By Herbert White for the Charlotte Post, with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for North Carolina News Service reporting for the Charlotte Post-Public News Service Collaboration.

Naomi Harris was fed up with work.

At a Mod Pizza store in Columbia, S.C., Harris despaired at the lack of air conditioning in the kitchen, racial bias in staffing and homophobic and racist language by management. Instead of quitting, she organized her colleagues in a work stoppage last June to demand change.

"Our shifts were segregated," Harris, 21, said. "The night shift, which was the hardest shift, was mainly Black people and then the morning shift was the white workers and just a sprinkle of the Black workers who couldn't work the night shift."

The slowdown worked. The restaurant's district manager was fired and a kitchen cooling system installed.

"It struck a nerve in my body, like in a good way," said Harris, who moved to a server job at Quaker Steak & Lube where she earns $2.13 an hour plus tips. "It just feels amazing to be doing something like this. It's powerful. It's something that everybody can benefit from. It's not selfish. They were just asking for what we deserve."

That success was Harris' first as a labor organizing, which historically been a difficult proposition in the South, especially for Black workers. Inspired, she joined with union leaders and in November co-founded the Union of Southern Service Workers, a multiracial advocacy group for workers in low-wage, high turnover jobs that have a legacy of racism.

"Black, brown and immigrant service workers across the South are leading the fight for a fundamental transformation of our economy and democracy aimed at re-writing outdated laws that have always held back working people and stopped them from gaining a voice through unions," said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union. "Together in the Union of Southern Service Workers, workers across states and workplaces in the South will become an unstoppable force that no union-busting corporation or racist politician dare ignore."

That the USSW was formed in South Carolina - which has the lowest union membership rates in the nation at 1.7% - is telling. Black workers, who have historically underpinned the South's service economy, are empowering themselves as advocates for change.

"South Carolina, for example, is a right to work state that has historically been anti-union," said O. Jennifer Dixon-McKnight Ph.D., assistant professor of history and African American studies at Winthrop University. ... "Add the fact that you're talking about the lowest wage earners in the country, folks that really need their jobs and need to be able to work but at the same time have the least amount of protection in these spaces, have the least amount of resources, have the least amount of guidance and oversight in terms of helping them to navigate these difficult conversations."

Black labor, southern resistance

From the arrival of the first Africans in 1619, Black people have worked - usually with little or no compensation - to build the United States' economy.

Slavery yoked Africans to masters across the British colonies, but the South's agriculture-based economy put a premium on free Black labor. Those attitudes survive today and can be found in lower wages, including the custom of tipping (to prevent the formerly enslaved from earning more competitive salaries), to fewer opportunities for economic mobility.

As America industrialized after the Civil War, the South held on to its agrarian economy with the formerly enslaved key to the workforce. Wages were low and, hours long and Black people still had to contend with white hostility.

Even as union membership grew in the industrial North - which sparked the Great Migration of Black southerners in the early and mid-20th century, the South remained resistant and today only 6% of all workers in the region are unionized.

The South's long-held political stake in preventing union organization manifest itself in legislation that deters organization.

Every southern state has "right to work" laws that allow employers to fire workers for any reason, which leaves them vulnerable to the whims of their bosses.

"It's like modern day slavery without the whips and chains," Harris said. "When you think about it, it's the same thing because we're in these jobs more than we are at home. ... We spend all our time at a job getting paid dirt cheap and having to rub pennies together hoping we can make it stretch into $2 by the end of next week just to get something to eat."

Nationally, businesses are pushing back against organized labor, which is driving a decline in union density that is among the worst among industrialized countries. Still, Americans showed more support for unionization in 2022, according to a Gallup poll in which 71% of respondents approved of unions - the highest point nationally since 1965. Petitions for union elections rose by 53% in fiscal year 2022, the largest number of filings since 2016.

Post-pandemic labor force

The global COVID-19 pandemic shut down economies around the world, but in the U.S., the outbreak shifted the dynamic between employers and employees. Essential jobs were redefined in the workplace but as the labor market recovered, Black workers were left behind.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Black unemployment rate in 2021 was 8.6% compared to 4.7% for whites and 5.3% overall. In the meantime, concerns about contracting the virus exacerbated a growing employment and income gap.

"For the Black community in particular, I think about it in terms of if you have a group of people who have already experienced deficit and discrimination and exclusion and already grappling with being among the lowest wage earners in the country," Dixon-McKnight said. "So, there's already all these challenges that Black people as a community face going into the workplace. Not only ... grappling with these issues just on the basis of being Black in the workspace, these are the things that [Blacks have] had to face historically. When you add the challenges that come about as a result of COVID, not only am I dealing with the discrimination and exclusion and things of that sort because of my race, but now I'm dealing with all of that compounded by the threat or the danger of contracting COVID."

Southern workers are paid some of the lowest wages in the country, which means more challenges in an economy that favors companies while leaving employees undercompensated while raising productivity to record levels.

According to a 2022 report by Economic Policy Institute researchers Valerie Wilson and William Darity Jr., net productivity per work hour rose 69.6% between 1979 and 2019 while median wages for Blacks grew 5.2% compared to 20% for whites.

"Racial wage gaps also have widened amid the broader trend of growing wage inequality," Wilson and Darity wrote, "as black workers have reaped even fewer gains from increased aggregate productivity than white workers."

That's why unionization is an option more Black workers are embracing.

"Workers in the South face unique challenges tied to the legacy of racism that require a unique solution," said Eric Winston, a restaurant cook from Durham and a USSW member.

"We are building a union despite the fact that the rules are rigged against us as Southern workers. We are building a union by any means necessary and building it in a way that makes sense for us."

Support for programs providing direct cash would benefit families in need in Washington state, a new report showed.

About one in four Washingtonians struggle to meet their basic needs because of low income. The Washington State Budget and Policy Center analyzed two programs currently implemented in the state: the Working Families Tax Credit and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and guaranteed basic income, which is being piloted in some parts of the state.

Leila Reynolds, campaign communications manager for the Washington State Budget and Policy Center and the report's co-author, laid out principles to ensure the programs benefit the most people possible.

"Those principles include making sure that cash programs are targeted to people who most need it; that cash is recurring so that people can depend on it," Reynolds outlined. "Usually monthly; that it's unrestricted so that families can use it in whatever way they need."

The Working Families Tax Credit provides rebates up to $1,255 to low and middle income families. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program is a federal benefit administered by the state. The Growing Resilience in Tacoma program is one example of a guaranteed basic income program in the state. It received nearly $2 million from the state legislature in 2023.

Reynolds argued restrictions are holding the programs back, such as the 60 month limit for TANF and age restrictions on the Working Families Tax Credit, which keep young adults without children from benefiting. She noted the public benefits system addresses secondary needs like housing and food assistance but doesn't target the core issue of poverty, which is a lack of cash recipients could be used as needed.

"Research has shown that overwhelmingly recipients of cash transfer programs use that money for essential needs, like food, financial emergencies," Reynolds stressed. "We know that these programs work and we just want to make sure that they're expanded."

Reynolds also notes direct cash programs have ripple effects benefiting society.

"You see health impacts," Reynolds observed. "There's been research that's shown increase in brain activity in babies, improved maternal health outcomes, improved educational outcomes, reducing recidivism, improving employment outcomes."


get more stories like this via email

State officials in Maine said they are working to expand the number of registered apprenticeship programs to help counter a persistent worker shortage.

The state hopes to add 75,000 workers to the economy over the next five years by growing career pathways in clean energy, health care, and construction.

Joan Dolan, director of apprenticeship and strategic partnerships for the Maine Department of Labor, said the number of available programs has doubled over the past few years and all are currently full.

"There is huge interest and huge need," Dolan observed. "We've been working hard for years to expand our programming and it's really started to take hold and take off."

Dolan said 90% of apprentices who complete their programs are still working for their employer a year after graduation. Studies show they'll earn at least $300,000 more over their lifetimes compared to their peers.

The majority of apprentices in Maine are in the construction industry as federal dollars continue to boost the clean energy sector. The state has worked to recruit more women into the trade along with a growing number of new Mainers. Dolan pointed out even high schoolers are taking advantage, including in the town of Skowhegan, where a group of students is earning income and skills through electrical apprenticeships after class.

"We also have developed bank teller apprenticeship programs," Dolan explained. "There's banks right in the school, so the kids are getting high school graduation credit as well as earning a paycheck and learning a job skill."

Dolan stressed apprenticeships offer lucrative career pathways for students not interested in attending college or for the many rural students who simply cannot afford it. She added anyone can become an apprentice as long as they're at least 16 years old and are committed to furthering their education both in the classroom and on the job.


get more stories like this via email

Ohio is among the many states where a majority of workers lack access to paid family leave. A new report by Groundwork Ohio finds three in four Ohioans are employed in jobs without the possibility of paid family leave. This means many parents of young children face difficult choices between work and family. Even other conservative states, like Florida and Texas, have developed voluntary systems allowing private market benefits.

Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, said the need for policies that support families and their workforce participation has never been clearer.

"There is currently a mismatch in policy, and the desires of both policymakers and the people of Ohio, when it comes to both the needs of their young children and families and the workforce," she explained.

The report was supported by grant funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. While some people may take advantage of accrued vacation or short-term disability benefits, access to these options remains uneven. Nationwide, only about half of full-time employees have short-term disability benefits, and only one in five part-time employees.

The report also highlights the economic and developmental stakes for young children in families without paid leave. Research shows that nearly 23% of new mothers in the U.S. return to work within 10 days of giving birth, driven by financial need and limited options that support newborn care. Gutierrez stresses the impact on childhood development when families lack adequate support.

"We know that one in four children under the age of five across the state of Ohio live in poverty; they're among our most vulnerable. And so, the more support we can get to children and families in that unique period of time really sets a foundation for their lifelong success," she continued.

Ohio is one of 29 states without a state-administered paid family leave law, but public support for a national policy is high. The report says 94% of Democrats, 83% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans favor a federal paid family leave policy.


get more stories like this via email