Named event or history
The Black cafeteria workers who led the two walkouts of 1969, Mary Smith and Elizabeth Brooks among them, with the Black Student Movement as their ally, and the housekeepers who organised in the 1990s.
19 indexed records are connected with this event.
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This is the sixth interview in a nine-part series of interviews with civil liberties lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt. In this interview, Pollitt describes in vivid detail the UNC food workers' strike of 1969. He begins by esta…
… Still in its infancy, the BSM was a growing force on campus, and in 1969, the food workers at UNC asked the BSM for its support in their strike.
Elizabeth Brooks discusses her role in the UNC Food Workers' Strike of 1969. Originally from Caswell County, Brooks had lived in Hillsborough since 1949. Prior to working for food services at the University of North Car…
The son of former governor Kerr Scott (1949-1953), Robert W. Scott served as governor of North Carolina from 1969 to 1973. He begins the interview with a brief discussion of his education at North Carolina State Univers…
1 photograph in the Society's People P-Z binder: "Party honoring Mac Snipes on his 80th birthday".
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UNC cafeteria workers struck twice in 1969 over pay and working conditions.
Part of Black student activism at UNC · 2 events
On February 23, 1969 food service workers at UNC's Lenoir Hall left their counters and sat down at the cafeteria tables, and by the next morning nearly 100 dining hall employees had refused to report for work. The strike ended on March 21 when the University agreed to raise the hourly minimum from $1.60 to $1.80, pay roughly $180,000 in back wages, and appoint a Black supervisor.
Part of UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 · 5 events
People: Mary Smith · Elizabeth Brooks · J. Carlyle Sitterson · Robert W. Scott · Julius L. Chambers
Two months after settling the spring strike the University signed a contract with SAGA Food Services on May 19, 1969, ending its own management of campus dining. SAGA laid off many temporary and part-time workers within weeks, which set up the second strike that autumn.
Part of UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 · 5 events
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.
Part of UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 · 5 events
People: J. Carlyle Sitterson
Thirty Physical Plant housekeeping assistants gave director Claude Swecker a list of grievances in Berryhill Hall, including the rehiring of Gene Alston, an organizer they said had been fired for organizing. On April 2 Swecker granted two concessions to about sixty housekeepers.
Part of UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 · 5 events
UNC housekeepers formed the Housekeepers Association in 1991 and brought a class-action discrimination suit against the University over pay, advancement and treatment. Led by Marsha Tinnen and Barbara Prear, they signed a settlement with UNC on November 26, 1996, that brought raises, a career training program and monthly meetings with administrators.
Part of UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 · 5 events
UNC administrators and leaders of the UNC Housekeepers Association signed a mediated agreement on November 26, 1996, meant to end the housekeepers' 5 1/2-year-old discrimination suit. Housekeepers had approved it 212 to 1; it included back pay for about 340 workers, a career training program and regular meetings with administrators.
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