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Transcript on deposit at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Library
Citation of this interview should be as follows:
“Interview E-0058, in the Southern
Oral History Program Collection #4007,
Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson
Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill”
Elizabeth Brooks discusses her role in the UNC Food Workers Strike of 1969. Originally from Caswell County, North Carolina, 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's interview ends by looking towards the beginning of the second strike that occurred after SAGA took over food services for the university.
Elizabeth Brooks was one of the leaders of the UNC Food Workers Strike of 1969. As a new worker in the Lenoir Dining Hall, Brooks helped to organize the food workers with the help of Preston Dobbins and the Black Student Movement. This interview focuses on the first strike, which was sparked by the unexpected firing of one worker, low wages, and withheld back pay for overtime.
[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
Miss Brooks, I know that you were one of the leaders in the first foodworkers' strike, beginning February 23 and ending March 21st, and I'm glad that you have consented to help us in regard to writing the history of the foodworkers' strike and since you played an instrumental part, I know that you will be able to give us a lot of information that we need to fill in some gaps. Where were you working when the strike began?
I was working in Lenoir Dining Hall in the Pine Room.
How long had you been working there and what type of position were you in?
I had started there in September of `68 and I was just working all over the place, I really hadn't been given a specific job. In fact none of us had at the time, and we just done whatever come to hand.
O.K. Now the strike that took place February 23 didn't happen out of the blue. What things had been going wrong with the management and the workers that you felt that something, a strike, would settle some of these complaints?
Well, like I say, one of us had been given a job description or either just station places to work. They felt like they were just kind of using us by having us to do men's jobs when the men, some of the male help were out, so at the same time, our checks were being shortened and we had begun to notice on several checks and some of the ones that had been there longer than me had gone back years before and had come up with checks that at the time wasn't right. They were cutting us short on our checks.
Why weren't any of these complaints ever solved? Did you ever go to
Yes, we first went to our supervisor, and talked with him about it, and he told us that it was coming from Payroll Department, that we would have to talk with them. We made several individual visits to the Payroll Department and we didn't accoplish anything, and then we decided that we would talk with our Head Director whose name was Mr. Prillaman. This was done in the beginning with individual vistis. It didn't get us anyplace. So along about that time we talked with the black students and Preston Dobbins advised us to go as a group and ask for a meeting as a group. So we done that. We had at least, I guess, about three meetings with Mr. Prillaman and we never accomplished anything. He was, kind of, had this way of sort of ironing things out, smoothing it over and then as we got a little more persistent, he began to make promises and this went on for quite some time and he never kept any of the promises.
Do you recall any individual meeting which you had with Mr. Prillaman and what was the outcome of that?
Yes, when I was hired there, they told me that I would be on Temporary Payroll for ninety
days. After ninety days, if my work was satisfactory, then I would go on Permanent Payroll,
which would mean for me a raise, and benefits like sick leave and vacation time, and this
sort of thing. So I was there ninety days and I didn't see any change. No one approached me
about this, so I went to my supervisor and asked him about it and he told me that he would
send a recommendation up to Mr. Prillaman, recommending me to go on Permanent Payroll. So I
assumed that this was done, but about two weeks later, I hadn't heard anything from it, so I
went back to him and asked him about it and he said that he had sent the recommendation up.
So then, at that time, I decided
How did the other workers react when they found out that you were put on a permanent basis?
The other workers were very upset. When I had mentioned in the beginning that I was going
up talking with him, they didn't want me to go, because he had a name of being kind of tough
and he had given the other workers the impression that he would just fire them. So they were
all afraid and were begging me not to go up and bother him, because they thought that he
would fire me. So after I did go up and they saw the results of what had happened, they began
to start whispering to one another and saying, "It's not fair, I have been here for two years
and some have been there for three years, and I'm not on permanent payroll and she's been
here only nine months and he's put her on
Did any go to see Mr. Prillaman about getting on a permanent basis?
Quite a few went. Some went and some would not go because they were still very much afraid of their jobs. But some did go, and there wasn't any results from it. And that's along about the time that we started to get together and of course Preston Dobbins helped us very much, told us to go as a group.
So would you say it was the Black Student Movement itself or was it Preston Dobbins himself that was helping you before the strike took place?
Well, in a way, I guess you can say it was the Black Student Movement. But we confided in Preston. We kind of seeked him out from the others and he would carry our problems and actually information from him, and of course, I think he and the others. . . Well, from time to time the others would come in and give us information, and we appreciated it. But I don't know why we just kind of looked like, you know, we would seek out Preston.
What did Preston have going for himself?
Preston was very much known on that campus at that time and he just seemed to be just a person that was looking out for things like this that was happening and he could talk to you and really make you aware of some of the things that you really had been overlooking. And he really gave us a lot of courage.
Was Preston ever involved in any meetings that you had with Mr.
He did not go with us to any of the meetings until after we went on strike.
Who decided to take a list of grievances? Was a list given to Mr. Prillaman before the strike or during the strike?
Preston told us to sit down and make a list of the things that we wanted, to put it on paper and one person present it to him. So we. . . that's what we done. This, of course was done; we did present a paper with a list of grievances on it and of course as I've said before he made some promisses that he never kept, and I think the list that we presented with him was the last meeting. We done this at the last meeting before the strike.
What particular event or events, to you, triggered the strike?
Well, one of the events, I know, which brought on the strike was the firing of one of the
employees. And this was done and we felt that for no reason at all. This was because she
refused to lift heavy trays of dishes through the conveyor belt, which was real high. So they
had fired her; this was a young lady. They had fired her, and so we kind of felt that if they
were going to start firing the ladies because they refused to do this, then it could be
anyone, not only one person, but eventually come around to just about all of us because not
any of us had any intention of lifting those trays of dishes. Another thing that happened on
a Friday before the strike took place on Sunday, was our supervisor had this way of when a
person didn't come to work he would just tell another person to work their counter and the
counter thats the was presently working on. So on a Friday afternoon, the girl that worked
next counter to me didn't come to work, so he just came up and told me he wanted me to work
that asked you to clean that counter up today," he says, "next time I'm
not going to ask you, I'm going to tell you." So I told him that it made no
difference to him, because it wasn't slavery time anymore and regardless of what he told me,
I still had a choice. I could do it, or I didn't have to. So this was something that added to
the strike because he was getting very well, I don't know just the right word to say for it,
but what he would do, he would stand back to the back of the room and he would just watch
over us like, he made us feel like that we were, you know, just being watched at all times.
And we done, well we knew that we were really not. . . that we were really performing on our
jobs because sometimes we would serve seventeen-hundred people in a matter of about two hours
and I think there were seventeen of us. That included the cook, the cashier, the boys that
cleaned out the trash, that included everyone on our shift. And we really done some work, and
we knew that. But he would just stand there over us and watch us, and just, you know, made us
feel like that we were just like a bunch of slaves. And so these are some of the things that
we really, the feelings that we were getting from it. Plus the point that each week, our
checks were being shortened. And nothing had been done about it. And this is some of the
things that we went to Preston with. And he helped us really to. . . well, we knew what we
wanted,
Could you tell me who was the young lady who was fired?
Dorothy Ann Stephens. She's from Durham.
Are you given a chance to try to appeal firings?
Well, that was one of our grievances, that she be re-hired.
What about some of the individuals, in regard to. . . I think you said there were about seventeen that were involved in making the plans. What would you say certain individuals. . . how long had they been there, that was involved in this group? Who had been therelonger among the group of seventeen?
I think Mary Smith had been there the longest, and her sister Esther had probably been next longest, and that probably was running something like three to four years, or maybe four years for Mary. Anyway, the others, we had others that had been there three years and some had been there around two years. I think I was really the one there that had been there the shortest time.
O.K. Were there any problems, any dissension within the group itself, you know, maybe in regard to leadership, or any problems that you had internally?
I don't quite understand you.
Were there any problems among the group itself, in regard to leadership roles, you know, who should do this and who should not do that, any problems like that?
No, we didn't have any problems because the fact that the most of them knew what was
happening and they wanted somehing done about it. But when it came down to just speaking,
they just were shy and wouldn't speak. So
Could you tell me, when did you decided together as a group, and when did you decided to strike? I know the strike was on that Sunday. Was it. . . what day did you get together and decide to talk about it, what plans had you made if you made any plans before Sunday came up to strike.
Well, this may sound a little crazy, but we had, like I said, several meetings with Mr.
Prillaman and we had talked about things that we wanted; we had at that time presented him
with a list of grievance on paper and we hadn't had any results but we hand't said anything about a strike. We wasn't sure in what way to go about it. So on
Friday, when he came upand demanded that I work the second counter and after he told me, in
the way he told me, about cleaning up, when we all got ready to go, we went outside and kind
of stood around in a little bunehhand we said, "We got to do something about this." So we
found Preston before we left. And we told him that we had to do something, that we wanted to strike. But we did not know just in what way to do it. Because on a
Sunday afternoon, that was Friday night and we had Saturdays off, on a Sunday afternoon we
came in at four and we would be the only group in that building that was open on Sunday and
we just didn't know how really to go about it.
What about that Saturday? Did you ever have conversations with other foodworkers? With Preston on that Saturday because you were off that day?
Not on that Saturday. But on that Sunday, Preston told us to come early, and we were scheduled to open at 4:00 and we always were there at 3:30, and so Preston asked us to come early so we could have a meeting with the black students. So we came in early, I guess something like 2:30. They had a place set up, I think it was in Manning Hall. We had a meeting with some of the students, and I think some of the white students also before we went into work. They had really got things planned out, because they had gotten to most of the students that we were going to strike at 4:00. Be at the Pine Room at 4:00, and I think that almost all the students on campus knew that we were planning on striking. And so they just then said, "Don't back down." They just kind of encouraged us to do it.
What did the students do when they rushed in?
When he opened the door at 4:00, it looked like there were about three or four hundred
students outside. And they all came in, and they lined up around the counter and they took
trays as they come in, and they just began to bang on the counter. Just stand there at a
steady pace, just banging on the counter. And we had of course walked out and sat down. And
Mr. White who was the supervisor at that time was the only manager, supervisor in the
building and it almost frightened him to death. [laughs]
Did you or any of the other workers ever see a University procedure for non-academic employees, a copy of this?
No, I didn't.
Let me find out something about you. Where are you originally from?
From Caswell County.
How long have you been living in Hillsborough.
I've been living in Hillsborough since '49, that's about 24 years, I believe.
Have you ever been a leader before?
No. In fact that was my first job. Because I have nine children. And before I had never
worked, anyplace other than home and I had gone to work because my baby was in kindergarten,
and all the children were in school and that's why I was working the second shift. Because in
the mornings I was home with them to see them off to school, and then I had a chance to cook
for them and then my husband would be with them in the afternoon. So that was my first
I see. Were you active in any community organizations, or the churchoor any of the schools?
Well, I had been active a little in the P.T.A., but really not as a leader. I would just help prepare different foods and I helped as each one would come up in school and their class would need help for something. But noe of it was like leading and things, mostly preparing different things that they needed. Let's see. . . no, at that time I wasn't very active in anything.
Did you ever participate in the civil rights struggles, or were any of your children ever involved in those?
No, not at that time. Now, since then, I have become more active. in a lot of things. But at that time, when my children were small, I had never participated in anything.
How did you become so active in the strike?
I think what really triggered me off, I had been raised that you do what you say. And my father was just real strict. And if he promised you anything, or he was supposed to, he done it. And if someone promised him something, he just didn't stop until he got it, or he would find out why. And I think some of this maybe did come from there. When they first hired me, telling me the different things about the job, and the Permanent Payroll schedule after ninety days, and this type of thing, and then after I got there and I found out that there were so many of the workers there that had been there two and three years and hadn't been on permanent payroll, and we were checking our checks each week because they were being shortened, I just
[END OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE B]
always asked questions and tried to find out why. I had to have an answer. It - someone had
to let me know. I didn't only ask about the things
How did the other workers respond to the strike? In the other cafeteria halls?
At first, we tried getting in touch with most of them, and a lot of them we had to go to their homes at night and talk with them. We asked them to stay out, not to come in. I guess maybe about half that worked in Lenoir Dining Hall stayed out and about half, mostly the elder ones, the ones that had been there— we had workers that worked upstairs in Lenoir Hall that had been there twenty and twenty-five years. And these were the people that just thought what we were doing was crazy and we were, you know, going to lose our jobs and they just weren't going to have any part of it.
What did you say to some individuals that you had to persuade, you know, "Come on and strike," what did you say to them?
Well, we pointed out the points that they were being used too, that they had been there all
these years and that some of us were making as much as they were making. We tried to show
them that they were working us overtime and nobody was being paid any overtime pay. And we
also at that time had many funds being raised for us. The professors on campus, certain
students, were just. . . we were selling food, we had set up a place ourselves and had the
workers cooking and we served food for a donation and at the time we had made out a schedule
where we could pay the employees so much money for being out of work;
You mentioned that you had some meetings with the administration and I think one you mentioned was to take place on that Monday. Could you tell me what happened in the meeting and if you can recall some of the individuals—I know you mentioned Prillaman. How about Claiborne Jones? How about Fred Haskell, was he there?
Yes. At that time, there were many meetings being held. Mary Smith and myself were staying over late at night and meeting with different groups, like the School of Public Health; the professors had a meeting; there was just lots of meetings. And we were kind of speaking and eetting them know what was going on. So on a Monday we did have a meeting with Branch, Prillaman, and there were just so. . . let's see, Claiborne Jones, some more that was right up there in the Personnel Building right there, but I can't recall their names. But anyway, we had something like a two hour meeting with them, and really, you know, we could see that that meeting had been almost like some of the ones that we had had with Prillaman. We really didn't get anything out of it.
Did they make any promises?
Not really at that time. They were just telling us what they could do, what and how the University was run, and the part that the legislature played; they could not make a move until the legislature met in July and, you know, a whole lot of the same things that we had heard.
How do you think you were treated by the Administration, the Personnel?
I think we were treated real bad. They kind of, you know, made you feel real low and just
like you really didn't know what you were talking about or
How about some more meetings, if you can recally any more that took place.
What happened at that time: we did not have another meeting with them, with the officials. We began to have meetings and rallies with the students. There were a lot of the professors, like I said before, that were very active, that felt kind of like they were obligated to do something, to bring the thing to a head. They were trying to find ways, and to come up with ways to put pressure on the University. And Preston and the Black Students played a big role in this. Preston and they would always ask for the black students and they would listen to them and their ideas of how maybe that particular group that we were meeting with could come up with something to put pressure on the University.
How did some of the black students raise money to help you during the strike?
Oh, boy, I forget now. . .
Like some bake sales and. . .
They were out, downtown on the street, with signs; they were polishing shoes — right, I never will forget that== they were polishing shoes, they were doing just anything tht could come along to raise money.
Do you recall any white supporters, or names of white supporters, and what white students did to help during the strike?
There were lots of white supporters, and really I can't supply you with names, because I have forgotten. There were so many tht were real active, and they worked real close with the black students also. One thing; they didn't jump in and try to make decisions. They offered their help, and they let us decide in what way we could use it or need it. We appreciated this, and we had lots of white students that was real active and professors, too.
O.K. How about community support. Were there any organizers, like Chapel Hill Human Relations Commission, or any high school students that played a part in the strike?
We had high school students, that came over and had rallies. We had also college students, from other colleges to come over and have rallies and to speak at rallies for us. We also had, out of the community, there were several housewives with babies that would come out and support the picket line, and this was real great, because the mothers would come pushing their babies in strollers and carrying their babies on their backs and walking in that picket line. So we really had a lot of support.
I want to give you a few names of individuals, and if you could tell me how they supported; how about Julian Chambers?
He was our lawyer. He came up and offered to handle any of the legal matters for us. Free of charge.
Did you contact him, or he contacted the workers?
I think he contacted. . . between he and Preston, it was worked out. I really don't know today just how it was. In fact, I do think he volunteered to come. Because he came first and I think maybe Preston had made him aware of what was happening. But he did come up.
Anne Queen.
Anne Queen, I can't remember exactly what part she played. The only thing I know, she was
just there every time you turned around [laughter]
O.K. Senator Ralph Scott.
Senator Scott stayed in touch and I think he really talked to the Governor at that time. And he stayed in touch more with Mary Smith because at one time, another Mary Smith had been kind of close in some way with the Senator. So he really stayed in close touch with her. And she, I think, told him some things that he may could persuade, talking to the Governor, so I. . . that's the way he helped.
How about Dr. Alend Lind?
Dr. Lind was very active. He spoke for us at a lot of rallies. He also helped a lot of rallies themselves. And this way.
Was Ralph Abernathy ever a part of the strike? Did he ever come into the campus?
Yes. He came to campus once. Went over and spoke to the Chancellor. And begged him, as he
put it, "I beg you to do somthing about this, and I hope I don't have to come back." "And
knowing you, the type of person you are, I'm sure you'll reach a decision." And, you know,
this type of thing. [laughter]
O.K. I know you were with the delegation that went to a meeting that you had with Governor Scott. What was the outcome?
Well, he at that time. . . one of our grievances was a 20¢ pay raise, which was bringing us to $1.80 an hour. So this was. . .
Wait a minute. Were there any people making less than $1.60 at this time?
Right. We went on strike, we had people making $1.45 and most of us were making $1.60. So
we asked for a 20¢ pay raise, so that everybody would make $1.80 an hour. And that naturally
you would get across the board raise. But, you know, people that start at $1.60 and when they
go on the Permanent Payroll, would be raised to $1.80. So Governor Scott passed this before a
legislature meeting. So this is what the role he played. But before this happened we had had
a big rally at Carmichael Hall. Joan Baez — I guess you've heard of her, she's a singer — she
came and sang for our group. And so we had this rally, and we made some speeches that night,
and we had asked for the whole University to go on strike. We would just ask for anything,
like it was asking for a drink of water [laughter]
Did you talk with the Governor about your other grievances, the other complaints that you had with the administration?
Yes, we talked with them about it, but he didn't really seem to be too interested.
O.K. What about press coverage during the strike?
Oh, we had more than we really needed, but I can't. . . I know the [laughter]Tar
Heel — and I don't know who was writing for the Tar Heel — and During
Morning Herald, and Chapel Hill Weekly, and then there were a couple
from Greensboro, Bob and Judy Steel, I believe, that were covering it from Greensboro. Just
lots of coverage, but I really don't remember. Along about that time, I knew them.
Did you get in reports in regard to television? Was it on any national news?
Yes. Let's see, I think Channel 5 and at one time, Greensboro Channel 2 carried it.
Did you ever get discouraged during the strike?
No, I didn't myself. I don't think I could have been, or anything could have discouraged me
because of what I had been through before the strike, and I just think anything we could have
done could have been better than what was happening. And I never got discouraged. In the
beginning quite a few of the workers were discouraged. And talking with some of the ones that
would not participate, kind of discouraged a lot of them too. But we worked on them and we
got them active like some, you know, that didn't care to speak and this type of thing, we
worked out a schedule where we had picket lines and we would have so many groups you know,
maybe a group to walk this time, and a group the next time, and involving everybody that was
out. Also we had, using the Baptist Student Union then to prepare food, and the ones that
were out, the elder ones that weren't able to work the picket lines, they would prepare
How about when police came on campus? Did this get things a little down?
We had plenty of that. I don't think it made anybody get down, it just kind of made them more angry. More determined. Because we didn't see any reason for National Guard there. No one had really done anything to cause this. So this kind of showed us just the type of people we were dealing with—the University officials — because the University cops could just have easily have handled what was going on. And it would have made it a lot better.
What called for the police on campus, do you know?
I don't know, but I had a good idea. I think it was Friday and Sitterson.
I know that Lenoir Hall was closed and then is it true that Governor Scott reopened it?
That's true. Lenoir Hall was closed. What happened. . . we were fixing, in Manning Hall at
the time, right across from Lenoir, and so the black students were asking all the students to
come over and eat at Manning Hall and leave a donation. So, of course, you always have your
students that's not going to do this, that's not going to become involved in anything. So you
have the ones that's going to eat in Lenoir, regardless of what's happening. So I think the
black students went inside and asked them did they realized what was happening to the food
service workers, the people that had been preparing the food for them and asked them if they
wouldn't like to help us, and I think that they got kind of some nasty remarks and so they
were kind of getting together, and [laughs]
What do you think would be the tuning point of the strike? The firing of Prillaman, the black militancy?
That was in our grievances, that. . . and the $1.80 pay raise, the re-hiring of Dorothy Ann Stephens, at the same time we wanted job descriptions and job titles. We asked to have name pins. Because supervisors and managers would come in and just blast out your name all over the place, you know, "Elizabeth, Esther," no one ever thought to address you by your last name. So we asked for name pins. If we had to call them Mr. Prillaman, then we would like to be called Mrs. Brooks, or Mrs. Smith, or whoever. So these are some of the things. But the main three was the firing of Prillaman, the $1.80 — or the 20¢, rather — pay raise, and the re-hiring of Dorothy Ann Stephens, and the job descriptions. We also wanted our back-time pay. That was the first issue. We wanted our back pay, because we knew we had been working overtime and no one had ever received any overtime pay. So right away, the University told Chambers, who was the lawyer, that they would bring in some help to go over these. . . the payroll in the past years. And that they would pay to anyone who had been overworked, they would pay this. So they did, and I don't know who they brought in there. I saw two ladies up there working on the time cards, this type of thing. But they went through them in about two weeks. They paid some people three and four dollars, some two dollars, some maybe 99¢. Oh, and I think about five dollars was the highest they came up with for those people at that time.
Five dollars?
Mm-hmm. So then, like people that had been there a long time saved check stubs and this
type of thing, giving you the hours they had worked, the amount you were making an hour, and
how much they had on the check stubs. Of course, Chambers looked at these, and had Federal
people come in and look at them [laughter] [laughter]ever decide to do any thing else, we're
going to be with you." Because they're the people that got eight, nine, or thirteen hundred
dollars. We didn't really get that much out of it. So then, you know, they decided that they
would really stick with us from then on out.
Who do you think could have settled the strike? Before you went on the strike that Sunday? Who could really have settled it?
Before we. . . Well, it had gotten to the point on that Sunday that I don't think anybody
there could have settled it. Because we had lost all confidence in them. We just wouldn't
have trusted them. Earlier, Prillaman probably could have prevented it himself. But after it
got to the point that so far along, and after we had been to Raleigh and we hadn't heard any
results from Raleigh we just kind of. . . and also we had had meetings with. . . who is his
name in the Payroll Department up thereo on campus. . . can't remember his name. But we had
had several meetings in Battle Hall and. . . I can't remember those folk names up there. But
see, we had just gotten to a point we didn't trust any of them. Because we caught them all in
lies. None of them had told us anything that they had really followed through with. So I
think it had gotten to the point, I don't think we would have listened to them. It would have
had to come from someone else, someone other than the ones we had been involved with. At that
time, we hadn't been involved with Sitterson or Friday. So maybe they could have come out and
done something about it at that point,
Were you ever threatened? You were one of the main leaders.
No, no more than being threatened with being fired.
How about phone calls at night?
No. No one threatened me. Some of the officials would drop hints about losing your job, causing everybody else to lose their job, you know, this type of thing. But no one really threatened me.
Did anyone ever try to buy you off, since you were one of the leaders, you know, offer you a lot of money if you'd tell everybody to quiet down. Was this ever done with you?
Yes. At one time, I was offered, I think, $4.00 an hour to talk with the group and make sure that no one thought about striking.
Who offered this to you.
This was not the University officials. This was SAGA, the food company. This was in. . .
[Interruption.]
Did you foresee another strike, after the first strike was over?
Well, after the first strike was over, I didn't. I thought things were just going to work
out dandy, and soon after SAGA food company came in, I almost knew there would be another
strike. Didn't know it was going to be as early as it was [laughs]
Did you know that an independent food service would be coming in. Did you know that before they came in, after the strike was ended? Did you have any idea during or before the strike that somebody, the administration would sell out to an independent food corporation?
No, we didn't. When we went on strike against the University we had no idea that another company would come in and take over. We heard this during the last meetings we had with the University, that there were chances that they would sell out to another company. But it didn't really bother us, because we just didn't feel like anyone else would come in and do the things that they had done. And we thought, "We always do good work," and we thought that's what anybody was looking for. And we really wasn't concerned about it too much.
Do you think your participation in the first strike was ever used against you? Under SAGA?
Yeah. Very much. They had their eyes on me when they came there. On Mary Smith. And they
did not allow me to open my mouth. [laughs] [laughs] [laughing]definitely didn't
allow me—"I don't want you talking to no body," on my
time." And so he meant that. "I am not going to have it."
So I did have an hour for lunch, and I just went right across to the Student Union and I
talked for the whole hour. tolerate this. . . I am simply not going to tolerate this." And so I
said to him, "At least I didn't lie, I told the truth, you know." And so they really put the
pressure on me. They shifted me around from place to place. They changed my schedule; I had
been working the second shift because it benefited my family the best, and they knew this.
They had ways of finding out, you know.
END OF INTERVIEW