[GALLERY] Durham Frontline Workers, Community ‘Strike For Black Lives’ Downtown
Durham, NC – Several hundred local frontline workers and supporters took to the streets today (July 20) in a Strike for Black Lives, demanding corporations and government take action to confront systemic racism in our society, economy, and workplaces that are holding back Black and brown communities. The workers in Durham joined tens of thousands in more than 25 cities nationwide for protests and strikes.
In Durham, NC Raise Up/Fight for $15 and a Union brought essential frontline workers and the community together for a day of action that included a socially distanced strike line around McDonald’s on Morgan Street, a march and a rally at CCB Plaza featuring speeches from activist leaders on the frontlines of the fight for racial and economic justice.
Strike for Black Lives (Photos: Lawrence Davis)
Background: NATIONWIDE DAY OF ACTION
Nationwide, frontline workers including fast-food, nursing home and janitorial workers will go on strike July 20. They will be joined by thousands more who will walk off their jobs for eight minutes, 46 seconds to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and other Black people killed by police and demand an end to the systemic racism that led to their murders and that also exists in our workplaces. Across the country, youth and climate activists will join in the actions to show the intersectionality of the fights for justice.
Strikes and protests will also take place in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Hartford, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Martinsville, New York, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, St. Paul, Stamford, Toledo, Yakima and more.
A growing list of major national labor organizations, including the Service Employees International Union, Amalgamated Transit Union, American Federation of Teachers, Communications Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, National Domestic Workers Alliance, United Food and Commercial Workers, United Farm Workers and the Fight for $15 and a Union will join forces with leading racial and social justice groups like the Movement for Black Lives, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, March On, Future Coalition, U.S. Youth Climate Strike Coalition, Center for Popular Democracy, Googlers Against Racism, Jobs with Justice and One Fair Wage to take action from coast to coast. A full list of organizations participating in the Strike for Black Lives is available here.
For more information visit J20STRIKEFORBLACKLIVES.ORG.