Teach-in at Carolina

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to a Teach-in sponsored by Student Action with Workers, Hear Our Public Employees Coalition, UE 150, SEANC District 25, Progressive Faculty Network, Students for a democratic Society, and SURGE. With all of these organizations put together, they were able to create a panel discussion that included experts in the field of collective bargaining and North Carolina's lack thereof. In listening to Dr. David Zonderman, Ashaki Binta, Steve Hutton, and Rukiya Dillahunt, I was able to learn the history of collective bargaining in NC as well as the movement to try and bring this right not only to Chapel Hill, but to the state as a whole.

History:

Dr. David Zonderman was the first to present and he not only defined the terms of what collective bargaining was, but also gave history as to why NC lacked the right. First, it is important to note that collective bargaining does not mean that people do not have the right to create unions in NC--workers have every right to create a union, its just that nothing that the union does is binding and therefore often moot. North Carolina and Virginia are the only two states that limit people from uniting and bargaining with they employers. That is why these scholars are calling for collective bargaining. This basic process allows workers to pick an association (more often unions than not), and to bargain with administrators or employers in order to improve working conditions.

The limit on collective bargaining began when a rumor was started that an influential group of truckers (known as the teamsters) were going to organize the police for their benefit. This got the government of North Carolina worried and they came up with a statute that stopped them known as NC 95-98. This came out as a ban of unions with the police, firefighters, emergency health providers, etc. This was overturned, and everyone can organize into unions, yet they still cannot bargain.

As of now, there is a bill that is trying to be pushed through the NC legislative system that would allow public bargaining. It is called House Bill 1583. This bill simply says that people have the RIGHT to participate in bargaining if they want to.

The Present:
As of now, however, the bill has yet to pass, and therefore employees are subjected to the will of the employers. Ashaki Binta spoke candidly about this situation and discussed how employers ignore rules and rights of people when it is best for them. In addition, the grievance procedure in this state is not effective. Therefore, people have been unjustly fired and because people cannot bargain to simply put to the table their complaints, problems with decisions, there continues to be discrimination within the workplace.

These discriminations have to do with the fact that women do not get paid as much as men. In addition there is race discrimination where there is a higher rate of discipline and firing of African American men than any other group. White collar jobs are more often than not are full of white people, which is another indication of racial discrimination.

Therefore, it is essential that we try to remove 95-98 from this state. Binta argues that the best way to do this is to build a movement from the bottom up to change the tides. Using lobbyists or big business will not get anything changed because they really do not want to see change. If they can group together workers and force the hand of employers, than the idea of collective bargaining might be more appealing to all than it is now.

North Carolina as a State:
As a state, North Carolina has been faulted by the International Commision for Labor Rights as being guilty of breaking labor rights after they had a hearing full of international lawyers.

In addition, there has been a complaint filed under ILO where North Carolina has been found in violation of international law.

Finally, Mexico filed a complaint about Mexican workers rights' in North Carolina under NAFTA because there is of free trade, there should have the right to bargaining.

To Help:
The best way for students to get involved in this issue is to write your legislator, get signatures on the H.O.P.E. petition and to attend Student Action for Workers on Mondays at 6:00.

Different links to help you do these things are:
http://www.hkonj.com/
http://www.nchope.org/
http://www.uncsolidarity.org