On Thursday, the call for more unions rose from the heart of Little Haiti in Miami. Adjunct faculty, fast-food workers and community leaders gathered with U.S. Congressional candidates from districts 25, 26, and 27 to discuss why Florida needs unions.
“I have a family of six, but every year I make around just $14K. How do we survive? Thank God for food banks,” said Harold Silva, adjunct professor at Miami Dade College.
In the second town hall of a nationwide series, non-union workers gave heartfelt accounts of their struggle to raise families, pay bills, advance their education and simply survive while working for meager pay in oppressive working conditions. Their message, “Florida needs unions!”
Brad Beckman helped organize a union at Broward College, where he works as an adjunct, but he stressed that the fight for equity and respect continues.
“We need a voice in Congress,” he said.
Congressional candidates Demetries Andrew Grimes, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Mary Barzee Flores, Kristen Gonzalez, Donna Shalala, Michael Hepburn, and Matthew Haggman joined moderator Sandy Dorsainvil and panelists Laura Pierre and Dadley Joseph from the Fight for 15; Elizabeth Judd, a community leader and member of AFSCME; Harold Silva and Brad Beckman from Faculty Forward; and Gueldere Guerilus a member of SEIU Local 32BJ. The inspirational night was a beautiful display of the diversity, dedication, and strength of the labor movement.
View coverage from ABC.
To view the live stream, visit https://www.facebook.com/FightFor15FL/
