Portside

A North Carolina teachers union on Tuesday voted to join the national American Federation of Teachers in a bid to “be heard” by state lawmakers. The board of Professional Educators of North Carolina, an organization with 1,700 members across the state, voted unanimously in Charlotte to affiliate with the AFT, which has 1.8 million members and 3,870 active affiliates nationwide. As part of the move, PENC will now be rebranded as AFPENC: The American Federation of Professional Educators of North Carolina.

The national union will begin advocating in Raleigh for the approval of a new state budget and higher salaries for teachers, AFT President Randi Weingarten said Tuesday. The North Carolina General Assembly still has not approved a budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which began July 1. Without it, the state operates off its previous budget, meaning teachers and other state employees will go without raises for the time being. Meanwhile, the state health plan also changed this year, with premiums and deductibles increasing for public employees. “What I heard from North Carolina educators is ‘How do we actually make the state lawmakers more responsive to what the citizens of the state need, which is a good public education system, good public schools that respect their educators?’” Weingarten said. “Respecting educators means that you’re not going to have premium payments that are out of reach, that you’re going to have pay that your family can live on.” North Carolina currently ranks 43rd in the nation for average teacher pay, according to the National Education Association. It trails all other states in the southeast except Mississippi.

“We want to bring hope to teachers and let them know that we now have a national union supporting us,” said AFPENC president Joanna Loftis. “We need to be heard, and this is a way for us to be heard.” What does it mean? Teachers’ unions in North Carolina have less power than in some other parts of the country: state law prohibits state and local governments from entering into collective bargaining agreements with public employees. Basically, teachers have the right to organize and advocate for their interests, but unions cannot legally bargain with the government. State law also bans public sector employees from striking. Still, AFPENC is not totally defanged. AFT can use its resources to advocate on behalf of North Carolina educators in Raleigh, and it offers a number of benefits to members. Those include free mental health support, free books for teachers and students at low-income schools, help with student debt forgiveness and covering the cost of continuing education required by the state. School districts in North Carolina are not legally required to recognize unions, but Weingarten said, with a national union behind them, AFPENC can make waves. “When you start going down the road of having real presence, then that’s when you have real possibility, and that’s when recognition happens. Too often in a state like North Carolina, school districts don’t have a legal obligation (to recognize unions),” Weingarten said. “Right now, we’re going to take baby steps and try to create a way that people are respected for the amazing, invaluable, righteous, sacrosanct work that they do.”