When I was a kid I knew my teachers didn’t make a whole lot of money. I thought that it was just how things worked, how they had to work. I thought that it was some sort of nebulous bad, something that could and would be solved by the government or a team of scientists, like it was a disease that just needed a vaccine. In reality, nine-year-old me wasn’t too far off.
North Carolina is one of the 28 states who has “right-to-work” laws. Right-to-work laws actually greatly limit the power of labor unions, and therefore workers.
“You only have the option to continue teaching at what they tell you or quit,” said East theater teacher Hope Hynes Love. “The state is in a really smart bargaining position, they know that the people who are educators care about the quality of education that children will receive…. The [state] will ask this civil servant to pay with their extra time, their extra energy and their commitment to a job because it’s for the kids.”
The lack of powerful unions and said union voices in the N.C. legislature has resulted in a system with very few checks and balances in regards to worker rights. The state is making the teachers pay the gap, because they know that not many teachers will leave because they love what they do. But some do, some teachers leave because it makes little financial sense to work in the N.C. public school system.
“No person shall be required by an employer to abstain or refrain from membership in any labor union or labor organization as a condition of employment or continuation of employment” (North Carolina General Statute, section 95-81, 1947.)
This is one of many laws that make North Carolina a “right-to-work” state; by removing the requirement that an employee join a union when a majority votes on it, unions are extremely weakened. For example, in a union-friendly state, if a majority of workers at an establishment vote to unionize, every worker is then a member of the union and has to pay dues. This creates an effective, strong union that can collectively bargain for workers rights. In right-to-work states, the story is different, that same majority vote could happen, but only the people who voted would join the union. When a group of workers aren’t fully united, they lose a lot of power and respect as a union; that union can’t effectively bargain for workers rights
Some may argue that workers in right-to-work states could still unionize. While uniting a small group of workers is feasible, uniting a factory or a warehouse where more than 1,500 people are employed at a time is nearly impossible, especially given the extensive turnover attempts by employers to limit union organizing. Right-to-work laws give power to employers and big corporations by effectively neutering unions of their voice and collective bargaining power. The laws are even stricter on government workers: “contracts between units of government and labor unions, trade unions or labor organizations concerning public employees declared to be illegal” (North Carolina General Statute, section 95-98, 1959.) This means that government workers, such as public school teachers, have absolutely no access to collective bargaining or say over how much they’re being paid.
For a long time the state of North Carolina paid teachers more if they have earned their masters. This practice is standard all over the U.S.; it was made to encourage teachers to get higher educations in hopes to increase the effectiveness of teaching along with increasing test scores, but in 2013 the North Carolina General Assembly voted to end state-funded master’s pay for teachers who began their degree programs after that year. The removal of the program is bad enough, North Carolina. is the first state in the country to remove the salary increase. It’s the precedent that’s the issue; any and all decisions surrounding public education can be revoked by the whim of the N.C. legislature. Currently the state is looking at reinstating the salary increase, but the damage has been done.
“People understand that when those things happen [in the corporate world] that the corporation is corrupt,” Love said. “If you started to work for a company that said, ‘Get your masters and we’ll pay you more,’ and then one day they stop paying you for your masters, I would say any reasonable person would [question] their trust of their employer.”
In the corporate world this would be a breach of contract, but there was no contract to be breached here. Because there are no unions to keep the legislature in check with bartering, agreements, and organized strikes there was no one for the legislature to sign a contract with; without contracts the promises made by the legislature can be overturned every year.
“They have power, the way to balance power is money,” Love said. “If people are [wondering] about what to do, they can become ‘community allies’… that’s a way [people] can take some of their resources rather than just their anger and put it into solidary action.”
Love is a member of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), a public education advocacy organization that formed due to teachers not having access to collective bargaining in North Carolina. The NCAE is the closest thing to a union that can exist in North Carolina; they can’t take any political action, they don’t have any voice in the legislature and they can not endorse any politicians or directly donate to their campaigns. What the NCAE can do is create a separate political action committee (PAC) fund that members can donate to, that PAC can then take political action with the funds donated. Note that if you are not an educator you have to pay an annual $25 dollar fee to become a ‘community ally,’ this includes students, parents and local community members.
For legislation to change, there needs to be a dramatic shift in the power of unions and the laws that surround them in North Carolina. Whether it be donating in solidarity, voting in state elections or organized protesting, there are ways that you can help foster the change that is desperately needed.
Photo courtesy of Mat McDermott
