Serenaded by a group called the Wonderground, students, faculty and area residents spread across the lawn near Newcomb Hall to hear from Professor Piers Gelly. He shared the story of a union formed on campus in the 1940’s.
“At the segregated hospital of a segregated university in the Jim Crow South, these workers had the astonishing courage to stand-up and force UVA President Lloyd Newcomb to the bargaining table.”
There are, he noted, no buildings named for them, and Gelly says students should know that change comes when many people stand up for what’s right – and the fight may take time.
“The living wage campaign tried a number of tactics to bring UVA to the table, starting with a teach-in like this one back in 1997. That didn’t work, so over the next two decades they formed a labor union. They held a sit-in during which 17 students and one faculty member were arrested. When that didn’t work, 20 students held a hunger strike that lasted 13 days.”
Finally, more than twenty years after that campaign began, UVA’s president announced that everyone working on campus would get at least $15 an hour.
Others who spoke urged students today to demand transparency from the school’s Board of Visitors and to give more students and faculty a vote in choosing UVA’s next president.
Hundreds more gathered in Charlottesville to show opposition to Trump Administration policies and to support organized labor. Albemarle County teachers are still trying to get a contract, and the city’s education association is negotiating for a livable wage on behalf of school staff.
