Budget reductions from state, not superintendent

It is not my normal practice to respond to articles and editorials in the local newspaper. However, when the same mistake is repeated, I feel I have no choice.

Twice the HDR has reported that presentation I gave to the Catawba County Schools Board of Education about reductions in the state budget reflected my recommendations. The reductions that I presented were those outlined by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

The 3 percent, 5 percent and 7 percent reductions presented were the choices of NCDPI, not mine or the Catawba County Board of Education.

The presentation was a review of the impact NCDPI reductions will have on our schools. Until the governor and the legislature finalize their budget, we will not know the exact nature of any reduction.

Inaccurate reporting only confuses an already complicated issue. Most of the money needed to operate the school system comes from the state of North Carolina in specific categorical allotments. Reductions in those categories represent decisions at the state level. The presentation to the Board of Education simply outlined those categorical reductions.

I know that in these tough times, difficult choices will have to be made and they will be made with the students of Catawba County and the protection of instruction at the forefront of each and every budget decision.

Tim Markley
Superintendent
Catawba County Schools
Newton

Free Choice Act would let employees decide on vote

The last time I visited my hometown of Hickory, I saw more boarded-up factories and for-sale signs outside businesses and homes. Thousands of workers who have lost their jobs in textiles and furniture are counting on area business leaders and public officials to push for policies that will jumpstart the local economy and enable it to thrive.

That's why it's so disappointing that Hickory business leaders and the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce are waging war against the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that will help workers bargain for a better life. In fighting this legislation, business leaders are missing the fundamental point that when workers earn a decent wage they can stimulate the local economy through the taxes they pay and their consumer spending.

Part of the reason our country is facing a depression is that, for the last 25 years, real wages have dropped, even though working people's productivity has soared. Hickory and other communities have watched their good manufacturing jobs disappear.

The new high-tech jobs that were supposed to replace the old ones never materialized. Instead, working families have seen our friends and neighbors scramble for part-time, underpaid jobs that don't pay the rent or bills.

People have struggled to maintain their living standards through credit cards and loans. But eventually, that led to economic meltdown because you can't maintain a consumer-driven economy on debt forever. And you can't rebuild or maintain a middle class on credit. You have to do it the old-fashioned way. Workers need to be able to bargain for decent wages and benefits in order for our nation to have a true, sustainable recovery.

That's why we need the Employee Free Choice Act to add balance back into our economy and give working people the tools they need to win fair wages and treatment. People who have a union, after all, make 30 percent more than those who don't. In North Carolina, the union difference is an average $9,878.

So it's no wonder that, according to independent polling, when American workers without a union are asked if they would like to join one, more than half (around 60 million) answer yes. Unfortunately, most of them will never get the chance.

Every day, corporations deny workers the right to organize by forcing them to go through company-controlled elections, in which companies routinely coerce, harass and fire workers for supporting a union. A quarter of companies fire union supporters in organizing campaigns and three-quarters of companies force workers into one-on-one meetings against the union with their direct supervisors, according to a study from Cornell University. Meanwhile, union representatives aren't even allowed on the premises to talk to employees.

Does this seem like a free and fair election?

In 2007 alone, more than 29,559 cases filed under the National Labor Relations Act found evidence of employers harassing, intimidating and firing workers for supporting a union.

Why? The reason companies will go to any length to stop workers from organizing is the same reason Big Business interests are spending $200 million to stop passage of the Employee Free Choice Act: They don't want to give workers the power to bargain for fair wages and benefits.

The Employee Free Choice Act gives workers the freedom to make their own decision about whether to form a union to bargain for better wages and working conditions.

There are currently two potential ways for workers to decide whether to form a union — they can petition for an election or they can be recognized when a majority signs cards saying they want a union. The problem is that now companies get to choose which way the workers decide. The Employee Free Choice Act would reverse that: It would put the choice of how to form a union back into workers' hands, not their employers'.

Our current labor laws do not respect workers' choice, and instead they promote wage inequality and depress our middle class. In today's economy, it is more important than ever that we fix these broken laws and give working people a chance.

A vote for the Employee Free Choice Act is a vote for North Carolina workers and for a healthy state economy.

MaryBe McMillan
Secretary-Treasurer
North Carolina AFL-CIO
Raleigh
www.aflcionc.org