UNC system

UNC System Essential Workers Organize COVID-19 Town Hall To Voice Safety Concerns

As the UNC system barrels towards reopening, university workers organize to voice concerns at COVID-19 Town Hall. On Thursday, July 16th, university workers from across the state will come together for a town hall to discuss their concerns regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as the flawed reopening plans currently being pursued by the UNC system administration. Workers will be speaking out about their concerns for workplace health and safety amid this global pandemic.

Marty Rudd (left) and Bruce Echelberry with Transportation and Parking, disinfect stairwell surfaces at the Dogwood Deck. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Despite a planned return of students on August 10th, essential workers on campus continue to report to work with inadequate protective equipment to ensure their safety. Some departments are providing employees with as few as 1-2 masks per week, and workers report limited access to face shields or gowns. These safety measures have already been proven inadequate after multiple workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in addition to local health officials discovering a coronavirus cluster within the university athletics department.

University workers are uniting behind these four broad demands:

1. Keep Us Safe

2. Keep our Jobs and Income Safe

3. Give UE150 a Seat at the Table

4. End Institutional Racism

“We want a seat at the table. Now they are trying to force us to start shifts at 3 am, which is impossible for our families,” stated Rex Kearney, a housekeeper at UNC Charlotte and steward of UE150. Kearney continued, “Front line workers, students, facility and all of us have serious health and safety concerns. The administration is making changes even before the students get here, and we don’t have all the information about what’s happening. They sent out all kinds of emails and it’s all a mess.“

“I have cleaned the rooms that the football players have been in, and I don’t know what rooms the ones who tested positive were in or who has it or if have I come in contact with them,” stated Jermany Alston, a housekeeper at UNC-Chapel Hill and steward of UE150. Alston continued,  “It’s scary for me because then I have to go home, and if I do have it, then I put my family at risk as well. The only thing we wear right now is gloves and a mask. That’s all. I don’t even think we should be back at work. It’s like a lose-lose situation. You don’t know which way to go. You don’t know who has it.”

University workers will be joined by Katie Mack, a professor at North Carolina State University, who has penned an open letter to the chancellor of her institution against reopening amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other registered speakers include campus workers, graduate workers, and professors from NC State University, UNC Charlotte, NC Central University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Winston Salem State University, and Eastern Carolina University.

For more information contact Dante Strobino, International Representative, UE, at 919-539-2051.

Feature photo credit UNC system

Individuals pictured were recognized by the university as UNC-CH essential workers whom they deem as Carolina’s heroes.