After over a year of organizing and turning members out to actions, city worker chapters of Local 150 successfully pressured Durham and Charlotte City Councils to approve millions in raises for public workers in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. On average, full time workers in Durham on the general step plan will receive a raise of over $8,000. Workers with more years of service will receive higher wage increases with some totaling over $15,000. In Charlotte, members won a six percent raise and an increase in the minimum starting salary, which is now $23 dollars an hour.
“This raise is a first step in recognizing the dilemma we face as city workers,” said Durham City Workers Union chapter Vice President Willie Brown, a crew leader in the Public Works department.
These raises come after a long fight to increase sanitation workers’ wages. Durham solid waste workers conducted a six day long “stand down” last September, which won $6.5 million in bonuses for city workers. The Durham City Workers Union held many rallies in 2023 and throughout 2024. Members also met with several council members and the mayor of Durham in order to build support for the proposals.
In Charlotte, UE members followed a similar strategy. “We do not have collective bargaining here, it is illegal, so one of the things we have been able to do over the past three years is a ‘multi-pronged pressure tactic,’” said UE Local 150 Charlotte chapter Vice President Robert Davis, who is Crew Chief One in Charlotte Water. “We have gone to city council meetings, met with city council members individually, had meetings with the Charlotte city manager, and had several actions at Marshall park where we have brought out as many members as possible to march to city council. With this multi-pronged pressure tactic, we have been able to mount community support and build a coalition of business leaders and other leaders around the city to gather around what we are demanding. We have made the wants and needs of our members clear.”
Charlotte City Workers Union/UE Local 150 packs the city council chambers.
In North Carolina, public-sector unions do not have the right to collective bargaining. When asked how union members get around this disadvantage, Davis said, “We have had to build a pretty wide coalition with the members of our union, community, and business leaders. We have been able to get their support and make our needs known as we go to city council.” Brown said, “While we don’t have collective bargaining, we have a collective agreement that we are all underpaid.” In the absence of collective bargaining, workers in the Durham and Charlottechapters of Local 150 use direct action to pressure the boss.
“We learned that we can still negotiate our pay”
In both Charlotte and Durham, public workers have been outspoken about their low wages. Many members are unable to afford to live in the cities that they keep functioning and clean. In September, the situation came to a head in Durham when members organized a “stand down,” refusing to load their trucks for six days.
Workers were being overworked because of the enormous amount of open positions. Over the course of the pandemic, sanitation workers’ step pay plans were essentially frozen. These issues were at the forefront of members’ minds as the stand down action started on September 6. Less than a month later, the city council voted to approve $6.5 million in additional bonuses for the city workers. Once that demand was met, members continued to push for an increase in their base wages.
Durham city workers held rallies, marches, and meetings in order to make their voices heard. In October 2023, George Bacote, a solid waste operator and Local 150 member, said during the public comment period of a city council meeting, “The truth of the matter is that there are a handful of guys in my department that are homeless, that are living in hotels with their wife and children.”
Brown explained how they are fighting back. “We understand that collective bargaining is illegal in North Carolina. But we learned through this process that we can still negotiate our pay. The actions that we took unearthed the reality of our situation that we didn’t even know. We have a much more educated workforce out of this struggle. Now we are learning more about how to move and take collective actions.
“Our actions have opened doors for other cities like Raleigh, Rocky Mount, and Chapel Hill. The raises mean a lot to me and my family. It means I will have more time to work with my family after I work my hard job instead of going to my second job to earn $100-200 per week. The raises ease the pain of the high expenses. Gas ain’t getting cheaper, and because we can’t afford to live in Durham, it helps ease expenses to commute.”
More Than Just a Raise
In Charlotte, members have won more than just a raise. The city council also passed an increase to the home ownership program, totalling $2 million in assistance, where workers can now get up to $80,000 for a down payment and housing counseling for improving their credit. Improvements have also been made to the education program so members no longer have to rely on reimbursements for tuition but can get money for college upfront from the city. Davis explained, “We have been able to do all of that without collective bargaining and we still have a seat at the table. We are invited to these meetings and with members from different departments to get our demands heard and get them met.
“The raise is something that everyone is celebrating in the area.” Davis continued, “We are fighting uphill but we are winning. Unlike Sisyphus we have been able to reach the summit with each boulder our members asked us to fight for. There is nothing special about Charlotte but what we have been able to win is absolutely unheard of. When I started here six years ago, my starting wage was $15.05 an hour and now the starting wage is $23 an hour.”
Members of Local 150 are partnering with the firefighters to push for a “Workers’ Bill of Rights” that would guarantee even more protections for members. “We have built a collaborative network,” said Davis. “We are getting our message out there, and making the city listen and respond.” Local 150 members in both Charlotte and Durham have proved that they can still win without the right to collective bargaining by working together and taking strategic action.