The City of Memphis' Solid Waste Division did not go through with the rumored wildcat strike that Mayor Strickland prepared for with outside emergency waste services.
The workers union explained that the sanitation workers had no intention of striking. Instead, they wanted to organize a meeting to give their complaints about the newly instated holiday overtime policy.
Raaj Kurapati, the UofM's chief financial officer, said students should have no reason to be concerned about a potential strike impacting the campus.
"A potential strike would be more of a city issue," Kurapati said, "Our sanitation is outsourced so any impact would be more manageable."
Ron Brooks, the vice president of the UofM's physical plant, said that the city's system of waste management isn't sufficient enough to handle the campus' trash along with city trash.
"We have to cover our own waste as state entity anyway," Brooks said. "We've always had ours contracted separately."
Sanitation workers were also dissatisfied with the reappointment of Waste Director Al Lamar. The Commercial Appeal reported that the workers accused Lamar of disregarding their complaints and furthering the privatization of the city's waste management.
Brooks said that he does not view the privatization of waste management as a negative thing.
"I'm sure the union feels that if all waste management were under the city, it would mean more work for their members," Brooks said. "The city's system couldn't handle those huge volumes of trash alone."
Amanda Campbell, a history student at the UofM, said that she would not expect a sanitation strike to have a social impact on the campus. Campbell said she had learned a lot about the famous 1968 sanitation strike in her research for her undergrad thesis.
Campbell said the university had minimal activism before the strike.
"The '67-'68 school year is when our relationship with activism began to change," Campbell said. "The Black Student Association tried to start a student alliance with the white liberal students on campus."
The alliance would have been the first integrated organization on campus, but the Student Government Association denied the charter. Campbell said that the decision did not deter students' interest in the strike.
"Most people did not support the strike, but students involved in the activist circles on campus marched and supported the strike," Campbell said.
The young people participating in marches were blamed for any chaos or violence that ensued.
"Rumors spread that the leaders of the BSA at Memphis State were plotting to assassinate Mayor Loeb and trying to incite violence," Campbell said.
Despite the attacks on the activist community on campus, the university remained silent throughout the strike. Students were indifferent or outright opposed, and the Tiger Rag, the campus newspaper at the time, did minimal reporting on the strike.
Campbell said she would not expect much interest from the students if sanitation workers did go through with a strike.
"I would say that the pull of having figures like Dr. King coming to Memphis and speaking to crowds of 10 thousand people is not going to happen now," Campbell said. "We're not in the same context that we were in '68."
