institutions such as Harvard, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania make PILOTs of $10 million or more to their local governments. In 2021, the “Yale Respect New Haven” campaign pressured the university to pay $23 million per year to the town. Duke Respect Durham has hinted at an even more ambitious goal, asking on its website, “What can Durham do with $50 million a year?” Image credit: Duke Respect Durham Friday’s event was kicked off with brief remarks by Nate Baker, a member of Durham's city council. Leigh Campoamor of the Night School Bar moderated the rest of the discussion. Baker first invited Baldwin to Durham in April 2024 to discuss the concept of a PILOT campaign with a handful of activists, an event which helped lead to the formation of Duke Respect Durham [ 2 ]. The coalition's first rally was held in September 2024 at Asbury Church [ 3 ].   “Teaching and learning are the smallest things that Duke University does,” Baldwin said at SEEDS, “They will tell you that in celebration. They say, ‘We are an economic engine’ and ‘We are a driving force’. Well, if you are that, then there is a need for extra scrutiny and public oversight to what you’re doing in our lives. Then they’ll retreat and say ‘No, no, we’re just a school.’”   Duke is ranked as the country’s sixth-best university by  U.S. News & World Report,  but despite being a world-class beacon of learning, it hasn’t managed to illuminate the schoolhouses right next door. Durham Public Schools ranks 40th among North Carolina school districts   [ 4 ]. If Duke’s attitude towards a PILOT ever changes, it may consider copying the University of Pennsylvania’s $10 million annual contribution to Philadelphia City Schools [ 5 ]. This would be a fitting solution since public schools are primarily funded with local property taxes.   Baldwin also connected Duke’s tax-exempt status to its undemocratic behavior in Durham’s politics, citing the university’s notorious role in derailing the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit (DOLRT) project in 2019 [ 6 ]. After around $157 million was spent on planning the light rail, the university refused to sign a critical cooperation agreement. High officials at Duke such as Tallman Trask III and Vincent Price cited concerns about electromagnetic interference with equipment at Duke University Hospital. At the time, GoTriangle countered that about 20 other U.S. medical centers operate near rail systems without issue [ 7 ].   Baldwin expressed enthusiasm about the progress of Duke Respect Durham, noting that Duke’s defensiveness was a sign of growing pressure. “It was just an idea, but look at us now,” he said. “The university is forced to respond, even in its derision, which tells me we will win.”   The PILOT campaign’s public and political support is significant but not yet overwhelming. Baker, who is strongly identified with the campaign, works with a coalition of 31 groups, including UE Local 150, the Duke Graduate Student Union, and Triangle DSA. County commissioner Nida Allam spoke at the campaign’s September 2024 kickoff event, and elected officials such as Javiera Caballero, Natalie Beyer, Michelle Burton, and DeDreana Freeman have attended its events. The People’s Alliance, while not official endorsers of Duke Respect Durham, provided snacks and refreshments for the SEEDS event.   However, the campaign faces an external challenge. The Trump administration has recently threatened to defund the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which awarded Duke more than $580 million in grants in 2024 [ 8 ]. If NIH funding is significantly cut, the university and Durham could be pushed into a crisis that drowns out calls for progressive reforms.   “Biotech, health sciences, software design, military weaponry,” Baldwin said, counting on his fingers, “Where is the R&D for that work done? On college campuses in their laboratories. Combine the new economy with the property tax exempt status of campus, and what do you have? You got a new-age hustle.”   Many employees driving Duke’s success have unionized under the Duke Graduate Student Union (DGSU). Academic workers voted overwhelmingly, with 88 percent in favor, to join the union in August 2023. Since then, a key demand of the DGSU has been to raise annual PhD stipends to $50,000. Duke’s president Vincent Price, who earned $1.81 million in 2023, has so far rejected this demand as stubbornly as he's refused a PILOT agreement.   Professor Davarian Baldwin's two trips to Durham have helped to shape and energize the Duke Respect Durham campaign. Continued pressure on Duke’s top administrators, who are protective of the university's brand, could push them to pay a fair share of property taxes. Duke Respect Durham has invited all community members to a mass meeting on Thursday, March 6th for a discussion on the coalition's next steps. Work Cited   Gretzinger, Erin, et al. “What Does Duke University Owe Durham?”  The Assembly NC , 6 Feb. 2025,  www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/duke-respect-durham . “PILOT Advocate Visits Durham, Encourages Duke University to Pay Fair Share.”  Durham Dispatch , 19 Sept. 2024,  www.durhamdispatch.com/post/expert-on-payment-in-lieu-of-taxes-visits-durham-encourages-duke-university-to-pay-fair-share . “With Strong Backing From Labor, ‘Duke Respect Durham’ Campaign Holds Kickoff Event.”  Durham Dispatch , 16 Sept. 2024,  www.durhamdispatch.com/post/with-strong-backing-from-labor-duke-respect-durham-campaign-holds-kickoff-event . “Durham Public Schools.”  Niche ,  www.niche.com/k12/d/durham-public-schools-nc . Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. Stellino, Molly. “Activists Question Whether Wealthy Universities Should Be Exempt From Property Taxes.”  The Hechinger Report , 18 Dec. 2020,  www.hechingerreport.org/activists-question-whether-wealthy-universities-should-be-exempt-from-property-taxes . Fausset, Richard. “Durham Dreamed of a Transit Line. Duke University All but Killed It.”  The New York Times , 18 Mar. 2019,  www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/duke-durham-light-rail-chapel-hill.html . Stancill, Jane. “Thanks to Duke, Durham’s Light Rail Dream Is All but Dead.”  Bloomberg , 14 Mar. 2019,  www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-14/why-duke-killed-the-durham-orange-light-rail-project . Ezzone, Zac. “Trump Policy Would Pummel UNC, Duke Research Funding.”  Triangle Business Journal , 10 Feb. 2025,  www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2025/02/10/trump-nih-indirect-costs-duke-unc-research-funding.html .