Helping the Powerless Build Power
Oral histories of five activists whoâve worked in and for worker centers
Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Activists rally outside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomoâs office to call on a $15 minimum wage.
Over the past quarter century, a new form of worker organization â worker centers â have arisen among groups of workers, primarily immigrants and African Americans, for whom unionization isnât 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.