AFL-CIO hopes to push out NC GOP lawmakers over House Bill 2

WASHINGTON -- Local union organizers are pushing to make North Carolina’s House Bill 2 a key issue in this year’s elections, arguing that jobs lost over the law will cost some lawmakers their positions.

HB2, which Gov. Pat McCrory signed in March, blocked Charlotte’s nondiscrimination ordinance that expanded protections to gay, lesbian and transgender individuals, and also nullified every other municipal nondiscrimination ordinance in the state.

“Issues that create fear and division have been the staple of Republican candidates for years,” Richard Trumka, the president of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said Thursday during a roundtable discussion. “ . . . When people sit around the kitchen table and talk about the issues that matter to them – economic issues, job security issues, health care issues – you know, I’ve yet to have a worker when I’m out in the field walk up to me and say, ‘What do you think about this bathroom issue?’ ”

The AFL-CIO is backing Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article99301512.html