SB 575, the Higher Education Efficiency and Flexibility Act, is part of the assault on public-sector workers and should be stopped. This law would remove university workers from protections under the State Personnel Act (SPA), like freedom from political coercion, the right to grievance procedures, and the right to fair compensation practices, severance pay, sick leave, and whistle-blower safeguards. Under this controversial law, decisions regarding worker concerns would shift from SPA to the UNC System Board of Governors (BOG); the danger here is that there is no guarantee that the BOG will protect workers.

“Efficiency” and “flexibility” is corporate speak for the right to terminate workers without just cause, in the interest of trimming payroll, and for other reasons. It is nasty business and mirrors the kind of behavior from big corporations that has drawn so much scorn from working people over the past few years.

Today, April 4, the Coalition for Workplace Democracy, organized by the UNC-CH group, Student Action with Workers, will host a teach-in and speak-out on SB 575 on the steps of South Building from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.. The date is significant, as it was 44 years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life as he protested the treatment of black sanitation workers in Memphis. Despite threats on his life, Dr. King carried on. In dignified dress, sanitation workers carried signs that read, “I Am a Man.” UNC system workers are dignified professionals and must not be subjected to “efficient” and “flexible” treatment.

Holden Thorp and Tom Ross are in positions to demonstrate sensitivity to and solidarity with workers. Let’s insist that they do.

Harry Phillips

Coalition for Workplace Democracy

Disappointing headline

I’m disappointed that The Chapel Hill News would use such a controversial headline in its coverage of the CVS protest (“Police harassment?” CHN, March 25).

The window above my office desk has a good view of the CVS building and the intersection, and from what I saw the police officers stayed to the side all day that Saturday. For David Maliken to say the force was “hostile to us the whole time” is an outright lie. I went outside my office a few times and observed that the police were doing nothing, with most of them standing quietly away.

I was glad the police were there, who knows what might have happened without them. I don’t think the Town of Carrboro should spend any time listening to the unfounded complaints of those who preach civil disobedience and lie to get their voice heard.

Michael Freeman

Chapel Hill