December 10th is set aside to honor and commemorate the signing of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". One of these recognized "universal" rights is the right to join a labor union. Sadly, that right is NOT truly universal.

Many of our Members in Connecticut are surprised and shocked to learn that this right is effectively denied, by law, to public sector employees in North Carolina (UE Local 150), where it is ILLEGAL for public employees to have a contract ! They are in a massive fight for their basic human right to bargain collectively with their employer, a right we take for granted here in Connecticut.

UE members from Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina assembled in Richmond, Va. on International Human Rights Day, 2003, to demand that the basic human right to organize be fully recognized in the United States. This year, the state of North Carolina is being formally charged as a human rights violator.

UE National asks all Members to participate in an email campaign to the Governor of North Carolina, as follows:

"Help your UE sisters and brothers in North Carolina by sending a message to their governor. Tell Gov. Easley to take swift action to provide full collective bargaining rights to public sector workers in his state. Email your messages to governor.office@ncmail.net."

We hope as many UE 222-CILU/CIPU members as possible take a moment and join this email campaign. The Solidarity that this simple action will generate, and the energy the North Carolina workers will get knowing they have our support, will be immeasurable ! Please tell the Governor of North Carolina, in your own words, how you feel about his state's treatment of its employees. An example of what one UE 222-CILU/CIPU member has already written follows, which you may use and adapt as you wish:

The collective voices of public sector employees throughout the great State of Connecticut join with those of our UE Local 150 sisters and brothers today, tomorrow, and throughout each and every tomorrow ... for as long as it takes until you and the elected officials of North Carolina realize that Workers Rights are Human Rights !

Simple words would be pathetically insufficient to describe the shock and outrage felt when we learned that North Carolina legislators deny its workers, through a monstrous mockery of democracy and equality, the basic internationally recognized human right to engage in collective bargaining with their employer. As global war wages to focus the attention of the world on workers' rights abuses, it shames me that one of our own United States in the year 2005 believes it to be just and proper to coerce, restrict and restrain our own American workers with the jackboot of legislative hubris.

The working families of our nation have an inalienable right to sit at the table with their employers as equals, be they public or private, and demand a fair share of the fruit of their labor. The drawn out dog days of the master and servant, of plantation owner and slave, have rightly been relegated to the stinking scrapheap of history in the minds of the American public. Whether it is today or on some other bright tomorrow, our citizens will realize that workers cannot and ought not be denied, through any law, legislation or appeal to public policy, the simple human right to make an agreement with their employer, and to expect that agreement be honored.

The public sector employees of UE Local 222-CILU/CIPU stand ready to fight side-by-side with our sisters and brothers in North Carolina, to help them win back their rights which you have seen fit to strip from them".

We will also be developing a "Solidarity Page" to support this effort, and would love to post your emails ... if you'd like your comments to the Governor to be included, please "cc" jwoodruffjr@sbcglobal.net when you send your email.