As Campuses Reopen, Workers Sue The UNC System Over Safety Concerns

By Stacia Brown

Published August 12, 2020 at 11:53 AM EDT

Students are beginning to arrive back on campuses across the UNC System, and workers are concerned for their own safety amid early accounts of inconsistent mask-wearing and large social gatherings on campuses.

Members of the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150 and members of the North Carolina American Association of University Professors are bringing a lawsuit against the UNC system over unsafe working conditions. Host Frank Stasio talks to WUNC education reporter Liz Schlemmer and Penny Elliott, a housekeeping crew leader at UNC-Chapel Hill, about workers’ concerns and the lawsuit.

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Stacia Brown

Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A, as well as WUNC’s The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for WUNC's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC’s The Takeaway.

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