["The Saturday we went on strike was a powerful day. I felt like
we were standing up for ourselves and for all the other underpaid,
unappreciated workers who needed a change. I knew that my voice was
going to make a difference."]
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THESE SOUTHERN WORKERS ARE ORGANIZING – AND SPEAKING UP  
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Taiwanna Milligan
August 25, 2022
Facing South
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_ "The Saturday we went on strike was a powerful day. I felt like we
were standing up for ourselves and for all the other underpaid,
unappreciated workers who needed a change. I knew that my voice was
going to make a difference." _

Raise Up, the Southern arm of the Fight for $15 movement, held Worker
Power Trainings in communities across the South this summer, including
this one in Atlanta. The trainings gave workers a chance to teach
organizing skills to fellow workers, Photo courtesy of Raise Up

 

This summer I went on strike
[[link removed]] at
Dollar General in Holly Hill, South Carolina. My coworkers and I were
standing up for our rights and fighting back against a company that
put our safety at risk, stole our wages, and made it impossible for us
to take care of our families.

Our organizing started when my coworker Tara Thompson called us to a
meeting at her house. I said, "I don't feel safe at work," and
everyone nodded. The store had been robbed three times since I've been
here. One day a customer came into the store with a gun, having some
mental health problems and talking about how he can't trust anyone. I
called the police for help, but they never came. And my Dollar General
manager reprimanded me for calling them. My coworker was robbed at
gunpoint,
[[link removed]] and
just 10 minutes later management was pushing her to reopen the store.

At that first organizing meeting, we all agreed that Dollar General
was not protecting us. We decided to draft a petition and make safety
a top demand.

Wage theft is also a big issue at our store. I've had hours taken off
my check — my Dollar General manager actually changed the record of
my hours to say I'd worked less than I really had. And Dollar General
expects us to work off the clock. It's our job to take cash deposits
to the bank at the end of our shift. This means a 15-minute drive each
way to the bank, and we don't get reimbursed for gas money. On top of
that, management often clocks us out as soon as we leave the store, so
we aren't getting paid for that half-hour of work.

We agreed that ending wage theft needed to go in the petition, along
with demanding a $15 hourly minimum wage, health care benefits, and a
voice for workers. And I want to point out that we are not the only
Dollar General workers standing up to demand changes at our store.
There has been a rise of Dollar General worker organizing
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across the country, especially here in the South. Dollar General
workers in North Carolina
[[link removed]], Virginia
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and Oklahoma
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strikes this spring. Back in May, Tara and I went with fellow Raise Up
members to protest the Dollar General shareholder meeting
[[link removed]] in
Tennessee, where the company is headquartered. All this activity gave
us momentum to push forward with our own petition.

We delivered our petition to Dollar General and threatened to strike
if they didn't respond. Within a few days, we had won a couple of our
safety demands. Management cleared the fire hazards from the store
aisles and cut down the bushes that hid our store from the street, so
we're not such an easy target for robberies. We'd been asking Dollar
General to do this for months, but when we threatened to strike we
finally got the company's attention.

On July 16, five days after delivering our petition, we decided to go
ahead with our strike to push for the rest of our demands. We wanted
to let Dollar General know that we weren't playing around.

The Saturday we went on strike was a powerful day for me. We chanted
and made speeches
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front of the store. Lots of our regular customers saw us in the
parking lot and decided not to go inside, because they supported our
demands. I felt like we were standing up for ourselves and for all the
other underpaid, unappreciated workers who needed a change. I knew
that my voice was going to make a difference.

I had the same powerful feeling when I stood up in a room full of
other low-wage workers and shared what I had learned about the best
way to organize your workplace. This is what I did at the Worker Power
Trainings that I and other members of Raise Up
[[link removed]] — the Southern branch of Fight
for $15 and a Union — held in Durham, North Carolina; Columbia,
South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and Atlanta this summer. These
trainings were organized by Raise Up to give workers a chance to learn
from each other and get the basic tools to start talking to your
coworkers. At each training, we had a worker speak out where I shared
how we took action at my store. My organizing partners, Tara Thompson
[[link removed]?] and Keshia
Brown
[[link removed]?],
also spoke at the trainings and helped tell our story of winning some
demands but deciding it was not enough.

The best part of the Worker Power Trainings was the solidarity in the
room, even though we all work for different employers and different
cities. We are all unified by the fact that we work in some part of
the service industry and we aren't being respected or paid enough.
Most of all, we know that we won't have a voice on the job unless we
speak up together and demand it. The other thing that we all had in
common is a vision of what we want for the future. We don't want our
children to have to go through the same struggles we are going
through. We are building our union so we can fight together for
ourselves and those who come after us.

Here are reflections from some of the workers who came to the Worker
Power Trainings.

NAOMI HARRIS IS A MOD PIZZA WORKER FROM COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, WHO
ATTENDED THE COLUMBIA WORKER TRAINING A WEEK BEFORE TAKING HER
COWORKERS OUT ON STRIKE
[[link removed]]: "When
I went to the training, I was already in the middle of organizing my
store because we were tired of the racial discrimination by management
and the low pay. Black workers were being treated differently than
white workers — it was constant disrespect. Speaking up to our
managers wasn't getting us anywhere, so we had to take the harder
steps. We created a petition to go above our management and get some
changes.

"At the training I learned some things about organizing my coworkers.
I've learned to be more strategic with who I speak to and how I go
about it. Now I really watch people and understand where different
workers stand, so I know who is on our side and who could move to our
side. You also have to know who not to approach because they will turn
around and tell management about our plans. There's strategy to
organizing in your store.

"This Worker Power Training came at the right time for me. It gave me
the push I needed to take the next step at my store. I felt ready to
lead a strike at MOD Pizza
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listening to the Dollar General workers talk about how powerful it is
to stand up for your rights. They're an inspiration to me, not just as
workers but as women standing up for themselves. I'm going to have my
eyes open from now on, at every job I go to. I'll pay attention to the
work conditions, and I'll always be ready to organize. I know that if
I just quit, it's going to stay the same in the store. But if I speak
up and get a union started, then it will be better for whoever comes
in after me."

ANTONIO PATTON, A WALMART WORKER FROM ATLANTA: "I came because I was
interested in becoming more of an organizer in my community and
learning how to get people together to fight. I make $12 an hour. I
have a child; I'm depending on my paycheck to support my daughter. 
If I could talk to the CEO of Walmart, I would tell him, 'Hey man,
y'all make enough money, Walmart is worth billions. Are you really
telling me you can't pay each employee $15 an hour? Is it really gonna
cost you that much to pay us enough to live?'

"I always worked at a job that never had a union, and I've seen the
detriments of what low pay can do. I've seen people struggle, I've
seen people lose homes, cars, everything because the pay wasn't
enough. For me this is personal, because I'm not only fighting for me,
I'm fighting for the next man behind me."

NINA BAILEY, A MCDONALD'S WORKER FROM BURNSVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, WHO
DURING THE TRAININGS SHARED STORIES ABOUT HER INVOLVEMENT IN PAST
STRIKES AT WENDY'S
[[link removed]] AND BOJANGLES
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has problems about safety at work, everyone has low wages. It's not
just happening in one area, it's across the South. Doing these
trainings in the South will make a difference and reach more people
who are waiting for this kind of knowledge. Strength comes in numbers.
We've got to reach workers and tell them they're not alone, there's
someone to back them up.

"I want to spread the word that when you're up against something at
work, there's a way to make it better. First, talk to your coworkers,
take notes on what's going on, then reach out to a Raise Up organizer
and start having meetings to work on fixing it. Organizing is a slow
process sometimes, but it's the only way to win."

CATHEY POOLE, A SOUTH CAROLINA FAST FOOD WORKER: "I came here to
learn instructions on how to organize. I used to have a union job when
I was living in a different state. I know the difference a union
makes. In a union, you get a little more respect, and those that don't
show you respect — I could speak up for myself and call them to the
carpet. Someone has your back and you feel more confident to speak up
for yourself. Management is actually held accountable. I want workers
to stand up for themselves, don't be afraid of management. I came to
this training to learn the facts and then go share the good news with
others."

ALEX BLOCKER, A WORKER AT CHICK-FIL-A IN COLUMBIA: "I wanted to
organize Chick-fil-A to start a union, just seeing problems within
Chick-fil-A with management and with wages. I thought it was important
to help other workers understand what their rights are. I wanted
to teach others
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power that they have. At the Worker Power Training I learned the steps
to form a union, specifically how to talk to workers and how to set up
your workplace committee. It's my hope that every store would have a
union, that every worker gets their rights valued and their demands
and their needs met.

"Knowing that there's a team of people fighting alongside me, this
gives me the motivation and purpose to do everything that I've learned
today — talking with coworkers, outlining the steps for a union.
That's something that, maybe before, I didn't want to do just out of
fear of retaliation, but now that I know that there's people behind
us."

SAMUEL POND, A WORKER AT QUALITY RESTORATION, AN EMERGENCY WATER AND
FIRE DAMAGE RESTORATION COMPANY IN ATLANTA: "I came in for the
immediate lessons on how to organize. For me it didn't seem possible
to organize a workforce and call a strike, even though the discussions
have been had at different employers I worked for. I've seen firsthand
the benefits of unions on the back end. My father did 22 years in a
union before he had to retire due to medical issues. He's now able to
collect a pension and stay afloat. He's relatively young, he's 55, so
to be able to have that security with his handicaps is crucial. I
really wish more people had that opportunity to join a union or at
least knew they have the option to unionize."

ONIYA JENKINS, A FAMILY DOLLAR WORKER FROM EUTAWVILLE, SOUTH
CAROLINA: "I work in 87-degree heat at my Dollar General store, and
I've been trying to get the air fixed for 7 months and nobody is
trying to do anything about it. Along with fixing the heat, I would
like to see higher wages, because $9.25 is not enough to live off. We
need to get to $15 or higher. I know most jobs could pay it, but most
jobs don't.

"I learned a lot at the Worker Power Training. I learned about mapping
out the workplace and how to bring people together on the job. What
brought me here today was the desire to help people with similar
problems, to bring them together to organize. I know that there are a
lot of people out there who are afraid to lose their jobs and I
understand that, because I was like that at first. But I'm not scared
anymore."

PEYTON HAYES, A RESTAURANT WORKER FROM ATLANTA: "The worker power
workshop helped me recognize the immense strength of united working
people. Listening to other workers talk about their strikes and taking
action together, it reminded me that organization is the vehicle that
allows us to collectively fight for our demands."

NOVA HODGE, A WORKER AT CROWN BEVERAGE DISTRIBUTION IN ORANGEBURG,
SOUTH CAROLINA: "I learned a lot today. I've been wanting to speak
out about our rights at work, but I didn't know the facts. Now I feel
armed with enough information to teach other workers what they need to
do."

Coming out of our strike and these Raise Up Worker Power Trainings, I
have made connections with many powerful workers across the South. We
are a growing movement of workers sharing skills and supporting each
other, even though we work at different companies and in different
cities. We won't win all our demands overnight; this is a long fight.
But if we keep organizing, teaching new workers what we know, and
learning from each other, I believe that we will win.

_Taiwanna Milligan is a low-wage worker and longtime leader
with Raise Up [[link removed]] and Fight for $15
and a Union. She began organizing to raise the minimum wage to $15 an
hour when she worked at McDonald's, earning $8 an hour. Taiwanna is a
committed mother, outspoken activist, and community leader, fighting
for living wages and unions for all workers. She lives in Santee,
South Carolina._

_Email Taiwanna_
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* Raise Up
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* Fight For 15
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* union organizing
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* the South
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* Organizing in the South
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