Dear Vice-Chancellor Merklein and UNC Transportation and Parking officials,

We, UNC workers, students and supporters, are writing to express our concern regarding recent changes in campus parking. It has come to our attention that this past week, many employees at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill had a double parking deduction from their paychecks due to university error. Many of these employees are in the lower pay bands at the university, and this error deeply affects their ability to pay their bills and survive to the beginning of the month.

Additionally, employees received a meager 4% raise last year, triggering another increase in parking fees. This further compounds the problem of forcing employees to pay to come to work through parking fees, taking money from already insufficient paychecks. Employees of UNC do essential work in keeping the university open, from cleaning buildings to managing departments to running the libraries to keeping the campus safe. We should not have to pay to work.

The Workers Union at UNC, chapter of UE Local 150 has the following demands:

1. Return the double charge for parking taken out of paychecks on Feb. 9. University employees should not be punished for the mistakes of the university.

2. We renew our long standing demand for a living wage of $20 per hour for all university employees, so that no one struggles to pay their bills and live and work in North Carolina.

3. We renew our long standing demand to abolish parking fees for campus workers. No one should have to pay to come to work.