The loud rumble of drums and wooden ratchets echoed through downtown Durham as a crowd amassed. Folks wrapped in keffiyehs and wearing T-shirts representing different local labor organizations filled CCB Plaza, holding signs with messages like “They got money for war but can’t feed the poor,” a lyric lifted from the deceased rapper Tupac. Community members, including former council member Jillian Johnson, passed out donated food.
Victor Urquiza, a local workers’ rights organizer, kicked off the rally by highlighting the stakes.
“Every single year, we see the cost of living go up,” Urquiza shouted through the loud speaker. “People are struggling. Inflation is going up. Groceries are going up. Rent is going up. But you know what doesn’t ever go up? Our wages! Shame!”
The crowd responded in earnest. “Shame!”
Hundreds of organizers and supporters gathered on Wednesday evening to rally and march in honor of May Day, an international holiday celebrating the working class and labor movements across the world. The rally was organized by the Southern Workers Assembly.
Representatives from different local unions such as UE Local 150, United Social Services Workers (USSW), Duke Graduate Student Union, the local REI union chapter, and Durham Association of Educators (DAE) each stepped to the microphone, advocating for higher wages and better working conditions. They also demanded that major corporations and other institutions divest from Israel due to its ongoing war in Gaza, and that Duke make a stronger financial commitment to the City of Durham to supplement lost revenues on account of the university’s tax-exempt status as a nonprofit.
Other organizers passed out flyers and signed up folks for future activities.
DAE set up a table for supporters to write letters to the Durham Board of County Commissioners in support of the “historic budget request” that the Durham school board recently passed.
After the speeches, the crowd marched down Main Street toward Duke East Campus, where they met Duke University Police, who blocked the protestors from entering campus at the Main Street and Campus Drive intersection.
Duke student Michael Cavuto, who was there representing the Duke Graduate Student Union along with other fellow students, greeted the swarm of demonstrators as they arrived.
“As you can see, the Duke admin has called in the cops to stop us from entering campus. Shame!,” he said.
Julian Liber, another DGSU member, said students are in the process of negotiating a contract with the university for $25 an hour starting wages for university employees, but they don’t plan on limiting their scope to the walls of Duke.
“We want Duke to not just be an institution of knowledge, but an institution of morality, an institution of accountability, an institution of community,” Liber said. “We don’t want these benefits to go just to us, but be for us all.”
Labor rights have been a unifying issue in Durham in recent months. Durham city workers have been regularly attending city council meetings advocating for higher salaries in this year’s upcoming budget. DAE, the local teachers union, held rallies and “sick-outs” throughout the early part of 2024, some of which led to school closures, in response to financial mismanagement by the DPS school district. And workers at private sector companies, such as REI, Amazon, and Starbucks, have organized for better wages and working conditions.
Demonstrators marched back to CCB Plaza where organizers continued to pass out information and discuss how to keep the pressure on city and county leadership.
The Durham City Council will hold another public hearing on June 3 before it votes to finalize its 2024-2025 budget on June 30. The next budget hearing for Durham County is May 13. The county board of commissioners will vote on a final budget on June 10.
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