I moved to Ohio in September of 2010 to be an LRC for the OEA. Prior to that, I was an Association President, Building Representative, and 9-12 teacher in the state of North Carolina. Recently, I have received many questions from colleagues and members as to what the difference are between a collective bargaining state and a state where collective bargaining is illegal. Below I have highlighted just a few examples of rights that educators would likely be losing with the passage of SB 5:
-In NC, there is no defined start and stop time for teachers.
-In NC, teachers can be required to work after school and on Saturdays without any additional pay.
-In NC, one could hypothetically work a 20 hour day, with no right to complain.
-In NC, Teachers have no right to representation.
-In NC, teachers have no impartial reviewer of grievances. The local school board is most often the last stop for most grievances.
-In NC, ALL educators are on the state health insurance plan. Premiums and co-pays often fluctuate with no input from Educators.
-In the 2008/2009 school year, the NC governor declared that all public employees had to give back .5% of their pay for the year to assist with the state budget. In exchange, they were given a few hours of furlough time. As educators, very few people were able to use the furlough time due to the fact that it could not be used when students were present or on required workdays.
-In NC, in order to negotiate any working conditions terms, protect programs, and protect pay and insurance teachers must lobby (as you have been doing against SB 5). NC educators "collectively beg" state legislators, in order to protect programs, and rights.
Please, stand up for your rights now! Senate Bill 5 must be stopped!
Editor's note: I mentioned to this LRC that the daughter of one of my colleagues who teaches in Gaston County, NC was required to still be in school by 10:00 AM on snow/calamity days or otherwise make up that time plus she still had to make up the school day with kids at some later date.. The LRC said this was not a state rule. I checked it out with my colleague and he confirmed this was true for his daughter. This is just one example of working conditions that can be dictated arbitrarily by a local school board when collective bargaining agreements don't exist.
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