Campus dining workers at Virginia State University and Norfolk State University are joining a growing number of their peers as union members.
Years ago, D’Ante “Deejay” Pulliam was known as the guy in the kitchen at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond who wore broken glasses.
The lenses were fine, but Pulliam’s frames were missing one of the parts that tucked behind his ear.
“I only had one leg on it,” Pulliam said of his glasses. “I famously wore that everywhere I went because I didn’t have health insurance, so I could not get glasses.”
Things changed after Pulliam was part of the organizing effort that led to VCU dining workers winning a union contract in 2022. He called the free pair of glasses he was able to get because of his new health benefits one of the best things to happen to him. And Pulliam was able to see a doctor about health issues he’s been dealing with for years.
“I actually have been able to set doctor appointments to go get that checked out because I know that my insurance is going to be able to cover it,” Pulliam said. “And I’m not going to have to give them my whole wallet just to make sure that I am physically and mentally okay.”
Pulliam is part of a growing number of dining workers on Virginia campuses unionizing with UNITE HERE Local 23, a union representing hospitality workers in Virginia and other states including North Carolina and Washington DC.
Last month, dining workers at Virginia State University and Norfolk State University held actions as part of their organizing efforts, and Hampton University campus dining workers are also organizing, according to UNITE HERE Local 23.
The workers at Virginia State and Norfolk State are employed by Thompson Hospitality, a private food services company based in Reston. Thompson did not respond to a request for comment, but UNITE HERE Local 23 said the company has agreed to “a fair process to form a union.” Hampton campus dining workers are seeking the same thing from the company.
UNITE HERE Local 23 said that since 2022, dining workers employed by Aramark at VCU, the College of William and Mary, James Madison University, Longwood University, and Old Dominion University have unionized.
Campus dining workers employed by Sodexo at University of Mary Washington have also unionized with UNITE HERE Local 23.
The percentage of workers represented by unions in Virginia is low but saw an uptick last year. In 2025, 6.4% of Virginia workers were represented by a union, up from 5.7% in 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Nationally, non-union workers made 84 cents for every dollar a union worker earned, BLS said.
“Workers in Virginia and across the South want to organize and are doing it, and UNITE HERE is committed to keep organizing to ensure that every worker can have a good union job,” a union spokesperson said in a statement.
Pulliam joined the union because he knew that he and his co-workers deserved better, especially when it came to their working conditions. He said the promise of a union was hard to believe at first.
“A lot of us being born and raised in the South, we’re not really privy to knowing what unions are,” Pulliam said. “You see it on TVs. You hear people talk about it very vaguely.”
Having seen first hand the benefits of a union contract, Pulliam took a leave of absence at VCU and worked with UNITE HERE Local 23 to organize campus dining workers at Virginia State.
Pulliam’s pitch to workers at Virginia State was that he’d been in their shoes—he knew how disrespectful managers could be and how poor the health benefits were and had lived through years with no raises—and realized that things could be different.
“This is real life,” Pulliam said. “You can have better, but you have to want to take it.”
