The Orange County affiliate of the North Carolina AFL-CIO has issued endorsements in the Chapel Hill Town Council and Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board races. Candidates were selected based on their answers to a questionnaire and interviews with local labor community leaders. All of the endorsements were approved by the AFL-CIO's Triangle Labor Council.
Here's who they selected:
Chapel Hill Mayor: Mark Kleinschmidt
Chapel Hill Town Council:
- Donna Bell
- Michael Parker
- Lee Storrow
- Jim Ward
Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board:
- Joal Broun
- Rani Dasi
- Margaret Samuels
- Annetta Streater
We'll be posting more election information on this page as it becomes available.
Issues:
Comments
A little Disappointed
Hi , Im a little disapponted with the with the endorsement considering for over 50 years my father was a Local 3 AFL-CIO Electrician who knew Harry VanArsdale former president of the Central Labor Trade and Local 3 President along with his son Tommy who was also Local 3 union President. Gary Kahn
union
Family is nice but the endorsement focuses(I hope) on what the candidates are doing and saying.
I'm from a union family too
eom
Anti-union council members
Interesting endorsement considering that the council incumbents a few years ago oversaw the hiring of a union-busting outfit based in Raleigh to keep the Sanitation 2 town workers from organizing. Bet the endorsers didn't get that info in their packets before casting their votes.
Here's part of the mission statement for the Triangle group -- "The mission of the Triangle Labor Council, AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our state and the nation." That doesn't jibe with the actions of these council incumbents, who are doing their best to make Chapel Hill unaffordable for working families and eliminating affordable housing and replacing it with condos and apartments that these working families cannot hope to afford. If anything, recent council decisions have ensured that working families will have to live somewhere else than Chapel Hill.
The group ignored a union member among the candidates and voted instead for non-union candidates. That sounds extremely bogus. A little sunlight, please -- show us the documentaion on the endorsements. I'd like to see what it was the incumbents said about themselves that sealed the deal for this group.
No idea what you're talking about
"these council incumbents, who are doing their best to make Chapel Hill unaffordable for working families and eliminating affordable housing and replacing it with condos and apartments that these working families cannot hope to afford. If anything, recent council decisions have ensured that working families will have to live somewhere else than Chapel Hill."
In my opinion the endorsement is well-earned. What affordable housing has the current council eliminated? Eliminated how? From my point of view CHALT and its similar political backers who have worked tirelessly to make sure there aren't enough apartments in Chapel Hill. This editorial, for example, argues that people who own houses under $650K cost the taxpayers money, and thus any attempt to build new housing should be opposed. As long as CHALT is there to drive up the cost of development and oppose any sort of new housing then of course the price of rentals is going to go up.
Callous and hypocritical
Mark
Glad you are from a union family. But that doesn't change your consistent votes with the council to reduce the amount of affordable housing in Chapel Hill and to make life tougher here, i.e. unaffordable, for working families. Your record indicates that you are no friend to the working man and, therefore, an endorsement from the AFL-CIO affiliate, which touts its concern for working families, casts an odd light on said endorsements. Indeed, it would verge on the callous and hypocritical.
Council members have gone to seminars and discussions about affordable housing and have testified loudly to their concern about the topic. But their actions and votes on the council -- including the puny concessions on Obey Creek, The Edge and Lux and other decisions that have eliminated more affordable housing than they have brought in -- have not shown a whit of concern or real support for workforce housing. When it comes time to vote on how much affordable housing a project should have, you and your colleagues just don't push very hard and therefore leave our community and our workers worse off than before.
You may come from a union family but your sure don't act like it. eom indeed!