[Internationalist] UNC Housekeepers need your support!

internationalistbooks at lists.ibiblio.org internationalistbooks at lists.ibiblio.org
Thu Sep 1 14:25:04 EDT 2011


 (forwarded from student group on campus)


 Housekeeper Petition Delivery
 When: Friday at Noon
 Where: The Steps of South Building

 This Friday, a group of UNC housekeepers will be delivering a petition 
 to
 Chancellor Thorp at 12pm. We are asking students and community members 
 to
 come to the steps of South Building at noon and show their support!  
 The
 petition is described in the press release below. Housekeepers will 
 speak
 about their personal experiences at the delivery.

 When housekeepers stand up for better treatment on the job, they often 
 face
 retaliation, sometimes to the point of loosing their jobs. The more
 students and supporters are at South Building, the less likely this 
 kind of
 retaliation will occur.

 Housekeepers deserve respect and dignity.

 UNC Housekeepers to Deliver Petition to Chancellor Thorp Demanding that 
 the
 Assistant Director of Housekeeping Services, Tonya Sell be Reassigned

 On Friday, September 2, at 12pm UNC housekeepers, accompanied by 
 students,
 faculty, and community members, will deliver a petition to Chancellor 
 Thorp
 at South Building on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill. The petition 
 demands
 that the Assistant Director of Housekeeping Services, Tonya Sell, be
 reassigned.  The controversy around Tonya Sell became public during 
 Fall of
 2010 when she instated what is known as the no sit-down policy.  About
 eight housekeepers filed a group grievance citing that Tonya Sell 
 created a
 hostile work environment in the UNC housekeeping department, but Human
 Resources denied the grievance. Housekeepers continually name Tonya 
 Sell as a significant aggressor,
 responsible for perpetuating an abusive and unfair work environment at 
 the
 University. Odessa Davis, a housekeeper under the supervision of Tonya
 Sell, says “Tonya Sell is not cut out to be our director. She doesn’t
 respect housekeepers and hardly treats us like human beings.”
 Housekeepers list several other complaints in the petition regarding 
 Ms.
 Sell’s problematic leadership, including:

 Lack of professionalism, demonstrated by not showing up for meetings 
 that
 she schedules with employees
 Threatening employees
 Verbal abuse
 Forging employees’ signatures
 Housekeepers are organizing with the hope that Ms. Sell will be 
 reassigned
 to a more appropriate job where she can no longer harass and intimidate
 other University employees and engage in inappropriate administrative
 practices. Other community and student groups have endorsed the 
 petition
 including Black Workers for Justice, Student Action with Workers, SEANC
 District 25, UE 150, Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP, Triangle Branch of
 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and the Chapel Hill
 Human Rights Center. Laurel Ashton, a leader of the student group 
 Student
 Action with Workers adds, “The fact that Tonya Sell has remained a
 supervisor, despite such serious allegations raised throughout the
 Housekeeping Department, illustrates the greater problem that 
 Chancellor
 Thorp, Carolyn Elfland, and other University administrators do not take
 responsibility for creating a safe and fair work environment for UNC
 housekeepers.”

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