When people recognize that they have a voice, they change.  That is what organizing is about—people realizing they have power together even though they’ve been told all their lives they don’t. Once that happens, people can take on challenges they never thought they could. That is what drives me today—what gets me up in the morning—knowing I get to motivate people to get into those moments.

— Veronica Mendez Moore

My parents—immigrants from Peru—came here in the late 1970s. I was the first in my family born here. I grew up in subsidized University of Minnesota student housing on Como Avenue. It was an international environment, full of immigrant families aspiring to middle class, going to college. We lived there while my dad attended college and grad school. There were two other Peruvian families living student housing.

My mother was a co-founder of Teatro Latino de Minnesota, the first Latino theater group in Minnesota. I grew up in the theater with her friends. All the shows they did were about the Latino immigrant identity, the experience of migrant workers, including Latinos who were not Mexican. Sometimes I had a child role in a play. It was a formative experience for me, thinking about the immigrant experience in Minnesota.

My parents were always lefties, but not real active. I’m not sure where they got their politics.  Everywhere in the world leans further left than the United States .

 

Complicated Identity 

I went to Marcy Open and then South High. — in their Liberal Arts program. The education I got, guided me toward progressive politics–not in an overtly political way, but in thinking and understanding racism.  I had some great teachers who taught us what was going on in the world.

At South I took a Chicano Studies class. Even though it wasn’t directly my experience, the assigned books and class material felt so welcoming — more at home than anything else I was reading.

I had a complicated identity. People would ask me, “Are you Black or are you mixed?” I would say “There are more options than that.”  I would tell people I was Peruvian. No-one had any idea what that was. I always felt in-between.   I didn’t understand that was how I was feeling, until I went to Chicago after college, where there were thousands of people just like me — children of immigrants who grew up in the United States. In Chicago I found an identity that made sense to me,

I grew up in a hippy-liberal white area of Minneapolis. I don’t remember being treated negatively, but I do remember being tokenized, though that is not how I would have expressed it back then. In AP classes with all white kids, a question would come up about race,. Everyone would look at me. I would be prepared.  I could say whatever I wanted. Sometimes I brought up a perspective that was different and useful, sometimes I’d cop-out and say “You guys don’t understand.”  Then people would leave me alone.

I graduated in 1997. Many of my South High cohort are doing exciting organizing in the Twin Cities.

 

Exploring Politics at University of Minnesota 

The University of Minnesota itself wasn’t novel to me. I had lived in the neighborhood my whole life. I still hung out with high school friends. But the material was eye-opening. I studied Political Science and Sociology.  Though I wasn’t very politically involved, I came to understand this concept of social justice–that the world wasn’t fair and people were fighting to change it.

My last semester–spring 2002–I got involved in the antiwar movement because it was the most visible thing for me. I quickly realized I didn’t like organizing students. Someone gave a presentation in my poli-sci class about the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute in Minneapolis. I went to their three-day training. While there, a Hotel Workers Union in Chicago offered me a trial job.

 

Union Organizing in Chicago

My first months in the union movement, I was pretty clueless.  I knew it was good to fight for people to get raises, and that people need a place to file a grievance and I was helping them do that. That was the depth of my understanding.

Eight months in, I was part of a campaign to organize hotel housekeepers around workload issues. They had a union and a contract, but their workload was too high. The demand was for thirteen rooms a shift, instead of fifteen. Meeting women in their homes, one on one; I started to see how much fear people had, even though they had a union. I also saw the toll of their workload. Women would make dinner, fall asleep, get up and work. They were exhausted from overwork.

The day we were ready to act, I was on the floor saying, “Let’s go.” Everyone was scared and shaking– but that changed as we got into the elevator. They pumped each other up, realizing they had power together. When we got off the elevator they were ready. They went into the housekeeping office, made their demand — and no-one got fired.

I went back and forth trying to figure out if labor was the place for me. Though I learned a ton about organizing, I did not have a great experience with the Chicago union. When I  left that job, I thought I was done.

But then I realized that labor is one of the few places where people have a ton of power that they don’t see. They are in a position to take big transformative risks, to fight face-to-face with the rich and win stuff. Labor struggles change people’s lives.

When people recognize that they have a voice, they change.  That is what organizing is about—people realizing they have power together even though they’ve been told all their lives they don’t. Once that happens, people can take on challenges they never thought they could. That is what drives me today — what gets me up in the morning—knowing I get to motivate people to get into those moments.

 

 

Worker’s Center in Minneapolis 

I began working with the Worker’s Interfaith Network, a coalition of unions and faith leaders from middle class White congregations, who wanted to start a Worker’s Center in Minneapolis. Merle Payne and I were hired to bring their vision to fruition.

At the Worker’s Center, workers could fill out a claim of abuse or wage theft.  Stealing wages had always been an issue, but the practice of sub-contracting and sub-sub-contracting had increased the problem. A 2014 study of major cities, found that two thirds of low wage workers, experienced wage theft in any week. 

Wage theft takes many forms. Sometimes it’s simple: employers don’t pay what they promised. Other times, a hotel doesn’t pay people to load their carts, or a manufacturing company tells temp workers to come in at 8am and they wait four unpaid hours because a machine is broken.

The Worker Center model we inherited was individualist and dis-empowering. People turned their problem over to an expert. We wanted to create a model where we brought people together, where people understood the problem isn’t them, it’s the system.

 

Creating a Organizing Model that Builds Worker Power 

When people tell each other their stories, they realize they are not at fault. We organized groups where workers could have conversations about how to build power and address their situations together. We incorporated an injury to one is an injury to all mentality into our work—building solidarity. When we’d take action against a boss, a sub-group might write a letter, and then we’d plan direct actions. We might go together and flyer outside the business, or do a delegation to the bosses office. We had a vision to be proactive, not just put out fires.

Once we got a group who understood we had a systemic problem, we were ready to create a membership organization. We wanted workers to run the organization—different from the non-profit model where middle class white folks run organizations to serve working class people. In 2010 we split amicably with the Interfaith Center and started Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha: CTUL (pronounced “say tool“).

 

CTUL–Retail Janitor Campaign 

We created a board made up of all low wage workers. We were looking for an industry where we could have the most impact, to start a proactive campaign. We picked retail janitorial workers. We spent six months researching the industry.

The retail janitorial industry had many cases of wage theft. Unions had disintegrated due to companies using multiple layers of subcontracting. Twenty years ago, workers made eleven dollars an hour. Now they were making seven. And there was a speed up. Two workers were doing the work of four people. Sexism was rampant.

Wealthy retail giants—Target,Best Buy, Cub Foods—used subcontractors as subterfuge, but we knew they were making the decisions. We decided we needed to go directly to the top.

We worked with SEIU, UFCW and UNITE HERE—unions most like our base—and community organizations like ISAIAH and Centro Campesino. We wanted to make sure that there were people and resources to support our work.

There was some tension with unions. Why weren’t we organizing a union—or working within their union? Over the last ten years, they have come to understand and support our model, but not right away.

We were told the industry was unorganizable. Historically, retail janitorial workers had lost unions, due to companies subcontracting. The subcontractors were bidding so low there was no way they could pay minimum wage. Wage theft was built into their business model. They had established elaborate schemes to steal wages from workers. One company had people working seven days. They were paid for 5 days, then received cash for the weekend. No overtime pay.

At first, we had two people on staff calling Cub Food to implement a code of conduct that would be in place no matter who they contracted. We became very visible. We had picket lines, one day strikes, and face-to- face meetings.

When we were getting ready for a second retail janitors strike, Target ignored us. We went to their shareholders meetings. Then they offered to meet with us. We brought four workers and a couple of people to interpret. One of the core leaders was Enrique. At the end of the meeting, I asked him how he felt . He said “At first I was scared, thinking—why would they listen to me? I’m just a janitor who doesn’t speak English and they are Target executives. Then I realized, the only reason these two men were talking to me is because I am powerful.”

We won many things.

• Sears committed not to work with sub-sub contractors.
• Target implemented a responsible contractor policy.
• We were able to shift the industry so that now wage theft is the anomaly.
• Workers won the right to at least one day off a week. Some workers had been working seven days a week for a decade!
• Subcontractors now have to have health and safety committees, half of whose members are workers. That is actually MN state law—but now it is enforced and expanded. We had seen many problems with people working unprotected from hazardous chemicals.
• Before, 25 contractors vied for the same contract. By highlighting the worst conditions, and eliminating the most egregious violators, we whittled the number down. Now there are four.
• We raised the wage across the industry a $1 an hour.
• There was a point along the way where the workers decided to organize a union. Partnering with SEIU they were successful. Many of those workers are still members of CTUL. They want to be part of the next big fight to put workers up against the 1%.
• Workers had the experience of sitting across from bosses, talking about the conditions they faced. And the bosses had to listen.

 

From Latinx to Multi-Racial Organization

At first CTUL was a Latinx organization. Merle and I both had relationships in the Latinx community and we both spoke Spanish. While working on the janitorial campaign, the demographics shifted. There were an increasing number of Somali workers in the janitorial industry. We  brought together workers who don’t share a language.

The moment we decided to intentionally become a multi-racial organization, is when the Fight for 15 movement was blowing up all over the country. We had an opportunity to get funding to do that work here and it felt right. It was a great opportunity to broaden our base. The majority of workers in the fast food industry leading that movement were African-American.

It has been exciting. We have had significant victories. Our leadership schools are now bringing together workers across language and race. This is  important work. I have heard Latinx workers say, “I have never had a conversation with a Black person before, and today I got to do that, and I realize how much we have in common.”

It is not easy work. The bosses use stereotypes to divide people. That is why this work is so important. We have a lot of room to grow.

 

The Fight for 15 campaign

We were told it wasn’t possible to pass $15 an hour in Minneapolis. They said, “It’s illegal, so let’s just focus on sick days.” We said, “That’s fine—sick days are important.” We fought for and won sick days, but we didn’t listen on $15. We said, “Laws can be changed. We can make that change and win it.”

We took action, brought workers into the streets, got the politicians’ attention. In 2018 all the Democratic candidates for governor were campaigning on $15 statewide. We have changed the narrative.

Now we’re working on enforcement system of $15 in Minneapolis. When enforcement is lax, people of color are the ones who fall through the cracks. They are the ones most likely to have bosses that don’t follow the law.

 

Next Steps

We never stopped the work we did at the beginning, taking on individual cases of wage theft. Through that work we have recovered $2.2 million—money going back into worker’s pockets.

There is still plenty of work to do. The construction industry is a mess. The amount of wage theft there is horrible. People work, knowing they will only make 80% of what they were promised. One out of five jobs won’t pay at all.

 

Coalition Work 

Our focus has always been on the workforce, but we are part of coalitions doing broader work. We participate in a committee fighting for immigrant rights  in the Twin Cities and statewide. What I think is exciting is that all of the groups who worked together in 2006 are united again.

After 2006, the work split into factions. People couldn’t get on the same page about ideology. There were personality conflicts. Part of the problem was people were trying to get on the same page, to agree to one vision, on strategy and tactics. Now I think people are realizing that is not possible or necessary. When you’ve got a coalition with socialist groups and mainstream church groups, and militant Latinx organizations, people need to agree to disagree. Together we can fight for people not to be killed and deported. In another venue, at another time we can fight about socialism.

We can each have our own priorities but work together. Right now we are at one table. That is exciting. Unfortunately it is because things are so dire. But we have also learned from the moment after 2006, how to stay working together.

I think the same thing happened with the Black Lives Matter movement in Mpls after 4th precinct occupation. People were traumatized and tired.  There is a resurgence now the Black Visions Collective. We worked very closely with them around the Super Bowl.  I am super excited to continue to work together.

 

Super Bowl

The mega-companies in Minnesota raised and spent millions of dollars on the Super Bowl—a corporate prom for their wealthy friends at the expense of people of color. That is not lost on us. These are the same corporations who said, “If we pay people $15, we will go out of business.” If they can pull together money for a party for the 1%, they can pay their workers living wages.

The Super Bowl committee brought in 10,000 volunteers. It was absurd—as though it was some noble cause!  It was clearly intentional to bring in White people from the suburbs who could afford to volunteer, so as not to have Minneapolis residents—Black and Brown people who need jobs, be the people who greeted the Super Bowl out-of-towners.

The race and class disparities were so clear. We had to shine a spotlight on it. We had a great coalition: Black Vision’s Collective, Baker’s Union, CTUL ,MN 350, St. Paul Federation of Teachers, came together to reveal the underbelly of this naked display of wealth and shameless profiteering at our expense.

We know that whenever there is an event like this there is wage theft. Fly-by-night operations come in to fill jobs, people work for ten days, the boss takes off, and workers don’t get paid. CTUL called on the Super Bowl host committee to raise a $500,000 bond, so if any workers experienced wage theft, their wages would be covered.

That did not happen. But we talked about wage theft, we talked about the militarization of our communities, bringing in law enforcement on this massive scale, to keep the residents of Minneapolis away from corporate party goers. The St. Paul Federation of Teachers focused on the school to prison pipeline. We used the opportunity to amplify a progressive agenda.

We called on the Chamber of Commerce to support a $15 wage in St. Paul and anti-wage theft legislation in Minneapolis. We said, “As a Super Bowl host, if you want to leave a legacy—don’t just leave a donation to a food shelf; create longstanding systemic change. During the Super Bowl, don’t let anyone experience wage theft, and make sure no Black or Brown people are over-policed.” The civil disobedience on the light rail, led by the Black Visions Collective, was amazing. We got through a media blackout and we created an awesome coalition. That work continues.

Before the Super Bowl, the coalition had a leadership school for members of our organization. For five solid days we trained in direct action, and how to be marshals. CTUL had 20-25 members participate. The learning that happened in that process was tremendous. It was a powerful week on many levels.

 

CTUL and My Next Steps

The things about this job is that it is never the same. It is always interesting pushing the envelope and expanding what is possible. I am not leaving anytime soon.

I want to always be helping develop organizations that are on the cutting edge, willing to take risks. That has been the one underlying value in the work. Doing work that other people tell us is impossible, and teaching people how to have imagination.

 

People of Color Need to Take up Space

CTUL bought a building. It has been really exciting to have home Before we  were in a church, paying next to nothing for rent. We needed to be in the community we were organizing. We wanted to have a home that symbolized how we wanted to work.

We have a giant meeting room because that is more important than having a room with a desk.  It has become a hub of organizing. Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia is renting space in our building. So is CANDO. The space itself is creating coalition and community.

 

Parenting and Organizing

My son was born in 2015. In April, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, my daughter was born.   I was worried about what I would do when I became a parent, but I found two things:
1. I have a different priorities now. I don’t waste time. I have created a sacred time when I put my son to bed and read to him , and I make it 90% of the time. That is critical.

2. I have such have tremendous community. People are always willing to help. My parents are retired and love spending time with their only grandchildren. My mom will make me dinner.  Our new building is family friendly with tons of toys and art supplies so it doesn’t need to be a burden to bring your kids. The big room allows kids to move.

 

Update 2020

In the time of Covid-19 protecting and expanding workers rights is more important than ever. Our demands on International Worker’s Day, May 1, represent the agenda for 2020.