What does it mean to be a union in the South?
The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) is grappling with this question. Though NCAE is classified as a professional organization, it has embraced union language and started to act more like a union.
The shift came about in 2020 with the election of Tamika Walker Kelly and Brian Proffitt as president and vice president. Their campaign Facebook page, announcing their win, said high voter participation was "a clear sign that educators across NC are ready to build our union, grow our power, and reclaim our state."
Kelly said she and Proffitt were very intentional about using the word union when they came into leadership. Firstly, because NCAE is an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States. And, seconds, because it would "help [to] create a mind shift for people."
"There has always been union organizing in the South," Kelly said. "But also, people have been taught to not use the word union and to feel very disconnected from union organizing here in the South."
North Carolina is not a union-dense state. Last year, just 3.1 percent of wage and salary workers in the state were represented by a union, tied with South Dakota for the lowest rate in the country. The national rate is 11.2 percent.
And to Kelly, it is not a coincidence that North Carolina is also touted, by both Democrats and Republicans, as the CNBC top state for business: "Businesses want to come here because they aren't worried about a unionized workforce," she said.
Kelly and NCAE envision a different North Carolina. But state law could make it difficult to change the labor paradigm, especially for public employees like the members of NCAE. North Carolina has some of the harshest anti-union laws in the country: employment in the state is "at will," and it is illegal for public employees to collectively bargain or go on strike.
Nevertheless, according to Kelly, NCAE is one of the fastest-growing affiliates of the NEA. (An NCAE spokesperson declined to provide numbers backing that up, saying they are not at liberty to share figures from an internal NEA report.)
Despite the anti-union policy landscape, Kelly said there are creative ways to further NCAE's mission of advocating for education professionals, public education, and children.
"We have to continue to tell the union stories as if they aren't a part of the distant past," Kelly said. "It is important to educate and continue to help people know that they have a place in shaping North Carolina's labor history and future."
Local solutions to state roadblocks
This year, two local NCAE affiliates participated in their first year of meet and confer—school district administrators meeting regularly with representatives from the locals to solicit input on policy, while not entering into a bargaining agreement.
In Asheville, educators negotiated a meet and confer procedure—not a formal district policy—with the Asheville City Schools (ACS) superintendent following a surprise announcement of two school closures and a subsequent petition signed by over half of ACS workers.
The Durham Association of Educators (DAE) won a meet and confer policy after over a year of ad-hoc meetings that sometimes got fiery, with DAE members walking out of meetings.
The meetings came in the shadow of "sickouts," when teachers coordinated to take sick days at the same time. One day, a dozen schools were forced to close. Kelly said Durham educators made the right decision, even though that action potentially violated the law against public sector strikes.
"Our members of DAE participated in days of protest around the district's mishandling of funds around classified worker pay," Kelly said. "Ultimately, it got us to a place where we have this meet and confer agreement to hopefully make sure that those things don't happen again."
These meet and confer processes are the first of their kind in North Carolina—skirting the public sector collective bargaining ban because, ultimately, district administrators still have authority to enact whatever policies they wish.
For NCAE members, meet and confer represents a hard-won formal voice.
Meetings this year have led to "material wins," like adjustments to inclement weather policies and changes to how families receive information about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on school campuses, Kelly said.
She said local wins like these signify the importance of collaboration between the district and its workers.
"We'll continue to see other locals across NCAE get ready to also push for what we call 'a seat at the table,'" Kelly said. "Because if we are important stakeholders, as they say that we are, it will be invaluable to have our voices in that decision-making process."
The Edgecombe Association of Educators is one local eyeing meet and confer. It reached majority status—over 50 percent representation among district employees—last year. Kelly said this milestone is especially encouraging in a rural place like Edgecombe, where building union density is more difficult.
Another local, Kelly said, is the Forsyth County Association of Educators, whose district faced a $42 million budget shortfall in fiscal year 2025.
Part of achieving a formal voice and representing educators is representing enough educators. That's why the first priority of NCAE's strategic plan is "Grow Our Union."
"We grow by having conversations every day with educators," Kelly said. Those conversations happen in hallways and parking lots, at community gatherings, and on front doorsteps.
"We are in school buildings, in communities, talking about what people need and want in public schools."
It isn't always smooth sailing. The first barrier to bringing in new members that Kelly mentioned is the lack of belief in the possibility of a union in North Carolina.
Rallying around the issues
The moment, however, may be ripe for growth. NCAE has many statewide goals that brought thousands together in Raleigh on May 1.
In April, the NC Supreme Court cited procedural faults when striking down Leandro, a decades-long court case centering on North Carolina's constitutional mandate to provide access to a sound, basic education to students. In a statement denouncing the decision, Kelly said "no state does less for its public schools than North Carolina."
NCAE cites the Education Law Center, whose most recent report gave North Carolina an "F" grade for its public school funding level and designated it "the lowest effort state" where effort is defined as state and local revenue as a percentage of the state's GDP.
Kelly gives many reasons for North Carolina's bottom ranking.
North Carolina's private school voucher program, the Opportunity Scholarship, was expanded in 2023 in what Republicans called "the largest expansion of school choice" in 10 years. The expansion allowed any family to qualify regardless of household income.
As of April 2026, nearly 107,000 North Carolina students receive vouchers. So far this school year, the program represents nearly $587 million in state funds sent—some would say diverted—to private schools.
"Every day we have parents who choose to send their almost 1.5 million public school students to a public school, and yet our legislature refuses to honor those choices," Kelly said. "Instead, it takes our public school dollars and puts them into unaccountable private schools."
Meanwhile, teachers and other state employees haven't received raises since 2024. Last year's attrition rate for teachers was 10.11 percent, with the rate for beginning and veteran teachers being even higher. The state superintendent said North Carolina public schools "cannot be best in the nation if our teachers are not adequately compensated, trained and revered."
North Carolina ranks 43rd in the nation for teacher pay, according to NEA data.
"Our educators continue to come to work every day, pour into our students … remain hopeful that things will get better," Kelly said. "But ultimately it has been a strained hope, because we have been in this decline for quite some time."
The lack of pay raises for educators is just one casualty of an ongoing budget stalemate between North Carolina Republicans in the House and Senate. The crux of their impasse is the degree to which taxes will be cut.
For Kelly, the situation is an example of how tax cuts drain revenue that could be used for public schools. House and Senate Republicans disagree about how fast to lower the personal income tax rate; the corporate tax rate in North Carolina, previously the lowest in the nation among states that collected such a tax at 2.5 percent, is scheduled to be fully phased out by 2030. In April, a House committee recommended a constitutional amendment that would limit local property tax increases. And it's an example of state legislators choosing not to empower public schools.
"What it reflects is a lack of political will and a demonstration of choices," Kelly said. "Lawmakers not choosing our students, not choosing our educators, not choosing our public schools."
This public school policy landscape could be an engine for community growth. Kelly hopes North Carolina can return to the "beacon in the South" for education it once was, and thinks thousands of others feel the same way.
'Kids Over Corporations' rally at the legislature
A May 1 rally organized by NCAE centered "Kids Over Corporations" because "we know when we invest in our students rather than corporate donors or the wealthy few, that when we invest in our schools, that is the best investment this state can make to put it on the road to progress."
The event's website said the rally would be "the biggest march for public education North Carolina has ever seen."
There have been many moments in the past few years that could have prompted this rally. Kelly said that, in addition to the funding threat to public schools, this is the time to highlight democratic principles.
"We see a big call for what a democratic society looks like, and public schools in every community are the foundation of our democracy," she said. "So when we really uphold and uplift the cornerstone of our public schools and anchor what it means to be a good human, what it means to be an engaged citizen in this society, what it means to be an engaged person in our communities, then I can't see any reason why people should not be gathering together on May 1, 2026."
Kelly said that the rally is both about putting pressure on lawmakers and also visibility to the public— bringing people together from across the state, to see that "we are united in the same struggles, but we are also united in trying to find solutions."
She said conversations among people on May 1 will lead to conversations with lawmakers on May 2. And in June, and July, and for years to come.
"We are trying to shift the landscape in our state for public schools, and so coming together on May 1 is just the beginning of that."
What does it mean to be a union in the South?
In mid-April, Kelly answered the question: What does it mean to be a union in the South?
"The first thing that comes to mind: It means people will underestimate what you can do. There's a general sort of sense around, oh, they're the South, you can't do this, can't do that. I like to stretch people's imaginations about what we can do in the South.
"The South… is uniquely complicated because of the laws and systems and structures that make it hard, but what we don't have in the same sort of union density and power we make up for in the sheer will and personalities of our people."