By Felix Ortiz , Community Health Navigator, and Nicholas Domberg, Worker Protection Organizer for Warehouse Workers for Justice and members of the Illinois Food Alliance SoPL team.
The Illinois Food Alliance team is made up of organizers at Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ), a worker center fighting for good living-wage jobs in Illinois’ warehouse and transportation industry. We decided to apply for SoPL because our organization recently implemented a food justice program, and we wanted our staff to have the best resources possible to tackle the inequities baked into the food supply chain.
Through this program Warehouse Workers for Justice aims to improve the workplace conditions food workers face throughout the supply chain through political organizing and education. As a worker center we are both committed to learning and bringing our own extensive knowledge on worker’s rights to this space to fight for food equity.
What brought us to SoPL? Why did we choose to apply?
“Nothing Moves Without Us!” This statement means that communities and workers truly do hold power. The labor of those in the logistics industry literally makes our economy possible. Warehouse Workers for Justice recently began a food justice program. We want our staff to have the best resources possible to tackle the inequities baked into the food supply chain.
What is our vision for yourself, our team and for the cohort as a whole? How will SoPL help us get there?
Our team’s vision is to empower workers across the food supply chain through organizing and fair food policy. The SoPL cohort brings together a diverse group of leaders across the country to advocate for community based food systems and food justice. Through this program Warehouse Workers for Justice aims to improve the workplace conditions food workers face throughout the supply chain through political organizing and education. As a worker center we are both committed to learning and bringing our own extensive knowledge on worker’s rights to this space to fight for food equity.
What we learned in the session: The One-On-One Meeting
Session 4 focused heavily on one-on-one meetings with individuals relevant to our campaigns. The art of the one-on-one meeting is an essential part of organizing and engaging one’s base. While every organizing conversation varies, there are important steps involved with a successful one-on-one. Practicing these steps in mock conversations is a valuable exercise to improve one’s comfort when engaging a community member.
The steps to facilitating an effective one-on-one
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- Research. We discussed how important researching is as a preparatory step. Knowledge about the targeted community, workplace or politician is needed to ground yourself and set up an informed dialogue.
- Structure. The key to a successful conversation between an organizer and community member involves including introductions, good listening, agitation, a commitment, and follow up.
- Long-term strategy. Campaigns often require long term efforts, months or even years. Important short term goals are sometimes needed to flesh out the path to the main goal. The power mapping training helped us identify short term goals to further advance our long term strategy.
Strong relationships are critical to the work we do as organizers — here are some relationship and community-building practices we took away from this session
The art of the one on one meeting is an essential part of organizing and engaging one’s base. Session 4 focused heavily on one-on-one meetings with individuals relevant to our campaigns. While every organizing conversation varies, there are important steps involved with a successful one-on-one. Practicing these steps in mock conversations is a valuable exercise to improve one’s comfort when engaging a community member. We discussed how important researching is as a preparatory step. Knowledge about the targeted community, workplace or politician is needed to ground yourself and set up an informed dialogue. The key to a successful conversation between an organizer and community member involves these several core elements including introductions, good listening, agitation, a commitment and follow up.
How did these learnings resonate with our team’s campaign?
Campaigns often require long term efforts, months or even years. Important short term goals are sometimes needed to flesh out the path to the main goal. The power mapping training helped us identify short term goals to further advance our long term strategy.
How does it connect to our larger work?
Our campaign is centered around addressing the food inequities workers face throughout the logistics and food supply chain industries . Many of our front line workers who help produce and distribute our food oftentimes cannot afford to purchase the very same food they handle. Meanwhile, many of the corporations that employ these workers are making record profits. Our aim is to organize workers to fight for better paying jobs and engage the community to fight for more accessible food.
Nothing moves without us
WWJ’s slogan — nothing moves without us — communicates that communities are workers that truly hold power, and that the labor of logistics employees literally make the economy possible. Our team’s vision is to empower workers across the food supply chain through organizing and fair food policy.
Our expectations from the next few months of SoPL
By the end of SoPL our goal is to use the extensive knowledge and training we have received from this program to start our roadmap to addressing the food inequities our workers face within our community. With these newfound strategies we will be prepared to push for extensive community outreach through surveys, worker one-on-ones, and coalition building. As community based organizers we are excited to partake in the fight for food justice.
Felix works as a Community Health Navigator on behalf of Warehouse Workers for Justice. He is the son of an immigrant worker who came to the U.S. seeking better opportunities for their family. As a member of his community, he has fought to advocate for better workplace standards in the logistics industry. Felix believes public safety, good jobs, and fair access to food resources are all essential to creating a more equitable and sustainable union.
Nicholas is a Worker Protection Organizer for Warehouse Workers for Justice. Nicholas and his team are dedicated to protecting workers and improving the logistics and manufacturing industries. They know that food workers are essential workers. Having worked in warehouses and factories, Nicholas knows first hand that these essential workers are often treated like second class citizens. He believes that we need to overhaul the perception of food industry workers and improve safety standards and wages.