Federal Workers Decry Human Toll of Funding Cuts at AFL-CIO Event

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Good morning, readers.

Before Trump took office in January, the Triangle was home to some 15,000 federal workers. 

But in the months since, hundreds of them have lost their jobs: USAID staff doing life-saving work abroad, people working on vital medical research, even high-ranking financial regulators.

INDY’s Lena Geller was in the room Wednesday night when some of those workers shared their stories as part of a powerful event organized by the national AFL-CIO and local labor unions to document the human cost of sweeping federal cuts.

Organizers also rallied the crowd to push for workers’ rights and lobby elected representatives to do their part. At one point, Lena writes, a chant broke out—“When union rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back”—stirring a small child to speak up and say they didn’t want to fight.

“It’s a different kind of fight, sweetheart,” Wayne Bostick, president of the civil rights nonprofit North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute, told the child from the audience. “It’s not a physical fight. It’s a fight where you use your eyes and your mind.”

Read about the stories shared by federal workers at the event (and why they were directed at a cardboard cutout of Thom Tillis) below.

 —Sarah W.

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Durham

After six years of renovation, 42 apartments in Durham are ready and reserved for affordable housing, WUNC reports.

Local archivist and audio-visual expert Skip Elsheimer has a collection of 37,000 films. He’ll show some at a “Let’s Get Physical” media fest in Durham Saturday, INDY’s Jane Porter reports.

Wake

ICYMI: Little Makers childcare center goes out of its way to hire a diverse, multilingual staff that reflects the Raleigh community it serves. But that mission is now in jeopardy due to federal funding cuts, INDY’s Chloe Courtney Bohl reports, and that same staff is organizing to lobby the legislature for more state funding.

Orange

Through a joint meeting of officials in Orange County, INDY’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur digs in to the difficult math Triangle school districts and counties are doing this budget season to balance rising costs, possible federal funding cuts, and steep property revaluations.

North Carolina

The state board of elections shifted to a Republican majority yesterday after the court of appeals allowed a law moving appointment power to state auditor Dave Boliek to take effect, NC Newsline reports.

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