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UPDATE: [Rescheduled] NCCU Housekeepers, Allies To Take A Stand At NCCU Over Safety Concerns

@SpectacularMag

 

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This action today by the NCCU housekeepers is part of a series of actions to change the course of the fall semester. (submitted)

 

Durham, NC – As part of the statewide Safe Jobs Save Lives campaign, housekeepers who are members of the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150, which represents campus and graduate workers across the UNC System, are speaking out against unsafe working conditions that put them at risk for contracting COVID-19. Following a press conference, housekeepers will deliver their petition, which has support from both faculty and students, to Zack Abegunrin, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Management.

WHO: NCCU Housekeepers, members of UE Local 150 – N.C. Public Service Workers Union and community allies

WHAT: Petition Delivery

WHEN: Monday, August 17th, 2:00 pm  RESCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, AUGUST 18TH, 2:00 PM

WHERE: Outside Hubbard-Totten building, N.C. Central University

“The lives of faculty, staff, and students are at risk by reopening the university too soon,” stated Jeffrey Eaddy, NCCU housekeeper, UE150 union member, and undergraduate.

Despite the steady rise of cases and hospitalizations, the efforts to stop the coronavirus’s spread at NCCU and across the UNC System have either stalled or gone backward. Students are moving into dorms every day and in-person classes are planned for next week. Yet, NCCU has not demonstrated the commitment to enforcing mask and social distancing practices that are needed, nor does it plan to proactively mass test for COVID-19.

These policy failures inevitably fall hardest on Black and Brown workers’ shoulders, putting them at risk during a pandemic that disproportionately impacts their health.

housekeepers
Efforts to stop the coronavirus’s spread at NCCU and across the UNC System have either stalled or gone backward. (submitted)

For these reasons, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150 is demanding the administration of NCCU create a plan of action reflecting the safety concerns of workers and students, and to meet directly with Facilities Maintenance union members to gather their input.

Facilities Maintenance workers, as well as professors at NCCU, signed on to a class-action lawsuit against the UNC System last week to seek an injunction requiring universities to provide a safe workplace. The case was filed in Wake County Superior Court. Plaintiffs are represented by attorney Gary Shipman, a former UNC Wilmington Board of Trustees member, of Shipman & Wright, LLC in Wilmington.

Shipman states: “Back on March 11th, the UNC Board of Governors made a decision to terminate ‘in-person’ instruction and cleared out the dorms. There were approximately 100 cases and 1 reported death in NC, and today, there are more than 135,000 reported cases and more than 2,100 deaths. So much has changed (for the worse) since the UNC System began talking about and making plans to reopen in April. The law requires that UNC and all of its universities provide employees a safe workplace, and they acknowledge, as does the Governor in his latest executive order extending Phase II, that returning students to campus increases the risk of spread, and therefore, increases the risk to employees. UNC can’t force my clients to do that. Under the NC Constitution, they have the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ which includes the right to work and to enjoy the ‘fruits of their labor’, not the increased risks of COVID.”

This action by the NCCU housekeepers is part of a series of actions to change the course of the fall semester. You can see more at https://www.workersofunc.org/campus-marches.

For more information contact Dante Strobino at 919-539-2051 or organizeUE150@ueunion.org.