“I live here in Durham. My rent went from $716 to $1,300,” Earl Bradley said at a rally calling on Duke University to raise its minimum wage. “It’s not just me facing the rent hike. It’s people working at Duke.” Bradley is a worker leader with the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) and a former Duke housekeeper. Duke is the largest employer in Durham and North Carolina’s second-largest private employer.
After months of organizing by Bradley and others, Duke announced in March that it would raise its minimum wage for eligible university and health system employees from $18 to $20 an hour, effective July 1.
The Campaign Didn’t End at $20
Durham Rising, the coalition leading much of that organizing, includes USSW; the Duke Graduate Students Union, or SEIU Local 27; the Durham Association of Educators; and UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, among others. Over 4,000 Duke University and Duke University Health System employees, including people employed by contractors who work full time on campus, received raises. Duke also said about 9,000 longer-tenured employees earning around the new minimum would receive wage adjustments.
Durham Rising members welcomed the raise but have not ended their campaign. The coalition is calling on Duke to raise its minimum wage to $25 an hour, which is what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines as the livable wage for a person living in Durham County. The group also wants Duke to invest in more affordable housing and local jobs and make intentional efforts to protect students, faculty, and workers amid federal funding cuts, ongoing threats to freedom of speech, and deportation threats…