by Sheila Payne Alachua County Labor Coalition
The Alachua County Labor Coalition (ACLC) has been working with Fight for 15 Florida to visit with and sign up fast food workers in Alachua County the last 2 months in addition to the ACLC Living Wage Campaign. We need folks willing to join us in both of these campaigns. The fast food workers are very eager to learn that Fight for 15 has come to their community, and we have visited over 50 fast-food restaurants locally with the Fight for 15 state-wide organizers providing the initial training.
We had a well-attended meeting in September where about a dozen fast-food, child-care and health care workers from the Tampa/St. Pete area joined twenty labor coalition and local community members to provide testimony about the gains they have made there in the Fight for 15. They spoke of one-day strikes, fighting for better pay, for better working conditions and being treated with dignity and as a valued employee.