Durham labor groups looking to improve wages, housing affordability, and workers’ rights have set their sights on Duke University, the city’s largest employer and private landowner. With local elections getting underway, organizers have found willing partners in the menagerie of Durham council candidates, all of whom seem to agree that Duke University should do better by the people of Durham.
Organizers are trying to tap into election season—and anti-corporate, anti-billionaire, and not-infrequent anti-Duke sentiment—to push the university to put its $12 billion endowment towards its workers and the community.
Last year, the Duke Respect Durham campaign called for Duke to make $50 million annual direct payments to the city (referred to as payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT). A recent forum, organized by a similar local campaign, Durham Rising, focused on getting candidates for council and mayor to get Duke, per signs at the event, to “show up for Durham.”…