On Monday, June 4th, UE Local 150 leaders held a press conference condemning the North Carolina legislature's back-room deals, which resulted in $900 million in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations being included in the 2019 budget.
“The people did not have the opportunity to look at the budget closely, to voice their input … to look at how it's affecting working people and families across North Carolina” said Local 150 President Nathanette Mayo. “Those tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and the corporations are certainly going to hurt our communities and our workplaces in the long term.”
Mayo did praise the budget for including a new $15/hour minimum wage for state employees, which is “a step in the right direction,” but noted that state workers — and all workers — also need affordable healthcare and affordable housing.
According to Local 150’s press release, the tax cuts in the budget undermine North Carolina’s ability to invest in our future and in measures that make our communities healthier and stronger. The local is demanding instead a budget that respects the dignity of workers and workers’ families and communities, and which ensures that all North Carolinians can put food on the table, access affordable housing, receive a good education, and get the health care they need.
Local 150 condemned the legislature’s failure to give school districts the resources they need to provide an equitable education to all of North Carolina’s children, no matter what county they live in or how much money their parents make. They also condemned the implementation of what the North Carolina Association of Educators has called a “pay-for-performance bonus scheme” for teachers, and called on the legislature to provide more robust raises to our state’s educators instead. Local 150 “believes in building solidarity amongst all workers and won't stand for these efforts to divide education workers from state workers.”
Local 150 praised the fact that the new minimum wage for state workers of $15 per hour, or $31,200 annually, will impact many thousands of UE members: housekeepers, healthcare technicians, developmental technicians, food service workers, groundskeepers, transportation workers, and others who generally make between $26,000 and $29,000 per year.
However, they noted that state workers who already take home $15 or more per hour will only see a two percent raise next year, and that state workers deserve more than 2%. Local 150 has been fighting for annual cost-of-living adjustments as well as a $3,000 flat raise for state workers.
These wage increases, Local 150 notes, “are not evidence of the legislature’s goodwill. Rather, they are the result of dedicated struggles by state workers, teachers, and their allies, who have shown up in the streets and at legislative offices to demand dignity and respect for North Carolina’s workers.”