How the Amy's Kitchen Boycott Worked, and What It Might Mean for Other Labor Organizers

In the absence of an official union, workers at an Amazon air hub formed an organizing committee to advocate for better conditions, circulating petitions and staging walk-outs to protest low pay and unsafe heat levels. The workers succeeded in persuading the company to change its policy around unpaid holiday closures and have also won incremental wage increases and improved heat protections.

Siragugal Bricks is a community-owned brick kiln operated by rescued bonded laborers, aiming to rehabilitate and empower them to explore business endeavors and find more sustainable, safer sources of income. Since April 2022, 100 families have worked for Siragugal and local government organizations have helped obtain funding and supplies to facilitate Siragugal’s operations, such as power supplies, a work shed and a borehole for water.

In what is being called the most historic tentative agreement for workers in the company’s history, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters came to an agreement with UPS over contract negotiations. This agreement is serving as evidence of the efficacy of unions and how they can work to achieve better working conditions, benefits and increased wages.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers developed a framework called the worker-driven social responsibility paradigm, which is designed to help protect migrant employees who often don't have the right to unionize but are vulnerable to workplace manipulation and abuse due to their immigration status. The paradigm targets the supply chain, using legal agreements to require that migrant workers have a direct say in designing and enforcing workplace protections, and the model has been implemented in initiatives such as the Fair Food Program and the Milk With Dignity Program.

After enduring unfair working conditions, an organizing committee at a Starbucks in Tennessee, later dubbed the Memphis Seven, became the first of the state to attempt, and succeed, to unionize with help from Starbucks Workers United. Their work inspired a nationwide movement, and now over 250 Starbucks are unionized.

Honor the Earth is an anti-data center coalition monitoring the construction of hyperscale data centers in or near indigenous land. Through their efforts, town halls, doorknocking, attending tribal council meetings and more, they’ve formed a community with people in agriculture and beyond, working to push back against data center construction and enact protections for communities. As a result of their efforts, the Tulsa City Council signed a 9-month moratorium on data centers, and the Seminole Nation also unanimously passed its own moratorium.

Residents of Montour County, Pennsylvania rallied opposition against a proposed data center by gathering information about the project through public records requests, showing up to board meetings and hearings in the hundreds, making T-shirts and signs with protest messages, and circulating a petition that garnered more signatures than the number of people that voted there in the 2024 election. County commissioners ultimately voted against rezoning land to let the proposal move forward, but the company behind it is still pursuing potential sites elsewhere in the area.

In one Baltimore neighborhood, residents have organized a grassroots network geared toward protecting the community from ICE raids. Through a Signal group, they communicate about ICE sightings, organize check-ins with neighbors, and help get each other connected with trainings from local organizations focused on protecting immigrant communities.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) formed the first worker-driven social responsibility program in 1993, and since then they’ve advocated across industries for corporate social responsibility and preventing worker exploitation. The CIW also created the Fair Food Program which has helped add more than $45 million to farm workers’ paychecks.

Local activists are joining together to protest the potential closure of Southwest Memorial Hospital’s birthing center, advocating and organizing to ensure the hospital stays open and locals can access the care they need in rural areas.