{"id":125808,"date":"2025-09-01T22:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125808\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:28:07","slug":"labor-day-nc-hundreds-gather-in-trinity-park-in-durham-to-rally-for-higher-wages-health-care-and-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125808\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor Day NC | Hundreds gather in Trinity Park in Durham to rally for higher wages, health care and pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — Hundreds of people met at Trinity Park on Monday, before marching throughout the neighborhood as part of a Labor Day<\/a> rally.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, when we come together and raise our voices collectively, we have a lot more power than if we were to do it as individuals. And that’s why I really believe in the labor movement and in our unions to fight for workplace changes, fighting disrespect on the job and fighting for a voice on the job, fighting for higher wages, health care, pensions, and paid days off,” said Zoey Moretti Niebuhr, Vice President of the Triangle Labor Council AFL-CIO.<\/p>\n

“I’m actually encouraged by the turnout because it let me know I’m not the only one that is here fighting for certain things,” said Nahshon Blount with the Union of Southern Service Workers.<\/p>\n

The Triangle Labor Council and Union of Southern Service Workers were two of several groups that organized the event, which largely focused on workers’ rights and wealth inequality.<\/p>\n

“I think all of us are seeing our grocery bills shoot up, our rent shoot up, but our wages are not going up at the same rate. And these companies are coming down South in record numbers, paying starvation wages while working people just they can’t make their bills,” said Niebuhr.<\/p>\n

While prices in the housing market<\/a> across the Triangle have largely stabilized over the past few years, they remain greatly elevated since 2020.<\/p>\n

“We’re looking at condos that’s just about half a million dollars,” said Blount.<\/p>\n

The Triangle’s population boom<\/a> has coincided with several high-profile jobs announcements, though Niebuhr believes more can be done to better support workers.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO | What to know about the Labor Day holiday<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’re all for creating more jobs in this area; we want to create good jobs and good union jobs. And by and large, these companies that are coming in and moving down to North Carolina are trying to escape higher wages up North. They’re trying to outsource down South and pay a Southern discount on our labor,” said Niebuhr.<\/p>\n

John Delargy Jr and his wife, Tonya Delargy, both showed up early, expressing concerns over the impact of federal policy changes. John said he accepted an early retirement from Duke over concerns of job cuts due to funding cuts.<\/p>\n

“Who can trust the politicians anymore? It doesn’t matter if it’s Democrat or Republican to me. I’m 57 years old and I’ve seen policy-making from both sides that have hurt people on both sides. It would really be nice to be able to trust what happens in Washington,” said Delargy.<\/p>\n

Tonya, a healthcare worker, was upset over changes to vaccine guidance<\/a>, which could impact insurance coverage and access to the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

“I am concerned, especially for our most vulnerable. And for myself. I want the COVID vaccine, but I won’t fit the criteria for the COVID vaccine. I want my grandchildren to be able to have the COVID vaccine. I was not surprised, but I am very, very disappointed,” said Delargy.<\/p>\n

“I believe there is a fine balance. I believe we can attract new infrastructure, we can attract new things. But at the sacrifice of the people who’ve been living here? At the sacrifice of pushing out the people who’s been living in these areas for years, grew up and lived for) decades? That is unethical,” said Christy Patterson, who serves as Vice President of the Durham Association of Educators.<\/p>\n

Patterson has been a teacher in Durham Public Schools for six years, motivated by a passion for supporting students. However, she’d like to see greater support for staff.<\/p>\n

“Some of the key issues are definitely underfunded, understaffed, lack of support, no transparency,” said Patterson.<\/p>\n

The Durham Public School District has been impacted by a budget deficit, vacant positions<\/a>, and tension between staff and school leadership<\/a>. However, Patterson said there’s been progress made in improving the working relationship, expressing optimism for the future.<\/p>\n

“They made a step in the right direction by agreeing to signing or collaborating on a Meet and Confer policy<\/a>. Months, years went into work of that policy and Dr. Lewis and his team and the school board finally back here in May said, let’s do it. That was the first step that gave me so much confidence that they are ready to listen and to work with us,” Patterson said.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — Hundreds of people met at Trinity Park on Monday, before marching throughout the neighborhood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[80283,97,252,253,80282],"class_list":["post-125808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-80283","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-prifority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}