What we're doing

Author joins in teach-in for UNC workers
September 23, 2003

BY ERIC FERRERI, The Herald-Sun
While conceding she was pleased that UNC chose to feature her book as the centerpiece of its 2003 summer reading program, author Barbara Ehrenreich nonetheless took issue with the university Tuesday.

Standing at the base of the South Building steps, Ehrenreich said the university had made a serious miscalculation in not incorporating its own low-paid workers into its teaching of her book, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America."

Ehrenreich, a well-known writer and leftist social critic, was the featured guest at a two-hour worker-led teach-in Tuesday afternoon on Polk Place. While the university itself was unable to arrange a campus visit for her, Ehrenreich accepted an offer from a local state worker's union. She appeared at the afternoon event and at a series of evening seminars as well.

"This shows a grave lack of comprehension," Ehrenreich said, commenting on what employees say was the university's refusal to get them involved in the official summer reading program. "The people who work here ... these are the real experts on being nickel and dimed."

For the book, Ehrenreich spent several months masquerading as a low-wage laborer. She visited several U.S. cities, working as a maid, a waitress, a nursing home attendant and a Wal-Mart employee.

Ehrenreich flew to North Carolina on Tuesday afternoon, arriving on campus at about 1:30 p.m., toward the tail end of the teach-in. Her 10-minute pep talk followed a long series of speeches given by university housekeepers and other employees, all of whom billed themselves as "low-paid workers."

Housekeeper Bill Shuler even brought an enlarged laminated copy of one of his pay stubs to show how little money he makes. Shuler brings home $21,847 annually, and is in his 43rd year in the housekeeping profession, he said, adding that his weekly pay, after taxes, is less than $200.

"Where's the nickel and dimed? Come right here to UNC and look at the pay stub," he said. "Maybe that's a living wage in Iraq, but here we need a little more."

For months now, a small core group of housekeepers has used the book choice to make its own public pleas for more money. When the group announced plans to hold the teach-in, it extended an invitation to UNC Chancellor James Moeser, who declined to participate.

During the Tuesday protest, Moeser met with a member of the UNC system Board of Governors and attended a meeting of a task force examining working conditions on campus, a group he co-chairs with Employee Forum Chairman Tommy Griffin.

The task force was created to look for ways to improve life on campus for staff, but some employees running the teach-in said they think the working group is too top-heavy and doesn't include enough members of the rank-and-file staff.

In his absence, Moeser was pilloried Tuesday. A mannequin bearing a rough likeness of the chancellor was on prominent display during the teach-in -- in clear view of the audience and, of course, television cameras and newspaper photographers. The mannequin, dressed in a slick suit, sat slumped on a chair with a sign around its neck reading "Hear nothing, say nothing and do nothing."

At one point during the teach-in, organizer Dave Brannigan, a groundskeeper, prompted the students in attendance to look up at South Building -- the administrative facility where Moeser's office is housed -- and say "Hey, Chancellor Moeser, we're here and we demand fairness."

Through a spokesperson, Moeser declined to comment on the teach-in.

For UNC employees involved, the event was intended to turn the tables on the traditional faculty/student/staff relationship by moving the employee to the front of the classroom. For Ehrenreich, the event was an opportunity to come to the campus that spawned a fairly large controversy earlier this summer, one that surely spurred book sales.

"When the university mistreats its workers, it is teaching a lesson, and that lesson they're teaching to students is, 'hey, don't be bothered by injustice,' " Ehrenreich said. "This is not what a university should be teaching."

While the teach-in was well attended, it wasn't clear just how many of the 200 or so students on hand were deeply touched by the messages being espoused. Some seemed more interested in the free food supplied by Panera Bread, while others seemed to listen earnestly, many toting signs or buttons in support of university workers.

"I think it's important that we support them," said Lauren Mangum, a freshman from Durham. "We have a beautiful campus and think what it would look like if they weren't here."

Tashara Leak, another freshman from Durham, said a lot of students probably aren't aware of the plight of the workers on campus. But the teach-in did help, she added.

"This meeting is definitely an eye-opener for people on campus," she said.