Hundreds of North Carolina state employees and a liberal advocacy group rallied to support public workers in Wisconsin at risk of losing their collective bargaining rights.
The rally was also held prevent benefit losses in our state due to North Carolina's budget shortfall.
The State Employees Association of North Carolina and Moveon.org held the rally Saturday on the old Capitol grounds in Raleigh. Similar rallies were planned in all 50 states.
The State Employees Association is part of the Service Employees International Union but doesn't have formal negotiating rights with the state. North Carolina is one of two states that expressly ban collective bargaining for public workers.
SEANC's efforts were met with counter protestors calling for lower taxes.
"How in the world can we continue to raise taxes, spend more money, employ more government employees, when there is no tax base to pay for it?" conservative protestor John Allen asked.
Union supporters had ideas too.
"I would say let's balance the budget, first of all let's look at the one trillion dollars we've spent on the war in the past ten years," Union Protestor Cheryl Case said. "Let's look at corporate welfare. Let's look at the tax breaks we give to corporations."
State Employees Association Director Dana Cope told protestors they needed to fight for the state to use tax dollars for workers.
"We're tired of them using our taxpayer dollars to give to corporations and the wealthy and the super rich," Cope said.
Tea Party Protestors across the street lamented the union's attacks on corporations.
"The private sector is what built this country," Northern Wake Republicans Club President Heather Losurdo said. "The government now hiring and creating all these jobs is part of what's ruining the private sector and that's part of the reason we are where we are now."
What was surprising was how often the protestors ended up chanting the same exact thing.
Sometimes it was "U-S-A," other times both sides sang "God Bless America."
"Nobody's going to decide who are the real Americans," Bystander Bill Westermeyer said. "That's what makes this country what it is. Both of them have a strong opinion about what an American is and they're differing and they're yelling about what it is."
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