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Good news out of SEIU today as they announce the unionization of a whopping 55,000 workers in North Carolina. The specifics of the story are that they got the State Employee Association of North Carolina to vote to unionize. Convincing a public sector association to choose to unionize is a bit more in the low-hanging fruit category then attracting 55,000 private sector employees, but the creation of density -- or the beginnings of it -- in historically anti-union NC will make future organizing drives easier, and allow SEIU to establish a beachhead in terrain that's traditionally been pretty hostile to organized labor. So, in conclusion, yay! Hoisted from comments: Aaron writes:
Unburying the lead: The number of unionized workers in North Carolina has just increased by about 50%.North Carolina is the least unionized state in the nation:Among the five states reporting union membership rates below 5.0 percentin 2007, North Carolina posted the lowest rate (3.0 percent).According to the 2000 Census, the employed civilian labor force is 3,824,741 people strong.3% of that is 114,742. SEIU just added almost half that number today. This is a great day for the hardworking people of North Carolina.Full press release after the jump.
