On the evening of April 4th, 2017, 100 labor and civil rights activists filled the historic church at Hayti Heritage Center in Durham to both commemorate the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and renew their commitment to King’s dream by holding a field hearing for low-wage workers. Hosted by Raise up for $15 in conjunction with the North Carolina NAACP and the Movement for Black Lives, the event stressed the need to fight racism through unionization and organized...
A labor movement is defined as “a movement campaigning to improve the rights and conditions of working people.” While the individual groups we researched span the globe, the overarching theme is a constant fight to let workers share in the wealth they have created. The movements we have chronicled, past and present, are wholly grassroots, as they sprung from the abysmal working and living conditions of exploited workers. Strikes and protests are often the last resort...