Our amazing Executive Director, Jeannette Huezo, recently facilitated a staff retreat for Greenroots, Inc. Greenroots is a environmental justice organization that works primarily in low-income immigrant communities in Chelsea, East Boston, and the greater Boston area.

We recently facilitated a “Closing the Racial Wealth Divide” workshop for the summer staff of three youth-serving environmental organizations: Youth Conservation Corps, Groundworks Somerville, and Hyde Park Green Team.

This is the first post in our new series highlighting work being done in the South. Folks down here have been fighting hard, reclaiming the word “y’all” one campaign at a time. We aim to highlight and share their efforts with you.

CLICK BELOW TO LEARN MORE!

"On Thursday, June 14, 2018, workers, community organizers, current union members and candidates for state and federal office met together in Durham to discuss the need to make it easier for workers to join together in strong unions...."

Announcing New Blog Series: “Stories of the South”

All over North Carolina and in other parts of the southern U.S., workers, activists, and organizers are teaming up to take down the nastiest anti-worker legislation, standing up to big corporations, and fighting for their rights, fairness, and dignity. The South has always faced unique challenges when it comes to organizing for a fair economy that works for all, but we’ve never given up.

The training lasted 4 days.  It was a gathering of souls committed to economic justice and beyond.

One participant said this about the training: "This experience allowed individuals who are out there, working very hard for social justice, to come to a space to find healing.  And not just individual healing, but collaborative and collective healing.  I think that is very important, I think we need that more."

On May 22nd, Raising Wages NC hosted a lobby day to raise our state's minimum wage.

The raising wages lobby day brought business owners and workers from across the state to Raleigh to talk to legislators about the need to raise the wage. Together they called for representatives to put North Carolina on the path to $15 an hour for all workers. Thanks to the efforts of organizers, faith leaders, advocates, and allies, over 300 people attended the lobby day.

Eight-thousand Methodist women leaders from around the country attended the United Methodist Women's national assembly.  There, UFE Popular Educator Riahl O'Malley co-facilitated the workshop, "Overworked and Undervalued: Gender, Race and the Economy," with our incredible executive director, Jeannette Huezo.

One week after US #TaxDay, the executive directors of Alianza Americas and United for a Fair Economy teamed up for a Facebook Live chat in Spanish.  They discussed who is paying taxes, how they're being spent, and what we can all do to hold our elected officials accountable to responsibly spending our hard-earned money.

As news of the complete devastation across the island of Puerto Rico is released, I find myself incessantly hitting refresh on my Internet browser. With each click, my emotions and tears overwhelm me. A deep feeling of desperation follows. This has become an unintentional daily ritual since “natural disaster" Hurricane Maria struck the island. 

I know I am not alone.

-Eroc Arroyo-Montano

UFE's popular education team held a series of successful workshops at the United Association for Labor Education's 2018 Conference.

UFE’s support for the Raising Wages NC coalition continues with a series of popular education trainings on wages.  Raising Wages NC and the Communication Workers of America (CWA) are partnering to train individuals and organizations to become popular education trainers in the CWA Runaway Inequality curriculum.  After completion participants become trainers themselves, able to run their own Runaway Inequality trainings.

United for a Fair Economy is sponsoring the launch of the Living Wage Network. The network is composed of living wage certification programs that recognize employers who pay a living wage, significantly impacting the lives of tens of thousands of low-wage workers across the country. Currently, seven of the network’s members actively certify employers in locations nationwide. Go to www.livingwagenetwork.org for a list of programs and their locations.