Herbert Tucker Papers on Living Wage Campaign at the University of Virginia, 1991/2001

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

This collection contains some in-copyright material. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page (https://www.library.virginia.edu/special-collections/services/publishing) for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials.

In Copyright: This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

Preferred citation:

MSS 16935, Herbert Tucker Papers on Living Wage Campaign at the University of Virginia, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
0.06 Cubic Feet Two letter-size file folders
Creator:
Tucker, Herbert F. and Sandridge, Leonard W.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 16935, Herbert Tucker Papers on Living Wage Campaign at the University of Virginia, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains materials documenting the Living Wage Campaign and the Labor Action Group (LAG) at the University of Virginia in the 1990s and early 2000s. Herbert Tucker, the John C. Coleman Professor of English and part of the Labor Action Group, collected and created these materials. The collection includes typed, printed, and handwritten correspondence, member lists, contact lists for community organizations and for local media outlets, a resolution, a press release, a memorandum, copies of reports, hand-written notes, and news clippings.

The correspondence included are between Herbert Tucker and members of the University of Virginia's faculty and administrative staff, as well as, between, others regarding wages at the University of Virginia and the Living Wage Campaign. The member and contact lists include Charlottesville community organizations and their leaders, local Charlottesville media outlets, UVA faculty members and departments, and other individuals, presumably LAG members. Hand-written notes include contact and other information of some individuals on the lists, and citations from "decentralization program" progress reports.

The memorandum written by members of the Virginia House of Delegates to Tucker is regarding the recent compensation plan for Virginia state workers at the time, the Charlottesville City Council resolution expresses support for fair salaries at UVA, and the press release distributed to various Charlottesville media outlets was written by the Labor Action Group. There is a copy of 1994 status report for the Education Decentralization Pilot Programs at UVA, as well as a copy of the 1995 Decentralization Progress Report. The clippings include content on union organizing and the living wage movement at the University of Virginia.

Biographical / historical:

Herbert Tucker is the John C. Coleman Professor of English at the University of Virginia, and specializes in 19th century British poetry. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1971, and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1977. He is the author and editor of many published works, as well as a contributor to the Digital Humanities.

Professor Tucker was a member of the Labor Action Group (LAG), which was founded by a group of students and faculty at the University of Virginia, most notably Susan Fraiman, Professor of English. The LAG was active from 1996 to the early 2000's. With Professor Tucker's leadership, The LAG launched a campaign for a living wage at the University of Virginia known as the Living Wage Campaign, which has continued periodically to the present day as a collaborative endeavor. Other groups inspired by the LAG anfd Living Wage Campaign were the Graduate Labor Union (GLU) and the Staff Union at the University of Virginia (SUUVA-CWA), both founded in 2001-2002.

There were many significant actions that resulted from the work of the Living wage campaign. On April 15, 1998 Susan Fraiman worked with the Labor Action Group to organize a teach-in called "Worker's Rights are Civil Rights." On April 19, 2006, when a Faculty Letter to President Casteen on the Living Wage was released, another teach-in was held. Professor Tucker then read the letter at a rally and teach-in held at the Rotunda the very next day. He also helped draft a Petition for a Living Wage that was released on February 26, 2019.

Reference List

Anderson, C. (n.d.). University of Virginia Students and Faculty Campaign for Living Wage 1997-2000. The Global Nonviolent Action Database. https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/university-virginia-students-and-faculty-campaign-living-wage-1997-2000

Borgmeyer, J. (2004). Charter bust. C-Ville Weekly. Retrieved August 14, 2026. https://c-ville.com/charter_bust/

Gelly, P. (n.d.). Collective Bargaining for the Common Good. University of Virginia Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.library.virginia.edu/collectivebargaining/

Living Wage at UVA. 2023. https://livingwageatuva.wixsite.com/lwc-uva

Long, I. 2025. UVA Workers' Union Revives Living Wage Campaign. The Jefferson Independent. Retrieved August 14, 2026. https://jeffersonindependent.com/uva-workers-union-revives-living-wage-campaign/

Loper, G, 2006. University of Virginia: Living Wage Teach-in: Day Eight. Website of George Edward Loper. http://george.loper.org/trends/2006/Apr/923.html

The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. (2026). Herbert Tucker. Department of English, University of Viginia College of Arts and Sciences. https://english.as.virginia.edu/people/herbert-tucker

Workers and Students United: The Living Wage Campaign. 2019. Petition for a Living Wage. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CFNtOkWhlUD447Zv6kmLZUJQ173EFUXRL1mrPnghnLs/mobilebasic

Acquisition information:
Gift of Herbert Tucker, 16 December 2024.
Processing information:

Duplicate materials have been removed.

Arrangement:

The Herbert Tucker Papers on Living Wage Campaign at the University of Virginia is arranged into two files.

File 1 - correspondence, contact and member lists, notes, reports, memorandum, resolution, and press release, 1991-2000. Although many of these item are undated, it can be discerned that they are arranged in chronological order.

File 2 - newspaper clippings, as well as, photocopies and printouts of news articles arranged in chronological order, 1997-2001.

Physical description:
Good
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard