Oral history interview with Elizabeth Brooks, October 2, 1974

Description:

Elizabeth Brooks discusses her role in the UNC Food Workers' Strike of 1969. Originally from Caswell County, Brooks had lived in Hillsborough since 1949. Prior to working for food services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brooks spent her time raising nine children. The job at UNC was her first, and she had only recently started to work in Lenoir Dining Hall when the first stage of the strike began in February of 1969. Although she was a new employee, Brooks was one of the leaders of the strike. Here Brooks focuses on the workers' grievances regarding the unexpected firing of employees, low wages, unrealistic demands on workers' time, and withheld back pay. After failed negotiations with the administration, Brooks and some of the other workers organized the strike with the help of Preston Dobbins and the Black Student Movement at UNC. Within a month, the initial demands of the strikers had been met, but Brooks' interview ends by looking towards the beginning of the second strike that occurred after SAGA took over food services for the university.

subjects: Interviews,  African American women,  Strikes and lockouts,  Food industry and trade,  Food service employees,  Labor unions,  Employees,  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Black Student Movement,  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

People: Elizabeth Brooks,  Robert Walter Scott (1929-2009)

Places: North Carolina,  Chapel Hill