This post was originally published on TAP : The American Prospect.
Helping the Powerless Build Power
Over the past quarter century, a new form of worker organization – worker centers – have arisen among groups of workers, primarily immigrants and African Americans, for whom unionization isn’t usually an option, largely due to the limited scope of the laws governing collective bargaining rights. To tell the stories of these organizations, the Prospect has conducted oral histories with a range of worker center activists and leaders. Here, edited and condensed for space, are excerpts from five of them. Victor Narro, now at the UCLA Labor Center, was a key figure in the organization of day laborers in Los Angeles and in the formation of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and in the campaign to unionize carwash workers. Saru Jayraman is the founder and longtime leader of the Restaurant Opportunities Center and the One Fair Wage campaign. Tanya Wallace-Gobern is executive director of the National Black Workers Center. Eddie Acosta was the AFL-CIO’s first coordinator of the Federation’s work with worker centers. Neidi Dominguez served as co-director of the Clean Carwash Campaign, then as the AFL-CIO’s coordinator for its partnerships with worker centers and later founded Unemployed Workers United during the COVID pandemic.