FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NC United for Survival and Beyond Drops Banners Across the State

Statewide Coalition Targets Phil Berger for COVID-19 Emergency Response

NORTH CAROLINA – On April 23 at 8 a.m. members of NC United for Survival and Beyond, a statewide coalition of more than 200 community organizations, took action to tell Senator Phil Berger that people matter more than profits. 

Across the state, banners were dropped in Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Asheville, Charlotte, Wilmington, and Fayetteville, each stating “We need relief for people not corporations, Phil Berger.” The banners targeted NC Senate leader Phil Berger after the coalition had spent weeks of pressing him to call an emergency legislative session for COVID-19 relief. 

This statewide action comes in preparation for the three-day General Assembly session being held next week. NC United is pushing for the Assembly to take action to increase Medicaid expansion, unemployment benefits, and protections for immigrants and incarcerated peoples.

According to NC United, “either they take action for our communities’ survival now, or we shut it down.”

The partners of NC United are working to defend those on the front lines. In North Carolina, that includes primarily black and brown, low-wage workers, incarcerated people, undocumented immigrants, the elderly, sick, and unemployed. NC United and all of its partners believe “the economy should work for us, not the other way around.”  

Photos of the banner drops are available online and by request. 

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NC United for Survival & Beyond is a coalition of over 200 organizations that have co-created 10 demands of the NC General Assembly and Governor to respond to the most vulnerable communities during COVID-19 and beyond. For more information, go to survivalandbeyond.info.

Event Contact: Gwen Frisbie-Fulton