September 21, 2001

Other stories below:
State offers targeted economic help for 10 counties
Cleveland County lands new industry
Easley calls for donations to New York relief fund 

FYI, from the N.C. Department of Revenue: The federal tax rebates being mailed to taxpayers this year by the Internal Revenue Service are not taxable for North Carolina income tax purposes. For more information about the rebates, check the IRS website at www.irs.gov or call 1-800-829-4477.


SEANC seeks collective bargaining rights
The State Employees Association of N.C. (SEANC) voted at its annual convention in Greensboro earlier this month to begin lobbying the General Assembly for collective bargaining rights and the power to possibly organize strikes. While it’s difficult to imagine that North Carolina, a right-to-work state with among the nation’s lowest unionization rates, would grant state workers such powers, one prominent observer said the movement should be taken seriously.

“The potential for the state employees to be a very successful political force is great,” said N.C. FREE Executive Director John Davis. “Therefore, the business community should take this saber rattling seriously. They have the raw numbers statewide to be a very powerful political force.”

SEANC voted overwhelmingly to pursue the right to collectively bargain with the state over pay and working conditions. In a second, more controversial, vote, the roughly 900 delegates attending the three-day convention voted to eliminate a sentence in SEANC's bylaws that reads, "In no event shall a strike or work stoppage be employed by SEANC." The delegates rejected a milder move that would have inserted this sentence in the bylaws: "In no event shall a strike or threat of work stoppage be employed by SEANC, unless authorized by three-fourths” of the organization’s board of directors. In a related action, the convention sought to amend legislation on the books that voids the payroll deduction of membership dues of organizations that participate in collective bargaining.

North Carolina has about 120,000 state employees, a category that excludes school teachers. SEANC represents about 60,000 active and retired state workers, making it one of the largest voting blocs in the state. In a dozen or so counties with a concentration of state facilities – Wake County heads the list -- state employees already wield considerable political influence.

Collective bargaining – by public or private sector groups -- isn’t specifically illegal in North Carolina, but state law makes any such agreement null and void. According to SEANC, North Carolina is the only state in the nation to explicitly bar collective bargaining agreements, and the law isn’t likely to be overturned. Two separate federal district courts in North Carolina have held that the state has no obligation, constitutional or otherwise, to enter into contracts if it chooses not to. Strikes by public employees in North Carolina are illegal; workers who engage in work stoppages can be fired immediately.

This new, confrontational attitude by SEANC is a reflection of the leadership style of Executive Director Dana S. Cope, the former N.C. Department of Labor official who was hired as SEANC’s leader early last year. Insisting that SEANC’s prior, low-key legislative lobbying tactics had barely kept state worker salaries abreast of inflation, he immediately plunged the association into bare-knuckles politics. To the astonishment of most political observers, SEANC’s PAC targeted 30 ranking incumbent legislators in last year’s legislative elections and made campaign contributions of up to $4,000 to many of their challengers.

Among those targeted for defeat by SEANC were Sens. John Kerr (D-Wayne) and Howard Lee (D-Orange), whose districts include large concentrations of state employees. SEANC also opposed Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare) and other powerful Senate figures such as Aaron Plyler (D-Union), Fountain Odom (D-Mecklenburg), Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) and David Hoyle (D-Gaston). The gambit was spectacularly unsuccessful; every incumbent targeted for defeat by SEANC won re-election.

N.C. FREE’s Davis said SEANC apparently has decided that it has nothing to lose: “It appears to me that they have concluded that the only way to get what they want is to be aggressive politically. They are laying it all on the line, saying we know this will upset the political leadership but we don’t care. In order to rally the troops politically, you have to have an issue. They are banking on collective bargaining with binding arbitration to be the rallying cause for political activism and they have the potential to achieve that success.”

However, Davis doubts SEANC will get what it wants. “The greater probability is that they will fail miserably,” he said.

Sen. Hoyle agreed. “It will be over my dead body” before the General Assembly grants state workers the collective bargaining rights, he said. “We’re not going to pass any laws to allow any group of people to disrupt the government.“

Hoyle added that he’s puzzled by SEANC dive into hardnosed politics. “State employees by and large are good people. They are dedicated, underpaid and underappreciated in many cases. But they have elected some leadership over there that, well, let’s just say he’s not held in very high regard by many of my colleagues in the Senate. He called me a cockroach one time.”


State targets 10 counties for focused economic help
Local communities across North Carolina will join the state Department of Commerce in focused partnerships to develop strategies for fostering local economic growth under a new initiative announced b Commerce Secretary Jim Fain. The 21st Century Communities initiative will create partnerships between DOC and 10 counties affected both by the recent national economic slowdown and by long-term changes in the state's economic base. The initiative calls for a rapid, thorough examination of the strengths and challenges for local economies using existing resources in DOC divisions. A special DOC task force will join with local officials in developing tailored strategies for economic vitality in each county, and DOC will work with counties over the long term to help implement recommended changes.

"North Carolina has been especially hard hit by the economic slowdown in manufacturing, particularly the textiles and high-tech industries," said Gov. Mike Easley. "In an effort to strive for one North Carolina, we must continue to look for new and innovative ways to recruit and retain high-quality industry in all areas of the state."

Participating counties include Columbus, Cherokee, Duplin, Gaston, Halifax, Rockingham, Robeson, Rutherford, Warren and Yancey. Criteria for participation included relative economic distress, including rising unemployment and a reliance on at-risk traditional manufacturing, as well as committed community leadership, interest in the initiative and geographic distribution around the state.

"The key to this initiative is making all of the Department's services available to a county in a proactive, coordinated way to identify and implement successful economic-development strategies," Fain said. "Those strategies will be built on the communities' strengths and best opportunities for success."

Examples of economic-development strategies that could emerge to help individual counties include infrastructure improvement, downtown revitalization, workforce development and tourism planning, Fain said. "The goal is readiness to succeed economically," he added. "We're going to help locals communities focus on the economic underpinnings that can build prosperity across the state."

Cleveland County lands new industry
Virginia-based NVR Inc. will open a new home-construction components manufacturing facility in Cleveland County, a project that will create about 150 jobs. A 120,000-square-foot facility will be constructed in Kings Mountain for NVR's Building Products Division to manufacture home-construction components. Construction is expected to be completed by April 2002. The company expects to hire 100 workers immediately and add 50 more jobs over the next two years. The new facility will manufacture components used in the company's Ryan Homes and NVHomes divisions.

The N.C. Department of Commerce collaborated its efforts with the Cleveland County Economic Development Commission (EDC), John Barker Realty of Shelby and Kings Mountain Mayor Rick Murphrey in securing the project. Local officials welcomed the announcement in Cleveland County, which has suffered from an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent in recent months.

Easley calls for donations to New York relief fund
Gov. Mike Easley has issued a call on behalf of New York Gov,. George Pataki encouraging citizens across the nation to make a donation to the New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund over the Internet, by telephone or through the mail. “Now is the time for everyone to come together, not only as one North Carolina and one America but indeed as one world bound together by the bonds of humankind,” Easley said. “The rest of the country was there for us during Hurricane Floyd, and now we need to be there for them during this time of crisis.”

To make a donation by credit card, individuals by visit www.state.ny.us or call the state’s donor hotline at 1-800-801-8092. Individuals also can mail a check to: New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund, PO Box 5028, Albany, NY 12205.


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