Essential Workers

November 28, 2022 - The Union of Southern Service Workers is fusing labor and human rights organizing to secure livable wages, stronger safety protections, greater control over work schedules, and new respect for the African Americans and Latinos who make up the majority of its members.

January 12, 2022 - Over 80 cities, counties, and states will raise their minimum wage this year, thanks to the Fight for $15 movement. But only two of those jurisdictions are in the South. 

July 1, 2021 - Over 2 million adults — including over half a million essential workers — fall into the Medicaid coverage gap in states that have refused to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act, and most are people of color living in the South. Congressional Democrats from Georgia and Texas recently unveiled plans to work around GOP-controlled legislatures' refusal to authorize broader Medicaid coverage even when facing a deadly pandemic.

March 11, 2021 - We care for your parents, children, and homes. We should make enough to care for our own, too.

October 28, 2020 - As Election Day approaches, frontline workers and anti-poverty activists are encouraging eligible low-wage voters in the nation's poorest region to take part in this year's election in hopes of electing leaders who will support a living wage and respond to the needs of low-wealth communities.

September 8, 2020 - For months the official line has been that spread happens in the community, not in the plant. The numbers tell a different story.

August 13, 2020 - As Black people continue to be victimized by police brutality, they are also dying disproportionately from COVID-19. The common thread is racism.