The Battle For Labor Unions In North Carolina

By Hady Mawajdeh,

Published August 27, 2014 at 12:15 PM EDT

Keith Ludlum is the president of UFCW local 1208 and led the charge for unions in North Carolina slaughterhouses.

In 2008, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union and Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, NC reached an agreement to end a 16-year fight for better worker conditions.

The deal allowed for employees to form a union. Six years later, employees at Mountaire chicken processing plant in nearby Robeson county are working with the UFCW to do the same. Host Frank Stasio talks with UFCW Local 1208 president Keith Ludlum; Steve Allen, labor economist at North Carolina State University; and Jeff Hirsch, labor law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

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Hady Mawajdeh

Hady Mawajdeh is a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio. He listened to Fresh Air growing up and fell in love with public radio. He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication at Texas State University and specialized in electronic media. He worked at NPR affiliate stations KUT and KUTX in Austin, Texas as an intern, producer, social media coordinator, and a late-night deejay.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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