News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), September 7, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2005 News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)

September 7, 2005, Wednesday

HEADLINE: Teamsters seek new members in North Carolina

BYLINE: By Karin Rives

BODY:

Less than two months after the Teamsters defected from the AFL-CIO, the union is ramping up its organizing efforts in the state.
Starting today, Greensboro-based Teamsters Local 391 will dispatch a dozen volunteers to knock on public school employees' doors in Forsyth and Guilford counties, asking them to sign union cards. The campaign will expand to Wake and Durham counties in two weeks, and to Mecklenburg and Pitt counties next month, said Steve Jones, the local's organizing director.
The focus of the campaign is school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors and other low-wage employees in the state's financially pressured school districts -- workers who are prohibited by state law from striking or bargaining collectively for wages and benefits.
Such limits don't discourage the union, which says a widespread campaign targeting several thousand school employees will increase awareness of organized labor throughout the state's work force.
"One of the problems we have in North Carolina and other Southern states is that we have no significant union presence in the public sector. That means people aren't as educated about unions as they are in other states," Jones said. "This will help us also in the private sector."
The ultimate goal, he said, is to put pressure on state lawmakers to change the law that bars state and local government employees from forming legally binding collective bargaining units.
"A lot of unions are looking at this strategy right now," said Lance Compa, a lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a former union organizer. "These are employees who are close to their communities. If they can be effectively represented, I think it can have a spillover affect, even if it's years from now. I think it's a solid strategy."
The Teamsters Local 391 will market its ability to represent workers with workplace grievances and keep them informed of their legal rights. The union's two locals in North Carolina together have about 12,000 members, representing employees at companies such as United Parcel Service and Miller Brewing.
Organizers also plan to use their membership from schools in lobbying school boards, county officials and state legislators on issues pertaining to school employees.
The union already has gained a limited presence in several school districts in the past couple of years, including Durham, but lacked the finances and manpower to fan out statewide. Now the campaign is reinforced with money that used to go to the AFL-CIO, and with volunteers from the Teamsters' new partner, the Service Employees International Union.
Together with the United Food and Commercial Workers, the three large unions left the AFL-CIO this summer to register their dissatisfaction with declining union memberships. Their new coalition, Change to Win, has pledged to step up organizing nationwide.
But not everybody thinks the Teamsters will be a shoo-in at the state's public schools.
"My question is: Why?" said Jim Causby, executive director of the N.C. School Administrators Association, which represents 8,000 principals, superintendents and other school leaders. "I can see why the union is interested, but I just don't think there's much of an interest among people across the state. Most of these employees already have some type of group that they're involved with."
Although organizations such as the N.C. Pupil Transportation Association and the School Food Service Association operate mainly as professional groups, they also lobby elected officials about issues such as pay, he said.
Besides, Causby said, with state and local budgets, "It's hard to get a lot of extra out for the school system, and this is a very anti-collective bargaining state."
Only 2.7 percent of North Carolina workers belonged to a union in 2004. The state's labor movement lost 14,000 members last year alone, as large plants such as Pillowtex shut down.
Still, Jones and other Teamsters officials think they have a role to play in the school system, citing dissatisfaction about wage increases, declining employee benefits and scheduling issues.
"It may make a difference," said Andrea Mial, 39, a school bus driver from Garner who makes $ 14.16 an hour after 15 years on the job and gets paid for six hours each day. "I love my job, and I really enjoy talking to the kids," she said. "But it's hard to make ends meet through the month."-----