Read articles, opinions, "Trumpet" newsletters, and press releases about HOPE.

Last Vestige of the Jim Crow Era

David Zonderman, professor of history at North Carolina State University, has an excellent piece on the 50 year anniversary of the passage of General Statute 95-98, which bans public employee bargaining in our state.

"Here in North Carolina, we are going to celebrate a dubious golden anniversary this summer. Fifty years ago this June, spurred by fears of union corruption, communism, and (gasp) black and white people organizing together for better jobs and higher wages, the North Carolina legislature imposed a prohibition on public workers collectively bargaining for a legal contract–General Statute (GS) 95-98."

Read the full column at NC Policy Watch.

Tractivists Talk Repeal

You can view full-size versions of these videos and other recorded messages from Traction activists on the Traction YouTube Channel.

"We Ask Only for Fairness"

Video of remarks by MaryBe McMillan, NC AFL-CIO, on April 18, 2009

The North Carolina Asa Phillip Randolph Institute (APRI) held it's annual banquet on April 18, 2009, where NC State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer delivered the keynote address.

In her remarks, McMillan says it was a campaign to organize workers at NC State University when she was a student and hearing their stories of working full time but barely getting by that got her involved in the labor movement.

The bargaining ban, McMillan added, is disrespectful to all public employees of whom much is asked even as they are denied the same rights as mall security guards and workers at Walmart.

McMillan told the audience what the NC HOPE Coalition asks of state lawmakers is simple: "We ask not for a legal mandate. We ask not for the right to strike. We ask only for fairness."

New Bills to Repeal the Ban

Video of press conference held at the General Assembly March 24, 2009

The HOPE Coalition held a press conference on March 24th to urge members of the NC House and Senate to support the repeal of the ban against public sector collective bargaining rights.

The bills for repeal introduced in this 2009-2010 legislative session are HB 750 and SB 427.

HOPE Coalition Update

Now that the 2008 legislative session has ended it is time to take stock of our progress in order to plan for the future.

We kicked off our Open Letter to Legislators campaign in January, and since then have engaged over 140 new supporting organizations across the state and thousands of new individual supporters. HOPE activists (both public employees and allies) collected hundreds of signatures from supporters at the NC NAACP’s Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ), where speakers and the People’s Agenda highlighted collective bargaining as a key justice issue for the people of North Carolina.

This spring three more organizations joined the core leadership of the coalition, which brings HOPE core membership up to over 238,000. Also this spring public employees from eight core groups spoke to university students in our series of collective bargaining teach-ins.

In early June, city employees succeeded in educating the Durham City Council and moving them to officially support public employee bargaining rights. In the last year public employee unions and associations have won the backing of mayors and other locally elected officials across North Carolina who have signed letters, spoken to the press and introduced resolutions welcoming the opportunity to bargain with public employees.

On June 11, 100 HOPE members, both public employees and community allies, participated in our first collective bargaining lobby day. They delivered the open letter signed by thousands of HOPE supporters to their legislators, and asked them to commit to voting to repeal the bargaining ban. Hundreds of supporters who couldn’t be there emailed legislators through our virtual lobby. We held a press conference featuring Mayors Yvonne Johnson of Greensboro and Mark Chilton of Carrboro, as well as public employees from across the state and across the spectrum of job titles. Legislators also stood up and spoke up for the bill. Five days later the House Democratic Caucus discussed the bill for the first time, a clear sign that they are taking our movement seriously.

On Labor Day HOPE coalition members marched in the Charlotte Labor Day parade along with many HOPE supporting organizations. We passed out our great new bumper stickers and got a chance to talk to people from many different groups who want to take action for public employee collective bargaining. The movement for public employee collective bargaining is stronger than ever. HOPE will continue to build momentum in many ways. Please join us by signing the open letter to legislators today!

Lobby for H.O.P.E. 2008

Video of press conference held at the General Assembly June 11, 2008

On the morning of June 11, 2008, supporters of public employees gathered at the General Assembly in Raleigh to lobby for HOPE. We pressed for passage of House Bill 1583, which would restore contract rights for state and local government workers.

Click here to email lawmakers in support of HB 1583.

Press Clips

Better bargain for state employees

by Michael Schwalbe

Raleigh News & Observer, 29 May 2007

William Faulkner’s line about the past—it’s not dead; in fact, it’s not even past—aptly applies to North Carolina General Statute §95-98, which bans collective bargaining by public employees. A vestige of a bygone era, this law remains a force in the present, to neither our credit nor benefit.

NCGS §95-98 grew out of efforts to stop the Teamsters from organizing police and transportation workers in Charlotte in the late 1950s. Even after city officials thwarted this organizing effort, two Mecklenburg legislators, Reps. Frank Snepp Jr. and Ernest Hicks, wanted a law that would quash public sector organizing across the state.

Snepp and Hicks drafted a bill that would make it illegal for public employees to join unions and for any unit of government in North Carolina to engage in collective bargaining. Their bill was backed by legislators beholden to textile bosses who feared that unionized police would be less willing to put down strikes by textile workers.

Some legislators criticized the bill for being too broad, saying it should apply only to police. One legislator noted the anti-labor hand of the textile industry behind the bill. But, with only minor changes, the bill passed both houses of the General Assembly and became law in June 1959. It has not gone unchallenged.

In 1969, public employees in Charlotte sued the city in federal district court, charging that NCGS §95-98 was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel ruled in Atkins vs. the City of Charlotte that it was indeed unconstitutional to forbid public employees from joining unions. But the court upheld the ban on collective bargaining.

In 1974, the law was challenged again in federal district court in the case of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Unit of North Carolina Association of Educators vs. Phillips. Plaintiffs argued that NCGS §95-98 violated public employees’ First Amendment right to freedom of association.

The court agreed in Phillips that the law impeded employee organizing, but ruled that it was not unconstitutional for government units to refuse to bargain collectively with employees, because public employees were not entitled to special access to government policy makers.

A third challenge came in December 2005, when the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America and its North Carolina affiliate, UE 150, filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO), a branch of the United Nations. The complaint alleged that NCGS §95-98 violates international labor law conventions to which the U.S. is a party, and that it also violates international human rights standards.

Last month the ILO upheld the complaint. The ILO’s investigating committee found that NCGS §95-98 violates basic principles of freedom of association by frustrating the main objective of employee organizing: to bargain collectively about wages, benefits, and local conditions of employment.

The courts erred in the Atkins and Phillips cases, according to the ILO, by failing to distinguish between government as employer and government as policy maker. Public employees must be free, the ILO decision said, to negotiate with government in its role as employer. The report thus called for repeal of NCGS §95-98 and the creation of a framework for public sector collective bargaining in North Carolina.

We now have compelling reasons to put NCGS §95-98 behind us.

There is, first, the matter of principle. Being able to organize and bargain collectively with one’s employer are basic human rights, as stressed by the ILO decision. A law that infringes on these rights is also an affront to American principles of justice and fairness.

There are practical reasons, too.

Workers in states with public sector unions earn about 5-8% more than comparable workers in states without collective bargaining.

Yes, this can mean a higher wage bill in some cases. But it also means better lives for public workers at the low end of the pay scale. And putting more money in the pockets of workers is one of the best ways to create an economy-boosting multiplier effect.

Collective bargaining can also save money. Research on the effects of public sector collective bargaining shows that it reduces training costs by reducing turnover, reduces corruption in government by making people accountable to contractually defined rules, and reduces the costs of handling complaints arising from bias and discrimination.

Several bills to repeal NCGS §95-98 are now being considered in the legislature. Of these, HB1583, sponsored by Wake County Rep. Dan Blue, best hits the mark. HB1583 would scrap NCGS §95-98 and give local units of government the option of using collective bargaining if they so desire.

A product of a less than shining moment in North Carolina’s history, NCGS §95-98 is overdue for repeal. It’s a law that tarnishes the image of our state and denies the rights of over 500,000 North Carolinians who are public employees. The past may be ever with us, but in the case of NCGS §95-98 we can nullify its power to haunt the present.

Michael Schwalbe is a professor of sociology at N.C. State University. This article has been reprinted here with his permission.