New "Worker Justice Center" opens in Greensboro

More than a hundred show up for "Workers Speak Out" inaugural event

Workers in the Piedmont Triad have a great new resource for seeking and organizing for justice in the workplace, the brand new Central Carolina Worker Justice Center, in the Interactive Resource Center Building at 407 E. Washington Street in downtown Greensboro, and which held its soft-opening on Thursday, in time for the Labor Day holiday.

"The center is a place for low-wage workers to build the power they need to take collective action," says the CCWJC on its website.

The CCWJC is a place for the empowerment of all workers—workers of color, immigrant and refugee workers, union workers, youth workers, LGBTQ workers, and homeless workers—and will be a place where workers themselves are making decisions about the direction of the Center.

More than a hundred workers, organizers, and community supporters were joined by local reporters, elected officials, and speakers, including North Carolina State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer MaryBe McMillan.

"This is a center where they can come for help and training," MaryBe told Fox 8 WGHP. "Most of all, it's a place for working folks to come together and to organize so they can push for changes that would help working people  in this state."

“We want to help workers learn what their rights are and how to exercise those rights individually and collectively,” said Lisa Hubbard, community engagement coordinator for the Southern region of the AFL-CIO, to the Greensboro News & Record. “The worker center is the organizing framework for that.”

Community leader and former member of the City Council, Goldie Wells, told the Triad City Beat that, "the space has been envisioned for more than a year, and with feedback from hundreds of workers. It is a place where low-wage workers can build unity for collective action, she said, and is designed to be driven by workers themselves."

The center is a joint project of many local organizations, including Church World Services, the American Friends Service Committee, NC Raise Up, the North Carolina AFL-CIO, the Amalgamated Transit Union, Black Lives Matter, the Communication Workers of America, the Fund 4 Democratic Communities, the Greensboro YWCA and more, Wells said.

Attendees participated in a speak-out session about problems they’ve faced at work, what they would improve about their jobs, addressing unemployment and discrimination among other work-place issues.

Read coverage by the Greensboro News & Record: Susan Ladd: Workplace rights are focus of new Worker Justice Center.

Check out the article by Triad City Beat: PHOTOS: Central Carolina Worker Justice Center opens.

Watch coverage by Fox 8: Workers Justice Center opens in Greensboro.

Follow the CCWJC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolinaworkers.

Post photo of MaryBe McMillan talking to attendees at "Workers Speak Out", the grand opening event of the new Central Carolina Worker Justice Center taken by Triad City Beat (source).