News

Recent

News

Join Our "Put the People First" Campaign on May First!

 

Over 350 Tennesseans, lead by United Campus Workers and other CWA members rallied on March 11 to tell Governor Haslam to PUT THE PEOPLE FIRST. 

Join the movement to Put the People First in Tennessee!

These Tennesseans called for living wage jobs, fully funded public education, and that Nashville respect our democratic rights to organize, protest, bargain, and vote freely. It was the start of a movement throughout Tennessee to Put the People First, and grassroots worker, community, faith, and student organizations have come together to form the coalition. At the Capitol, we rallied, then delivered a letter to Governor Bill Haslam, calling on him and the Tennessee General Assembly "to make the interests of Tennessee working people your top priority." See a video from The Tennessean here.

Don't miss Put the People First May First!

Tennessee politicians "have abandoned everyday people and pursued an agenda that favors huge corporations and the super wealthy," coalition members said in the letter. "Our coalition has come together because ours is a different vision of Tennessee - one where we have good jobs that pay us decently and provide benefits; where our kids have access to free, quality, equal public education that's directed by teachers, not corporate lobbyists; and where all of us can participate," we wrote.

What's next? This burgeoning and rapidly growing coalition is beginning to plan actions around the state to Put the People First on May First. Will you be there?

*The broad coalition sponsoring the rally included:
Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council, United Campus Workers-CWA Local 3865, UAW, Workers Interfaith Network, Jobs With Justice, Show Me 15 Workers Organizing Committee, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, Tennessee NAACP, Sierra Club, Tennessee Chapter, Memphis Progressive Student Alliance, Statewide Organizing For Community Empowerment, SEIU Local 205, Workers' Dignity Dignidad Obrera, Chattanooga for Workers, Progressive Student Alliance UTK, United Students Against Sweatshops, Tennessee Citizen Action, Organizing for Action Davidson County, UFCW Local 1995, Concerned Citizens for Justice, Healthy and Free Tennessee, Southeast Laborers' District Council,  Organized and United for Respect at Vanderbilt (OUR Vanderbilt).

Join us to Put the People First on May First -- and beyond!

Not a member?

United Campus Workers is Tennessee's higher education union; the only voice made up and run by staff and faculty at Tennessee's colleges and universities speaking up for our issues. UCW members are active organizing for our interests on our campuses and at the Tennessee General Assembly. JOIN US and help strengthen our movement! There is power in numbers, lift your voice today!

Join Our "Put the People First" Campaign on May First!

News

January 20, 2014, 6pm: UCW MLK Day Celebration for Civil Rights and Workers Rights, Knoxville, TN

Dr. King’s powerful message of economic, racial, and social justice is an important inspiration for the work we’re doing in our union everyday—for workers’ rights, for justice on our campuses, and for our many communities. March in Knoxville's MLK Day Parade in the morning, and come celebrate and get inspired to get your year off right that evening!

Members from UCW in Memphis, where MLK was assassinated while fighting for a living wage, have been invited as guests of honor, and our speaker will be Stewart Acuff, who also spoke at our statewide convention. Read more about Mr. Acuff here.

Main dish provided (BBQ!)
Potluck sides and desserts
Music & Prizes
Childcare provided
Wheelchair accessible

Co-sponsored with Jobs With Justice of East Tennessee: Facebook group, website

-----

Join us that morning in the MLK Memorial March Parade!
Monday, January 20
Meet at 9am, Stepoff at 10am
YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center, 124 S. Cruze Street, 37915
We will line up on Martin Luther King, Jr Ave near Tabernacle Baptist Church
(Look for the UCW banner!)

Read more about the days leading up to Dr. King's assassination and the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, TN here:
http://www.afscme.org/union/history/mlk

All Knoxville-area events: www.mlkknoxville.org

For more info: cassie@ucw-cwa.org, 865-329-0085; Day of: 617-304-1108

January 20, 2014, 6pm: UCW MLK Day Celebration for Civil Rights and Workers Rights, Knoxville, TN

News

Workers Celebrate Step Toward Living Wage at UT

After thirteen years of calling on the University of Tennessee to seriously tackle the problem of poverty wages on its campuses, members of United Campus Workers, the union of staff and faculty at the state’s public colleges and universities, are cautiously celebrating. Today, UT agreed to raise its base pay to $9.50/hour for all full and part time regular employees by June 2014.

“This is a really important first step,” said Karly Safar, member of UCW and a secretary at UT. “There’s a long way to go to get everyone more than a check or two ahead of disaster. We’ve been working to get rid of poverty wages on campus for so long, and today we can be satisfied that our efforts are beginning to pay off.”

Indeed, it was in the year 2000 that UT’s Faculty Senate conducted a study that identified $9.50/hour plus benefits to be the minimum that regular employees needed to earn in order to make ends meet. The study called the $9.50 figure “the most conservative yet still defensible estimate…of what it would take to provide basic necessities and a life with dignity for a family of four in Knoxville.”

Founding members of the union who have since retired from full time work at UT remember calling for $9.50 an hour in 2000. Some of them return in the summers to work as temporary dorm custodians making $7.50, below even the current base pay.

Thirteen years later, that figure is $12.50/hour. The union’s calculations indicate that bringing the 1,550 regular campus employees who make less than a living wage up to $25,000 would cost just 1% of UT’s salary expenses.

“We provide a valuable public service to Tennesseans, and we’ve earned the right to be treated with respect and dignity,” said Tom Anderson, UCW President and UTK Facilities Services employee.

“We’re glad they’ve listened to us. The truth of the matter is that $9.50 just isn’t enough to make ends meet anymore. It’s a good step, but there’s still ground to cover.”

United Campus Workers began campaigning for a living wage just over a decade ago, and continues to bring together staff, faculty, students, and community allies in its campaign for living wages and public services in the state.

“Our motto is, ‘A full time job should keep you out of poverty, not in it,’” said Anderson. “It’s good to know that UT’s hearing us say it.”
 

Resources:

2010-2011 Living Wage Study by UTK Faculty Senate: http://senate.utk.edu/files/2011/08/2010-2011-Living-Wage-Study.pdf

Living Wage Fact Sheet, first Living Wage Study in 2000: http://web.utk.edu/~senate/LivingWageFAQ.html

The Minimum We Can Do: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/the-minimum-we-can-do/

What Families Need to Get By, Economic Policy Institute: http://www.epi.org/publication/ib368-basic-family-budgets/

Workers Celebrate Step Toward Living Wage at UT

News

UCW Members Beef Up Their Organizing Skills at Training in Mississippi

UCWs members took part in a unique, concentrated organizing training held in Jackson, MS in mid-October. Joining together with dozens of public workers from other CWA locals from Mississippi, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and California, the participants learned about and then practiced principles of union organizing, including how to talk to coworkers and move them to action.

"The OI was a great opportunity to learn new organizing skills and to get to know other union member activists from across the country," said Melanie Barron, a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Geography at UT Knoxville. "I have a better understanding of the importance of building genuine, solid relationships with my coworkers as I’m organizing on the job, and I feel emboldened and ready to make our union stronger—one member at a time."

Liz Roberson, assistant to the vice president for public, health care and education workers, Lisa Kermish, vice president of University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE-CWA Local 9119), and Brenda Scott, president of Mississippi Alliance of State Employees (MASE-CWA), led workshops, and UCW lead organizer Tom Smith and organizer Cassie Watters presented sections as well.

"I came away from the organizing institute feeling equipped and able to spread our union's message, and to confidently and knowledgeably build our union. The institute's trainers and staff, whose enduring patience and hard work focused simply on seeing each of us succeed, were responsible for giving me the needed tools. I whole-heartedly want to thank each and every one of them," said Michael Kuley, Research Assistant II in the Water Center at Tennessee Technological University.

After the training they visited City of Jackson Public Works workers and talked to them about the importance of building their voice, and listened to their stories and concerns. "The organizing training was really exciting for me," said Sheryl Allen, UCW organizer. "The best part was when we went to the job and all of us were working together to talk to city workers. We need lots more of that!"

UCW Members Beef Up Their Organizing Skills at Training in Mississippi