By Herbert White for the Charlotte Post, with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for North Carolina News Service reporting for the Charlotte Post-Public News Service Collaboration.
Unions have impacted every American worker.
From laws that curb the use of child labor to the 40-hour work week and holidays off, organized labor demanded - on occasion forced - governments and corporations to provide benefits and protections most people take for granted. In more practical terms, Charlotte's transit system last week averted a work stoppage that could've made it more difficult for commuters to move across the city.
Bus drivers and mechanics - represented by SMART Local 1715 - ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the company that manages Charlotte Area Transit System's bus system by a vote margin of 20 to 1. The contract calls for a wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2022, double-time for work during holidays and adds Juneteenth to the holiday schedule. It also provides night differential pay and increases workers' pension cap.
"I would like to thank the negotiations committee ... for their hard work and tireless effort to deliver a package that the members would accept," SMART Transportation Division Bus Department Vice President Calvin Studivant said in a statement. "The negotiations took more than nine months to complete, but the committee stayed focused on the task at hand and they delivered."
Although...
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