“ALLIANCE!”
MARXIST-LENINIST
SUMMER 2006
North Carolina
Public
Workers Using International Pressure to Repeal Anti-Union State Law
April 6, 2006 By MP.
Last fall the
United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America Local 150 (UE
150),
the Durham-based local for North Carolina, launched a coalition effort
to get
rid of a law preventing public workers from collectively bargaining
with their
employers. This law, General Statute
95-98, dates from 1959 and was rationalized as a way to keep the
Charlotte
police from unionizing under the leadership of Jimmy Hoffa in the
International
Brotherhood of Teamsters after a 1958 attempt.
At least 25 states have similar policies, half of those being in
the US
South. Only North Carolina, Virginia,
and Texas have actual laws prohibiting collective bargaining. In 1969 public workers were allowed to join
unions, but their unions are not able to collectively bargain, a major
reason
unions exist in other sectors. March
1947 North Carolina became one of the 22 right-to-work states, meaning
employees do not have to financially support a union that represents
their work
unit. UE is fighting for “The Five Main
Elements of Collective Bargaining:” “The right to representation on
grievances
and other issues,” for meet and confer (explained below), the right to
payroll
deduction for workers’ groups, “The right to Memorandums of
Understanding on
policies, practices, and rights at work,” and for a collective contract
with
the government (March 2006 IWJC Bulletin).
UE is an
independent, rank-and-file union representing 35,000 people in
manufacturing,
government, and non-profit work. The
Public Workers Union in this State is part of UE, representing about
3000
employees. There is also a State
employees’
association (SEANC, with 60,000 members).
Less than 4% of the NC working class has union representation,
the
lowest percentage of any state. UE 150
grew out of an association of housekeepers at UNC-Chapel Hill. The Union opposed the red-baiting that
occurred in other national unions in the 50’s.
UE argues that
State services have been impaired by the tax breaks and other
incentives for
businesses, regulatory loopholes, and the shifting of programs from the
Federal
to the local levels. For example, in
2004 Dell Computers was given 242 million dollars in incentives to
locate here
and many times a business takes a tax break, then leaves or does not
create
lasting development. Recently the State
has been hard pressed for funds and had a few billion dollar deficit a
few
years ago, requiring many cuts. UE says
pro-business policies have resulted in stagnant wages, higher health
insurance
payments, “raiding of employee pension funds,” forcing fewer workers to
do
more, forced overtime (such as the Red Dot system), bad working
conditions,
discrimination, and privatization (IWJC Bulletin, Jan/Feb 2005). The State has good benefit policies but often
creates bad working conditions. UE 150
says that, while it has been able to help with public workers’
grievances and
other struggles, there needs to be collective bargaining and that this
would
benefit both state workers and the citizens of North Carolina. IWJ Campaign coordinator Ashaki
Binta linked the State’s anti-unionism and
high
poverty rates at Black Workers for Justice’s ( BWfJ) Support for Labor Banquet in
Raleigh in April 2005. Some rural counties
have up to 40% poverty
rates and 20% of children in the State live in impoverished conditions.
A petition
campaign was launched to lobby State officials, along with several
workers’
rights hearings, in which workers testify about working conditions
before the
general public and panels of State and local officials and others. Hearings have been held across the State:
Rocky Mount (September 30, 2004), Durham (November 8, 2004), Chapel
Hill
(December 4, 2004), Goldsboro (February 17, 2005), Raleigh (May 19,
2005),
Greensboro, and Charlotte. In all 70
workers testified and were heard by about 400 people across North
Carolina. Politicians at several of the
hearings expressed horror over what they heard and promised action. The campaign will work with similar campaigns
in other Southern states.
The campaign
culminated in a charge before the UN’s International Labor Organization
(ILO)
that North Carolina and the USA are in violation of internationally
recognized
workers’ rights. The ILO was formed in
1919 and upholds 185 Conventions, eight of which are Core Labour
Standards
(including the right to collective bargaining).
The US has ratified only 14 of the Conventions and 2 Core Labour
Standards. UE says “This shows a grievous
lack of democracy, fairness, and respect for international law and
human rights
by the US and its state and local governments” (May/June 2005 Bulletin). According to the ILO, government is the
largest employer in the world. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by the UN General
Assembly
December 10, 1948 (Human Rights Day) establishes in Article 23 (of
about 30)
the rights to employment, freely chosen, just working conditions,
dignified
wages, equal pay for equal work, and freedom from unemployment.
The Union
calls for workers’ and community organizations, and the working class
as a
whole, to “understand international law, international human rights
standards,
and international outreach and solidarity as fundamental to their
rights and
existence inside the United States” (May/June 2005 Bulletin). The UE
Convention
Resolution on International Solidarity says international solidarity is
an
“urgent necessity” today in the face of the push by increasingly
militarized
international financial institutions to roll back labor’s gains
globally.
Several practical solidarity campaigns are described in the resolution. Elsewhere UE points out that “Democracy often
stops at the door when it comes to the workplace” (March 2006 Bulletin).
An international
delegation of jurists, the International
Commission for Labor Rights, came in
November 2005 to examine government working conditions here, leading up
to the
ILO charges. Friday, December 9,
2005,
UE members and representatives from 6 states and 3 countries presented
Governor
Mike Easley’s (D) office with a copy of the Union’s complaint to the
ILO. There were delegates from Virginia,
Iowa,
Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Canada, Mexico, and Japan (the
State’s
three largest international trade partners).
North Carolina is charged with violating UN Conventions 87
(Freedom of
Association and the Right to Organize), 98 (Right to Organize and
Bargain
Collectively), and 151 (Right of Public Workers to Organize, and
Conditions of
Employment in the Public Sector/Procedures to Determine Conditions of
Employment in the Public Sector). Robert
Kingsley, UE’s Director of Organizing,
said “What
better time than International Human Rights Day to remind the State of
North
Carolina that its employees have the same rights as any other workers?”
He also
said “There is a rising reluctance among nations to engage in
unrestricted
trade with states or nations that fail to respect basic human and
worker
rights” (Monthly Review blog,
December 12,
2005). Saladin
Muhammad points out that “The United States makes other countries out
to be
less democratic than we are, but it’s time they reconciled US foreign
policy
claims with our own domestic policy” (UE160 article).
That same
month the Public
Sector Worker Convergence, with representatives from Quebec,
Canada, Mexico, and Japan met in North Carolina in solidarity with UE’s efforts. In
this country, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Iowa, and Virginia UE locals
are
supporting the campaign. Resolutions are
being collected from supportive community organizations (available
online at
the site listed at the end of the article).
The IWJC
Jan/Feb 2005 bulletin links this campaign to the larger movement for
democracy:
“In this way, workers and citizens alike will gain an understanding
about the
important role of workers in defending and expanding democracy.” Saladin Muhammad, UE’s International
Representative and national chair of BWfJ, says “We’re taking up the
unfinished
business of the civil rights movement,” referring to the economic
democracy
campaigns initiated then, such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s
work with striking Memphis sanitation workers when he was assassinated,
before
the planned Poor People’s March on Washington (UE160 (Virginia) article
from
June 6, 2005).
Thursday,
November 3, 2005 the International Commission on Labor Rights heard
testimony
in eastern Raleigh from workers across that State, after three days of
investigating State public sector working conditions.
The panel included lawyers from South Africa,
Sweden, Mexico, India, Nigeria, and Quebec and Ontario, Canada. The workers who spoke described unsafe,
poorly paid, and overstretched working conditions across North
Carolina, under
often disrespectful, inflexible, capricious, and even malicious
management.
The workers
who spoke were mostly black, since much of the State’s 641,000 person
workforce
is black, with many of the poorest paying, less skilled jobs being
given to
black women. The Office of State
Personnel found in November 2004 that 48.9% of the State workforce is
female,
but they fill 71.5% of the low wage positions.
The male 51.1% of the workforce fills 28.5% of these jobs. Women are the majority in pay grade 59 and
below, and black women are the majority in grades 50-54 ($17,000 to
$20,000
dollars a year). White men fill grades
60 and above by a large majority. There
were also white and Latino speakers.
A worker from
Rocky Mount (a town northeast of Raleigh) described lack of promotions
and a
“mid-range” wage being set at $15 dollars an hour for 30 years. There has not been a cost-of-living increase
in 10 years, despite inflation. Last
year the State increased wages by a percentage, but not by enough. The workers were also forced to use
“outdated” equipment, making chemicals they were using “not safe to be
used.” Management was “turning a deaf
ear to the workers they’re employing.”
At the earlier
hearing in Rocky Mount speakers alleged
systematic
racial and sexual discrimination regarding pay, pay raises,
evaluations,
discipline in the City. A dummy was
hung, as if mimicking a lynching, in a City unit where UE was
organizing. No
one was disciplined for this. A 16-year
Streets Department employee pointed out that many long-time low wage
workers
were below the midpoint of the wage range for Rocky Mount and most
black and
women workers were kept in low wage and hard roles.
Others spoke about differential treatment,
unfair and capricious rules, unjust termination, and abuse by
management.
A woman who
worked for about 6 years at the NC Special Care Center in Wilson (east
of
Raleigh) testified about the lack of grievance procedures.
She was passed over while two non-UE members
were promoted over her who had committed the same offense she was fired
for. She had admitted doing it while one
of these men denied it until he was exposed.
Prior to being fired she had good work evaluations.
Another worker
accused the State of forced overtime without concern for the employees’
other
responsibilities. For example as workers
are about to leave they are told to stay for the next shift because the
unit is
“understaffed or employees call out.”
Workers who refuse are fired.
People there worked up to 170 hours in two weeks.
This forced overtime occurs at many State
institutions (see below).
Bill Shuler, a
former UE shop steward at UNC-Chapel Hill (west of Raleigh) and NAACP
official,
accused the University of firing him in May of 2004 because he spoke
out about
dangerous 3M housekeeping chemicals (for more information see
nc.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/10595.php). These
chemicals can cause dangerous and even
fatal injuries, according to their Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). Several workers got sick after using them
(having nosebleeds, breathing difficulties, and coughing up blood) and
some
students who entered dorm bathrooms just cleaned with this system also
displayed symptoms. Shuler said these
chemicals were too strong to be used and made more dangerous by the
lack of
proper mixing and protective equipment at UNC.
He worked with the University’s Administration and Student
Action with
Workers, a student organization supporting workers to promote workers’
rights
and social justice, on this issue and notified NC-OSHA in spring 2004,
prompting an OSHA investigation. Later he
was fired for being late from lunch, working in the wrong building, and
past
minor write-ups, allegedly retaliation for activism.
He is currently pursuing legal action against
the University.
At the earlier
hearing in Chapel Hill workers talked about the prevalence of
disrespectful,
intimidating, and poorly trained supervisors and the lack of response
to
complaints. A Latino UNC Hospitals
housekeeper testified through an interpreter about information being
given to
the staff mainly in English. He also
spoke about the overworking of too few housekeepers.
In 2004 UE fought for the rights of national
minorities at NC State University after a housekeeper was reprimanded
for
speaking in her native Spanish with another worker.
Other workers testifying for the hearing
mentioned infrequent and small pay raises at the Hospitals, the
University’s
unsatisfactory grievance procedures, racism, unsafe buses, and City
workweeks
of fewer than 40 hours, reducing overtime.
A member of the NC Coalition of Police talked there about the
problems
police officers have State wide because collective bargaining is
prohibited.
After the
hearing, in January 2005, workers, mainly from the bus service of
Chapel Hill
and Carrboro, began organizing to get around the State prohibition on
collective bargaining at the town level.
As a result, in June 2005 the Chapel Hill Town Council approved
a meet
and confer process.
Meet and confer means management can negotiate with a body of
workers to
resolve grievances. It does not give
workers the power of legally binding agreements, but it is an
improvement over
the lack of any negotiation.
An employee at
the Department of Administration’s NC Mail Service Center in Raleigh
described
the unhealthy conditions there. The
State “didn’t inform employees” about hazardous mail going through the
Center. Mail went through the Center
leaking unknown materials, prompting workers to petition the director
to demand
Right to Know training on what they were
being exposed
to. It opened in 1999, but it became a
‘sick building’, causing health problems, such as headaches and the
“MSC
tickle.” When the air vents were later
removed there was “literally dirt falling out.”
No filters had been installed and the vents were not changed for
a year
after they were first opened. Because of
UE’s involvement (reportedly management was
“afraid
of UE150”) a safety center was set up.
The Department
has been accused of violating the Fair Family Leave Act, anti-unionism,
wage
and hiring discrimination, and with creating a racist and hostile
workplace. In April 2005 the OSP listed
areas of employee complaints about the Mail Services Center as
“discrimination;
unfair employment practices; disparate treatment; favoritism; work
environment;
management and supervisory issues; inappropriate use of state property;
pay and
benefits; and unsafe working conditions.”
An employee there allegedly calls co-workers “bitches” and
“niggers” and
called a black woman “Black s—t” to her face in front of their mutual
supervisor. Nothing was done about this
employee (Workers
World, May 31, 2005).
A worker from
NC A&T College, a historically black university in Greenville, near
the
coast of North Carolina, spoke about housekeepers there losing parking
spaces. Parking permits were priced far
beyond what workers could pay on their wages.
A 7-year bus
driver for the Mecklenburg County School system (the area of Charlotte)
who
belonged to Teamsters union Local 71 testified about the lack of breaks
and
humane treatment of the employees. She
would start driving at 4:30am, without a break until arriving at the
schools,
followed by up to 4 hours more driving.
The male supervisor locked doors to prevent drivers from using
bathrooms, and they were made to use a portable outhouse without soap. A petition was started but people were
“afraid to sign for fear of losing their jobs.”
“Twenty drivers complained to the school administration and the
driver
who testified was told she would be transferred in 2 hours. The driver had trouble telling the audience
these facts without tears.
Next a trash
collector, on the job for a year and 2 months in Charlotte spoke. He
told the
audience about having to work at the same speed, without flexibility,
regardless of weather conditions and whether it was 110°F or 10°F, and
having
to work until everything was picked up (up to 50 or 60 hours a week). There was flexibility when a “predominantly
white neighborhood” needed to have the trash collected quickly. The normal haul was 4 tons a day, with a
record of 7 tons once, and for “atrocious” pay.
There were injuries on the job, such as someone who lost a leg
because
of a truck accident. Another worker
spoke about being lied to about the wages.
Another City
of Charlotte worker testified about sexual harassment on the job. Male managers did not solve the problem of
sexist male supervisors and she was passed over for promotion,
allegedly
because of her sex.
At the Durham
workers’ rights hearing there were allegations of more of the same,
including
forced overtime, unjust firings, and job classification that reduced
pay for
the same work. The functioning of
the
Red Dot System at the Whitakers School in Butner
(north of Durham) was described by veteran Department of Health and
Human Services
(DHHS) Youth Program Assistant Dana McKeithan: “We often don’t know until a few minutes
before we are scheduled to clock out that have to stay over and work a
whole
other 8 hours on the same day!” She said
some workers had forced overtime three days in a row.
“We have sacrificed our families. We have
sacrificed our health!” At an earlier
event she described it in more detail:
“Imagine you work a 10 am to 8pm shift, 40 hours a week, and at
the end
of your shift on a Friday your supervisor says she needs you for an
extra shift
to cover someone who called in sick. You
might have children at home to cook dinner for, but you can’t even go
home and
make arrangements, you have to stay an extra eight hours or you get
written up,
or fired.” She says this exacerbates
understaffing: We’re losing people
because of Red Dot. A lot of the women
in these jobs are single, with 3-4 children to take care for. They can’t take it anymore.”
The pay for this extra work is in comp time
once overtime pay funds have been used up.
McKeithan also says:
“We know there’s no money, but in the old
days when we were short-staffed everyone pitched in and helped out”
while today
people refuse to put in work beyond their roles (UE160 article).
This relates
to the alleged use of too few workers to do too much at NC Central
University,
a historical black university, where almost 20% of the housekeepers
were let go
in a year. Workers also pointed out wage
discrimination due to job classification.
Floor maintenance workers at UNC schools earn $1000 to $1500
dollars
more per year than regular housekeepers, but most of the historically
black and
native American colleges have housekeepers
doing floor
maintenance, without being paid more.
This also happens at UNC-Chapel Hill.
A former Durham County employee talked about how she was
terminated for
“job abandonment” because of asthma her job contributed to. A school bus driver testified about poorly
maintained buses, low wages, and favoritism in assignments (Jan/Feb
2005
bulletin).
Almost 100
people attended the Goldsboro hearing, which focused on the DHHS and
heard
around 14 speakers. This Department is
the largest in the State government, employing more than 19,000 people
with a
budget of $11.3 billion dollars, almost 21% of the State budget. There were allegations of understaffing,
anti-unionism, unfair terminations, harassment and abuse by management,
forced
overtime, wage discrimination, violation of health and safety rules,
favoritism
in employment, and discrimination regarding light duty assignments. UE 150 President Raymond Sanders spoke about
capricious overtime policies. In some
DHHS units workers can choose overtime payment in the form of
time-and-a-half-pay or they can choose comp time, but not all units
allow this. It is allegedly up to the unit
administrators, and thus DHHS treats people doing similar work
differently. Additionally, State
personnel policies are reportedly often ignored by local managers. A now retired worker testified about how she
worked as a Lead Psych Tech, receiving excellent work evaluations, but
being
denied the extra pay for that over here original position, which
violates DHHS
policy. The Union believes she could be
owed more than $10,000 dollars in back pay, but the State refuses to
look into
this.
A black woman
from the DHHS’ Caswell Center in nearby Kinston spoke about the denial
of light
duty for legitimate medical reasons. She
worked for 13 years as a Development Technician I,
helping people develop living skills.
She was injured on the job and told by her doctor to get lighter
work. According to State policies, she
was to be given light duty or, if it was not available in her
department, then
she should be referred to another department in the agency. She also discovered that nearby DHHS
facilities had light duty and that workers in her department were being
given
light duty for off the job illnesses and medical conditions. During this time those receiving light duty
at the Center were mostly white. She
believes racism and her Union leadership were the reasons for her
differential
treatment. Because of this
discrimination she was without employment for over a year.
The Kinston Free Press reported her
testimony, causing a stir at the Center, but not enough to correct the
situation.
The day before
the Raleigh area hearing in May 2005, a jury found that a Department of
Transportation mechanics depot was a hostile working environment after
a
hangman’s noose was hung in the facility for 35 days in 2002, starting
February
1st (February is Black History Month). The
jury did not find the DOT guilty,
although white supervisors did not fix the problem after workers
complained. The Union says the State
rarely
corrects racist problems quickly.
At the Raleigh
hearing workers spoke about the Mail Services Center (see above),
Dorothea Dix
Hospital, the DHHS, and the DOT 7 case, involving the noose described
above. The leader of the Environmental
Services (housekeeping) department at Dix said “Dorothea Dix is a
plantation. The housekeeping staff at
Dorothea Dix have
had to work under conditions that have put us in a classification of
lesser
worth for far too long”
(May/June 2005 Bulletin).
A former 18-and-a-half year black DHHS social worker testified
that she
was passed over for a promotion and harassed by her white male
supervisor, then
had her job reassigned or out-contracted.
Allegedly she was gotten rid of to make room for younger workers. Her wage in the job was $46,000 dollars a
year, versus the $55,000 to 65,000 dollar salaries of whites and men
doing
similar work (Workers World, May 31, 2005).
She was promised a new State position in an
administrative appeals process, but that was three years before her
testimony.
March 31st
at dawn representatives of more than 40 organizations from around the
US
rallied outside of the Governor’s office to protest for at least a
$2500 dollar
raise for State workers and for Gov. Easley to support the collective
bargaining right. “Even more
importantly, we are here to send a message to our members, all workers,
and the
public in general that we are [typo] gaining more support every day and
won’t
stop until we get justice” said Nathanette
Mayo, a
Durham City worker and UE official (UE press release).
They also demanded an end to discrimination
within the government. The second annual
membership meeting of the Grassroots Global Justice Network, one of the
rallying groups, was held in Raleigh.
Co-coordinator Michael Leon Guerrero said Raleigh was chosen
“because
this is a critically important area for grassroots justice throughout
the
South, the US, and the World. NC has
some of the most repressive laws not only in the country but in the
World…We
are committed to mobilizing all the resources possible to make sure
workers
receive JUSTICE here in NC and throughout the South.”
Mayo thanked the protesters - “we thank
people for traveling so far to support us.
Our view is solidarity is not charity and we
stand
ready to support your struggles for justice as you are supporting ours”
(press
release).
For more
information contact:
Ashaki Binta, coordinator
International Worker Justice Campaign
UE Local 150
PO Box 3857
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Phone: 919-593-7558
Resolutions
available online at: http://surgenetwork.org/IWJC.
The
Governor can be contacted at:
Mike
Easley
Office
of the Governor
20301
Mail Service Center
Raleigh
27699-0301
Phone: 919-733-5811
Fax: 919-733-2120
governor.office at ncmail
dot net