Sanitation Workers’ Job Walkout Energizes UE 150 Justice Campaign

Raleigh, NC

An unexpected and unprecedented work stoppage by city sanitation workers has made their fight against unjust working conditions the talk of the town here, and dramatically drawn attention to UE Local 150’s statewide fight for public employee bargaining rights.

The walkout instantly drew massive news coverage, and the media focus had not let up.. The sanitation workers’ story topped daily TV news broadcasts, commanded front page space in daily newspapers, and workers have been guests on radio talk shows.

UE 150 and the sanitation workers relentlessly kept up their pressure on city officials, packing city council meetings, picketing city hall, demanding and getting multiple meetings with the city manager and the mayor, and directly taking word of their struggle into Raleigh’s neighborhoods with a sound truck.

The workers’ militance arises from deep grievances that city leaders had long refused to address. Workers were regularly forced to work more than 10-hour days, but didn’t get paid for it – instead being given “comp time” they were rarely able to use. More than two dozen of them had been classed as “temporaries” even though they’d been on the job for more than a year, at lower pay and with no health care.

“We go out there and perform the same tasks, yet we get nothing,” said long-term “temporary” worker Leo Brown. “The city is working these men like horses, and feeding them like chickens,” said Local 150 President Angaza Laughinghouse.

Raleigh residents responded with an outpouring of support. The letters column of the Raleigh New & Observer has been filled with statements of solidarity with the workers. Citizens have shown up at city council meetings wearing orange ribbons, the color of sanitation workers’ uniforms. Hundreds of residents have placed yard signs on their front lawns, which read:

WE SUPPORT RALEIGH SANITATION WORKERS

No Forced Overtime

Overtime Pay

Make Temps Permanent

Respect for Workers

UE Local 150/North Carolina Public Service Workers Union

Within two weeks of the work stoppage, the city had agreed to add six more sanitation positions and cancelled earlier plans to cutback six other. The city promised to give any temporary worker with six months on the job the chance to become permanent. Mayor Charles Meeker said the added workers would reduce the need for overtime. But discussions with the city about ending mandatory overtime, and guaranteeing time-and-a-half pay for all overtime worked, had not reached a satisfactory end. And workers continued to push for a regular “meet and consult” procedure with their union, UE 150, and ultimately for the right to negotiate a contract.

Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, joined workers on their picket line in front of city hall on Sept. 25. The civil rights leader called on city leaders to support UE’s call for a change in state law to allow public employees to bargain collectively. “They don’t mind laboring, he said. “They don’t mind picking up garbage. They are asking simply don’t treat us as garbage and expendable.”

The sanitation workers have been signing up as member of UE Local 150, and other Raleigh city workers are asking how they can become involved. On Sept. 23, UE 150 convened a meeting in Raleigh of municipal workers from cities across North Carolina, to support the Raleigh sanitation workers’ fight and build the movement for public employee bargaining rights. As North Carolina cities continue to grow and prosper, they’re doing so on the backs of the public service worker and we’re here to show support for them, said Charlotte utility worker Tim Lackey.