National union endorses Wake school board candidates

A national labor union has stepped into the Wake County school board elections to endorse candidates and fling barbs at SEANC head Dana Cope.

UNITE HERE, which represents hospitality and textile workers, issued a press release today endorsing Rita Rakestraw in District 1 and Karen Simon in District 7 for their support of Wake's school diversity policy.

UNITE HERE said it felt "morally obligated to get involved" because Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association of N.C., and Ardis Watkins, legislative director of SEANC, had formed the Children's PAC to back candidates who support neighborhood schools. They said Cope and Watkins "have done their union and the union movement a real disservice."

The Children's PAC officially shut down last week. But the group plans to work with the Wake Schools Community Alliance in the school board races.

Here's the press release:

Hospitality Union to Support Two Wake County School Board Candidates Who Back School Diversity Policies

UNITE HERE, North America’s hospitality, food service, laundry, airport and textile union has announced two endorsements in a North Carolina school board election.

The UNITE HERE TIP Campaign Committee will support two Wake County school board candidates in the October 6 election: Rita Rakeshaw in District 1 and Karen Simon in District 7.

UNITE HERE believes these candidates best embody the principles of democratic pluralism that are essential for a vibrant public education system, and that they will vigorously defend Wake County’s celebrated diversity program to ensure that all children in the county have equal access to high-quality education regardless of their location or socio-economic status.

UNITE HERE, which has 265,000 members in the U.S. and Canada including several thousand in North Carolina, decided to get involved in the Wake County election because of the importance of maintaining Wake County’s diversity policies.

“We believe that Wake County’s diversity policies are important for working families in North Carolina,” explained UNITE HERE spokesperson Marty Leary. “Recently, we heard that two high-ranking officials from SEIU had formed a PAC with the express purpose of defeating candidates who supported Wake County’s celebrated diversity policies, and we felt morally obligated to get involved.”

Dana Cope, the Executive Director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) and Ardis Watkins, SEANC’s Legislative Director, formed the “Children’s PAC” earlier this year after their efforts to stop the county schools’ reassignment plan were unsuccessful.

Cope and Watkins live in an affluent West Raleigh neighborhood that is located in one of three nodes scheduled to be reassigned from Lacy Elementary to Stough Elementary.

The two SEIU officials have announced plans to dissolve their PAC and ally themselves with another anti-reassignment group, the Wake Schools Community Alliance (WSCA), which has endorsed three candidates for the Wake school board.

“Working families, and especially SEANC members, must be wondering what in the world Cope and Watkins were thinking when they inserted themselves into this election,” Leary said. “Cope and Watkins have done their union and the union movement a real disservice by associating themselves with those who want to overturn forty years of progress in Wake County and dismantle one of the most successful and diverse school systems in the United States.”

UPDATE

Here's Cope's response to the press release:

"Obviously UNITE HERE, which is a Washington D.C. union, has no clue with what's going on in Wake County," Cope said. "The Wake County school board is not progressive in its policies. It's deterimental to families."

Cope gave the example of Southeast Raleigh children being bused to Brier Creek Elementary in northwest Raleigh. He said Brier Creek was too far away for his SEANC members in Southeast Raleigh to be involved at the school.