Carolina Alliance

        For Fair Employment

           (C.A.F.E.)

History

The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment (formerly Worker's Rights Project) was started in Greenville in 1980 as a project of a North Carolina-based group, Southerners for Economic Justice (SEJ).  SEJ had been formed in the mid-1970's by civil rights leaders such as Julian Bond and Maynard Jackson who felt that newly-won civil rights were incomplete if people had little or no rights on the job.

SEJ's main work in the 1970's was supporting a national drive by the Amalgameted Clothing and E\Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) to organize textile workers at J.P.Stevens.  Over a dozen Stevens plants were located in Greenville County at the time, so SEJ opened an office in Greenville to support the local ACTWU drive.  ACTWU and Stevens reached a national settlement in 1980., which resulted in union contracts for workers around the Southeast.

None of the Stevens plants in Greenville were unionized, but calls from workers with job problems continued to stream into the SEJ office here.  Most of the workers who called had little hope of getting a union started where they worked.  In response to these calls SEJ started the Worker's Right Project (WRP) in Greenville in 1980, which was aimed at empowering workers who are not represented by unions and who often have little access to unions.

From 1980 through 1984, WRP provided job rights information to workers, helped workers file complaints and advised groups of employees about how to engage in "concerted activity" that gives groups of workers a protected way to fight for improvements on the job.  WRP had a friendly separation from SEJ and became an independent organization in South Carolina in 1982.

By 1985, WRP had received calls for help from workers in over 50 cities and towns across South Carolina.  WRP leaders responded by holding "job rights workshops" in 10 cities around the state, and by mounting its first statewide issue campaign, which was to stop the firing of injured workers.  By 1987, an average of 50 workers had attended workshops in eight cities, and we had won the passage of a new state law in 1986 that made it harder to fire injured workers.  Encouraged by these successes, WRP leaders voted to move from a local to statewide level of operation by forming chapters across the state.  The new statewide organization was called the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment.

In 1988-1992, CAFE formed chapters in Greenville, Charleston, Aiken, Anderson, Spartanburg, the Pee Dee, Laurens and Hilton Head. We also lobbied the state legislature to defend and expand the rights of injured workers, formed a State Board of Directors, and started an annual donor campaign.  Despite many successes throughout this period and a penny-pinching budget, we had a budge crunch in 1992 that pointed out the need for a larger membership and donor base to decrease our dependence on foundation grants.

In 1993-1996, we conducted a statewide Expansion Project to increase our size,  influence and effectiveness.  We more than doubled our membership base, raised increasing amounts of money within the state, increased our staff size from 1 to 8, completed the transition from a predominantly white group to one with equal numbers of people of color and whites, formed four new chapters (Darlington, Greenwood, Mullins, and Columbia), and won improvements for working families across the state.

Already in 1997, we've helped foods service workers at the Citadel to win the right to join a union and filed suit against the SC Department of Labor to resolve a dispute about the type of wage notice that temporary employees should receive. 

 In 1997, CAFE wrote a state legislative bill that would create the right for employees to see their own personnel records, secured the sponsorship of a senior and respected senator, and got the bill introduced in the second half of the state legislative session in January-June 1998.   Our Board of Directors has developed an impressive CAFE 2000 Plan to take us into the next Century with a strong legislative platform, diversity action plan and leadership and staff development program. 

In 1998, CAFE's first youth chapter was formed.  The Darlington Youth Chapter was formed with over 50 dues paying members due to racial disparities in the schools.  A second youth chapter was formed in Laurens, SC.

In 1999, the first youth seat was created on CAFE's Board.  CAFE also started its first summer intern program. 

In November 2000, Carol Bishop became CAFE's Executive Director.