United Workers Union-Independent

Records of the Staff Rights Organizing Committee (SROC) and United Workers Union-Independent (UWU-I). SROC mobilized University of Washington staff to fight a discriminatory job reclassification that resulted in the first strike at the University of Washington in 1973. After the strike, members of the organizing committee formed their own union, United Workers Union-Independent. The union raised issues about the effects of racism and sexism on salaries that later became the concept of the Comparable Worth campaign. UWU-I's advocacy for the lowest-paid, unorganized women and people of color on campus prodded other campus unions to better represent these workers.

From the guide to the United Workers Union-Independent records, 1973-1980, 1974-1978, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections)