The second UNC food workers’ strike, November 1969

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this event, earliest first. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

1. November 7 – December 9, 1969 UNC foodworkers strike a second time About 250 of UNC's 275 cafeteria workers, organized as the UNC Non-Academic Employees Union, struck SAGA Food Services on November 7, 1969 over pay, job reclassification, and the firing of workers for union activity. They voted on November 21 to affiliate with AFSCME, and the strike was settled in December after Ralph Abernathy visited the strikers and Black students from across the state threatened to converge on the campus. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Mary Smith, Elizabeth BrooksUNC Libraries: Foodworkers' Strike, I Raised My Hand To Volunteer
2. November 21, 1969 Striking SAGA cafeteria workers vote 94 to 26 to join AFSCME In the strike's third week the full-time SAGA food service workers marched from a noon rally at Wilson Library to the Student Union and voted 94 to 26 for representation by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. SAGA's regional director said mediation with the union would begin that weekend. People: Elizabeth BrooksDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, November 22, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
3. December 1, 1969 Two union officials and a striking worker are arrested at Lenoir Hall; Chancellor Sitterson pledges to subsidize workers SAGA does not rehire On the strike's 24th day two union officials and a striking worker were arrested at Lenoir Dining Hall in the morning. Later that day Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson said the University would subsidize any workers SAGA did not rehire, after efforts to revive negotiations had stalled on the rehiring question. People: J. Carlyle SittersonDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 2, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
4. December 4, 1969 Police charge pickets at Lenoir Hall; nine are arrested and four hurt About 25 police charged a group of pickets and sympathizers at the north end of Lenoir Hall when they did not disperse. Nine people were arrested, including AFSCME official Gene Gore and graduate student John Wheeler, and four were treated at Memorial Hospital. The next day Mayor Howard Lee announced that town police were being withdrawn from the strike scene. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 6, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
5. December 6, 1969 Ralph David Abernathy joins the striking cafeteria workers in Chapel Hill SCLC president Ralph David Abernathy picketed with the striking SAGA workers behind Lenoir Hall, then told strikers, students and faculty gathered in the Carolina Union that he pledged them his support. He went on to South Building for a meeting with Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson and Mayor Howard Lee. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Howard N. LeeBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 1969, p. 1
6. December 6-7, 1969 Students stage LeRoi Jones's Dutchman as a benefit for the strikers A benefit staging of LeRoi Jones's play Dutchman, paired with original Black poetry read by UNC and Chapel Hill High School students under instructor John Holt, played two nights at the Community Church. The proceeds went to the striking cafeteria workers.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 1969, p. 4
7. December 8, 1969 Nearly a thousand Black students rally at UNC for the striking cafeteria workers On what organizers called Black Monday, close to a thousand Black students from campuses across the state answered a call by the Black Student Movement and the statewide group BSUL to back the striking SAGA workers. The strike had been settled before dawn, so the afternoon rally by Lenoir Hall turned into a celebration, with talks by union organizer Jesse Eppes, Mayor Howard Lee and others. People: Howard N. LeeBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 1969, p. 1
8. December 8, 1969 The 31-day SAGA strike is settled Union and management reached a settlement on Monday morning and the workers approved the contract unanimously, returning to work the next day. The contract ran to June 30, 1970 and provided job classification, seniority, a minimum four-hour day, ten paid holidays, ten sick days, an end to split shifts and a no-strike clause; the University promised to find jobs for the more than 50 workers SAGA planned to phase out by February 1, 1970.DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 9, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
9. December 10, 1969 Eight men charged during the cafeteria strike appear in Orange County District Court Howard Fuller of Malcolm X Liberation University, two of its students, AFSCME official Gene Gore and four others charged with disorderly conduct, riot, failure to disperse or interfering with officers during the strike appeared before Judge D. M. McLellan, who continued the cases to January 7, 1970 at the defendants' request.DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 11, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
10. May 11, 1970 Students sit in at South Building and hand Chancellor Sitterson a petition of 800 names confessing to the disruption policy Seventy-five to 100 students occupied the South Building lobby for over an hour to protest the trustees' disruption policy and its use against three students charged after the December cafeteria strike. Three were admitted to Chancellor Sitterson's office with a petition of 800 UNC students indicting themselves for violating the policy during the strike's first days; Sitterson said the matter lay with President Friday. Bello and the strike steering committee condemned the sit-in. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, Tom BelloDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1970, page 1 (OCR text)