A bus driver ‘sickout’ shows strength of collective action in NC
Seeing workers organize seems rare in North Carolina. The state does not officially allow public employees to strike; it is considered a class 1 misdemeanor. This reality isn’t new; North Carolina’s anti-worker sentiment can be seen going back to at least 1929, when a textile mill strike in Gastonia became violent and left two dead.
Despite this, Wake County bus drivers demonstrated that collective action still holds weight in a state like North Carolina. We should all be paying attention.
Last week, the system informed parents that some bus routes weren’t operating due to a “sick out,” a movement where drivers called out of work en masse. Suddenly, hundreds of families had to drive their children to school, while others were forced to stay home because no bus could come get them.
Afterward, the Wake County chapter of the NC Association of Educators (NCAE) organized a crowd of red, yellow and orange shirts in front of the school board meeting place Tuesday evening, demanding that they bear some responsibility and act on dismal pay and overworked staff.
Although NCAE does not claim to have participated in the bus driver “sickout,” the organization advocates for drivers and other staff alongside teachers. It was clear on Tuesday that they were standing as a collective voice: they held signs varying from the quickly-scribbled to the carefully cut-and-pasted, but the sentiment was all the same.
Even with the law’s limitations in North Carolina, workers are slowly organizing to stand up for themselves. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools drivers almost went on strike in October, but ultimately met and worked out an agreement. Similarly, film crews in Wilmington authorized a strike through their union, but ultimately were able to negotiate with their bosses.
Other groups have acted or could act on their threats: Teachers at a charter school in Union County were on strike in October after the abrupt firing of their principal. In Charlotte, Piedmont Airlines flight attendants authorized a strike if the demands of their union aren’t met, which could throw the already-shaky airline industry into chaos.
Yes, strikes make the rest of our lives difficult; that’s the point. They show just how valuable our workers are. It feels like we’re at a point where the legal implications of breaking North Carolina’s anti-strike law can’t compete with overwhelming sentiment: if they can’t fill jobs now, they won’t be filling the ones that arise from firing people demanding a living wage.
Our government employees, but especially the ones teaching the future of our state, should not be begging for a living wage. If this is happening with bus drivers in Wake County, what does it look like in smaller, rural districts in the state?
Wake NCAE president Kristen Beller said the state’s public school employees don’t have time to wait on the General Assembly to pass a budget. During the pandemic, she says, lots of teachers have quit and more are considering it.
“We’re also limited in what we believe the state’s going to do,” Beller says. “They’re not willing to invest in salary increases, are they going to invest in collective bargaining rights or labor? Labor laws that are good for employees? Not as likely.”
Arjorie Stewart-Jackson, a bus driver for Willow Springs High School, didn’t participate in the sick-out but says she stood for the reasons her colleagues did.
“We know that a lot of parents need that income, because some of them could be just single parents,” she said. “But they gotta understand that we give the opportunity for parents to go to work and make money. We need that same refuge.”
Stewart-Jackson drives four routes in the morning and four in the evening, twice the number she and others were driving before the driver shortage. After work, she still has to go home and work the second shift as a caretaker for her two grandchildren. Then, she wakes up early the next morning and it begins again.
The school board ultimately decided to give a bonus to employees, although it was lower than what was asked for. They also voted to raise starting salaries to $13 an hour, still below the living wage minimum for Raleigh.
It’s a start, but it isn’t what was asked for. So the educators will keep advocating for what they deserve - as will workers throughout the state — and we should all support them as their fight continues.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 9:46 AM.
