Charleston sanitation strike
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- Pay inequality
- Union activity
- Increase of pay for African-American sanitation workers
- Creation of a more neutral grievance procedure
| Charleston sanitation strike | |||
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| Part of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina | |||
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| Date | August 15, 1969 – October 29, 1969 | ||
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The Charleston sanitation strike was a more than two-month movement in Charleston, South Carolina, that protested the pay and working conditions of Charleston's overwhelmingly African-American sanitation workers.
From March to June 1969, the 1969 Charleston hospital strike had brought several national leaders of the Civil Rights Movement to Charleston.
On August 15, 1969, the city's Black sanitation workers declared a strike, and some other public workers joined in the effort.[1] Mayor Gaillard was planning to announce a reduction from a six-day workweek to a five-day workweek, and he claimed that the strike was being pushed by groups not from Charleston that were trying to take credit for the change that had been in the works for several months. On August 19, 1969, the city announced that garbage collection would no longer happen on Saturdays; the accommodate the shortened week, residents’ garbage would be collected only twice a week instead of three times a week.[2]
The mayor adamantly opposed labor organization, and by August 16, the city was already running ads to hire replacements for workers who would be fired. Garbage service was continued but only at a significant cut to one-third the normal amount using White non-strikers and prison labor. Garbage trucks were moved to the National Guard Armory, and patrolmen were stationed at the Line Street facility where union organizers encouraged workers not to report to work. A union representative said that the workers wanted better salaries, uniforms to wear at work, and a better medical insurance plan. A representative of the union said that a $3 hourly salary (up from $1.88 per hour) was expected.[3]