Welcome to Working History. I'm your co-host Olivia Passel. On this week's episode of the podcast, I spoke with Maria Harmon, the co-founder and co-director of Step Up Louisiana, a grassroots membership-based organization that advocates for economic and education justice in the state. Step Up has been organizing working-class Louisianans in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Parish.
Right now, they're in the closing stages of the Fall for Liberation campaign, for which they've trained organizers to knock thousands of doors across the state on a variety of issues, including New Orleans' First Ever Workers' Bill of Rights. Maria, who is from Lake Charles, has been organizing in Louisiana since she was 16 years old. Maria, welcome to the show, and thank you for being on Working History. Thank you.
I'm glad to be here. So I thought we'd start the conversation with you just telling us a little bit about Step Up Louisiana and what the organization are and your involvement with it. Yes, I'm one of the co-founders and co-directors of Step Up Louisiana. My organizing partner, Ben Zucker, and I started a meeting in November of 2016.
And around that time, I had just got laid off from a previous organizing job, and his contact with Biker 15 was coming to a close. And so he called me at a very opportune time. At the moment, I was actually looking into starting an organization of my own that was centered around education justice, community organizing. And he had a vision of organizing around labor rights and economic justice organizing.
And that really did pique my interest because my dad grew up fighting for rights in his own job and also being a union worker himself. It really resonated with me with that cause. And I actually seen an opportunity in us marrying ideas together. And that ultimately resulted in us founding Step Up Louisiana in February of 2017.
We were connected to folks in New York with the Center for Public Democracy. And they did a tremendous job of incubating our organization, helping us grow legs and helping us with capacity and able to hire staff and grow our organization and being able to not only reach people in New Orleans, but also in Baton Rouge and Jefferson Parish. So it has definitely been an amazing journey. I'm really appreciative of our national partners who really wanted to see us win, like Center for Public Democracy, Journal for Justice Alliance.
Those organizations were very involved with the early beginnings of Step Up Louisiana. And we first got started in New Orleans. That is where our headquarters and home base is. And in 2019, we expanded to Baton Rouge.
And in 2022, we launched our Jefferson Parish chapter. And now we have a little under 500 members across all three geographies. And we've been around for about seven years now. And these seven years have definitely been attested into the power that we've been able to build as an organization, the amount of leaders we've been able to help develop with their own organizing skills, and just people getting fired up about good jobs, good schools, and healthy environments.
Yeah, can you tell us about some of your earlier campaigns and what kind of wins you all have had, what kind of books you've taken on? Yes, I love telling the story, especially with how we came to develop our FreePoint Economic Justice Platform back in 2017. Again, as I mentioned, we first started in New Orleans. So what we did is we surveyed over 140 workers and community members throughout New Orleans to determine what three issue areas are most attainable or most desired from people in the area that they would like to see change.
And we had a list of at least eight different topics. But the top three that were picked on the survey that we did was $15 minimum wage. The second topic was equal pay for women and for doing the same work as men, and then also banning the box or fair chance hiring for those who are formerly incarcerated. And that really started a wave of grassroots organizing for us.
Many people said this platform makes sense. We need this. This is the time to get it. And I'm very proud to say that all three of those things have been accomplished locally in New Orleans.
We were able to get workers that are contracted with the city and work for the city of New Orleans having a minimum wage of maybe $15 an hour. We were able to establish a commission with the city council in New Orleans and able to do research that determines a more fleshed out explained vision and data that explains the disparities between men and women and pay wage gaps. And also, we did pass a policy with the New Orleans City Council. It was at least two years ago we got this accomplished with a fair chance in hiring and removing that question, have you been convicted or arrested from job applications with the city of New Orleans.
And these things are, at the very beginning, I didn't know if they were attainable or not, but I knew that we could at least try and see and at least build power and see when you're community buying for this and build a coalition of stakeholders that can help us see this through. And we actually did that. And it feels good and so rewarding to see how that work has progressed for us. And now we're at a point in New Orleans where I feel like it's very historic that we're now at a point of establishing a workers' bill of rights for workers in New Orleans.
And this ballot measure is going to be on the ballot for November 5th. And we've gotten so much support. The Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee, Top Deck, endorsed this. A lot of labor unions have endorsed our workers' bill of rights.
So that really speaks to the relationships that we've been able to build with folks from all the different sectors of economic justice, but also it speaks to the reputation that we've been able to build over the past seven years. And I'm immensely grateful and proud about our accomplishments so far. That brings us to kind of what I wanted to mostly talk to you about today, which is the Fall of Liberation and some of the electoral organizing that y'all have been doing. Yes.
Fall for Liberation, I would say, is an opportunity for us to continue the legacy of fighting for freedom that many of our ancestors and predecessors have been in the long haul with the legacy for civil rights and justice. This is really inspired by the Freedom Summer movement during the civil rights movement and how it's married through that. We did a past wide net of recruiting people to get involved with our organizer and training program between New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Parish. We hired about 50 organizers in training.
And this is, I would say, a continuation and legacy with what was accomplished with Freedom Summer, where they had hundreds of students, from up north come down south to Mississippi, and helping to engage with voters about the elections and helping people to understand that their rights and that they have a right to be able to exercise their civic participation in voting. And that's essentially what we're doing now, is we have our 50 organizers in training where they're learning about the dynamics of organizing, and they're also recruiting people. Each of them are tasked with recruiting 15 people to recruit community ambassadors while they're learning how to organize themselves and also getting them activated. What we use now is a lot of technology that helps us with our outreach and organizing.
So we have this thing called the Empower app that all of our organizers in training were trained on downloading themselves, but also when they recruit their community ambassadors, they have them download this app as well. And this is a great tool for people to engage with one another, let people know about the upcoming elections, give them information about important dates to remember when's the deadline to register to vote, or what are the dates for early voting. All of this helps us to amplify our level of engagement at a higher level, and to see the amount of numbers that we've been able to garner, whether it's knocking on doors, having one-on-ones, or just recruiting people to be in the movement as community ambassadors has just been extremely inspiring, and I'm just immensely grateful. So folks are out and they're turning out votes for the ballot measure, or for candidates, or both?
Everything, because again, it's not just New Orleans, but also Jefferson Parish and Baton Rouge, as well. So we're turning out people for the presidential election, we're turning out people for different congressional races that are happening, like in Baton Rouge, we got the Congressional District 6 race, New Orleans is the Congressional District 2 race, and I will say that this Congressional District 6 race is very different. There was an outcome out of the redistricting process where Louisiana was able to garner another Congressional district that is majority-minority, where the outcome of this race will very well be a person of color, and I think that speaks to the grassroots organizing work that we've been doing over the years after the census came out, and I'm really excited to see the outcome of this race as well because of that. And another race that we have locally in Baton Rouge is the East Baton Rouge Parish Constable race, and also Metro Council races.
They have a mayor's race as well, and we have a full ballot there. Of course in New Orleans, we have the ballot measure, and also local school board races are on the ballot. And in Jefferson Parish, their main race is the Congressional race, but also there's a couple of ballot measures on there too. One is actually looking at changing the classification of certain workers that work for the parents of Jefferson Parish, and they could have, if this ballot measure passes, the classified workers would actually be classified as unclassified, but that could be very problematic because it makes them susceptible to be offended, easier on fire.
And honestly, the morality of changing someone's employment status on that level, I think, could lead to bigger problems, especially when you look at the rights of workers being infringed on. I think it makes room for more vulnerability to happen, but we are educating our base about the impact of that ballot measure as well. We are knowledgeable that AFL-CIO actually put out an endorsement of no for that ballot measure, so that definitely gives us something to consider and educate our base about as well. When your folks are going through the door, organizing, talking to other people in the community, what is the pitch that you're making about this candidate or these races are important for working people in Louisiana?
Yes, we tell people that all these issues are actually connected. There's a lot of intersectionality between the quality of schools to getting a payment for better opportunities for income with people being paid what they're worth, also extenuating to where people can live and their proximity to certain plant companies and their exposure to pollution. All of these things are interconnected in various ways, and we help people to realize that for themselves by just having critical conversations. We ask people probing questions about how do they feel about their community, how do they feel about the quality of housing and jobs and schools in their area, and also just their quality of life in regards to pollution, you know, and climate, and how do they feel about all of these different natural disasters impacting their everyday lives in some cases.
And it's been very eye-opening for many people that we've engaged with on that level, because they say, I didn't think that, you know, my public service commissioner could make decisions regarding, like, our broadband or the type of energy we can produce here, or I didn't know the school board makes all these decisions on things impacting, you know, my local school area. So it's been very, very inspiring, to say the least. There are some points where it gets a bit challenging, you know, with engaging with some folks who are just apathetic to many things, but I think getting that nail on the head for many people where it isn't personal for them, and they start to see their own lives or their own story within the narrative, I think that is a big shifting piece to get people to move from where they were initially. And those local races are so, or like, ballot measures or electoral races can have so much impact that people may not even be aware that they're having.
That's right. So you mentioned that you kind of had come into this work from climate organizing and a background in climate organizing. How do you see climate organizing and kind of this economic justice work and labor work tying together? I honestly see that through the type of jobs that can be afforded for people.
Like, it automatically makes me think of, like, my dad's experience when he was working at a plant in Lee Charles and they got bought out by another company. This company was actually trying to change things around as far as the level of pay that workers were getting, the type of benefits, like health care benefits they were actually trying to take away. This actually led to my dad and other workers who were with the union going on strike. And they went on strike for like six months.
And there was a lot of negotiation that happened around that time. But the good result of it is that once the strike ended, they were able to maintain a level of dignity in how workers were paid. And then also they were able to maintain a level of care with health care benefits and other supports in a benefit package for workers that work there. So that's just one example of how I can see the two can intersect.
Those are key questions we ask people who do happen to work for different companies in our areas. Like, how are you treated as a worker? Because many times people operate from a place of fear and they're scared to do anything that could put them in a position of losing their job because that's their livelihood and income. But also it cycles the voice of people actually saying, well, this is going on, but maybe we should think about things differently.
And I think making safe spaces for people to come together and unpack these issues, I think it would help in that sense of like the intersection between labor organizing and also climate justice. The other piece to that too is sources to find ways of renewable energy, because those are opportunities that we can afford. Good paying, high quality jobs, but also I think this would impact the school system as well because the curriculum we provide for students to learn, especially with STEM technology and how they can contribute to renewable energy and future jobs, we have to cultivate a base of people to be able to be employed to all these jobs. Yeah.
One thing that you keep coming back to that I think is not always kind of centered in labor or economic justice conversations is this issue of education and schools. And you mentioned that that's an issue that kind of filtered up, I think, from the community survey that you did. Am I remembering that right? Well, it came up, well, the survey that we did in 2017 mainly touched on equal pay for women, $15,000 women wage, and then fair chance for hiring.
But what we've been able to do is connect everything together for people to realize that if you don't have a good quality education, it could lead you to be employed or have less opportunities for gainful employment in certain places. And I think that's the case, but it's unfortunately the reality. Yeah. And is that something that folks have been kind of coming together around more in the time that you've been organizing this type of?
Yeah. We have a well-rounded base of folks who are heavily passionate about economic justice and education justice. For our economic justice folks, we have an organizing committee called the EJC, which stands for Economic Justice Committee. And then for our education side, we have a peer union, which is by the name of our organizing committee for that.
And we have been able to team up together in targeting like a certain entity or common interest of us, because many times we have much of our opposition comes from the same people, which would be no surprise because the issues are very connected. But there is the plight of privatization around our schools, which has heavily impacted the teaching profession. And that is a workers' issue as well because teachers are employees. And what we've seen in New Orleans with the mass takeover of charter schools, we've seen the teachers' union get busted up immensely.
But they've been recovering since then, garnering contracts at certain school sites for the teachers to have a right to collectively bargain. But charter schools themselves are naturally anti-union. They don't want to have any type of labor organizing going on. And that in itself is extremely challenging.
But to see that the teachers' union in New Orleans has been able to recover and how it has is extremely impressive, to say the least, because this is a very difficult terrain to organize under. And also, you have to look at how parents are impacted as well, because many of them are working maybe two or three jobs to keep their households afloat. And that has impacted how they can engage at their school, how active they can be as a parent leader for their child in school. So this is how I've seen the two actually connect and have some type of intersection over the past few years as we've been organizing at that book.
You mentioned that it's often the same folks that you're coming up against or having to push against, or maybe we're coming at you. Who are some of those groups or people? Mainly the business community, to be honest. Whenever I see either the Van Rooge Area Chamber of Commerce or the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, I get a little nervous, including Jefferson Parish's Chamber of Commerce.
I get nervous, especially in the education justice spaces, because I know that there's probably going to be some privatization or there's going to be some school closures. Like last year in Jefferson Parish, the Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce proposed a plan called an Efficiency Facilities Plan. And what they did is they targeted schools that they felt were not being utilized as 100% of the building. They're looking at the school of Romans, but completely dismissing the performance of the school.
And we had at least five schools get closed because of them not having a level of enrollment that they desired, even though the schools were higher performing, like a B-level school or an A school for that matter. And to see those kids get impacted in such a way was heartbreaking. To see the parents be upset and dealing with that inconvenience of transitions and changes impacting their children, it was hard to watch. But on the other hand, because of the school consolidations, it did cause the school district to save some money, and they were able to do a one-time stipend for the teachers.
Though this was a benefit for the teachers, in a sense, it wasn't a thing with rates. It was a one-time stipend. And I have a feeling, and we're going to be there to support the teachers in this, of course, but we're going to be back at the drawing board of the school board to revisit that conversation about compensation and pay and having an increase in wages that's sustainable for people to live their lives. Again, the Chamber of Commerce here is showing up in these education spaces, but they're also showing up in the labor spaces as well, being a constant adversary as far as increasing pay or benefits for workers.
It's always them showing up trying to pass it out or speak down on our initiatives that makes things better for workers, everyday people. Another common interest is lobby. They're the Louisiana business industry lobbyist group, and we've had them on our radio for years. Another entity is, I would say Lund Grisby.
I'm like, I would really name people. But he is an adversary, a common adversary, because he's the person that they like to call like a key maker, if that makes sense, because he's funneling money into different campaigns. And many of these people that get elected and have been supported by him, they tend to push policies. They'll harm the work that we're doing.
So if that makes sense, these are just a few entities and folks that have constantly made some of our work challenging, if that makes sense. And as you look towards the election, what do you hope for working people after the election and looking down the line the next two or four years, what do you see that y'all will be working on and what hopes do you have? Yes, so what we're looking forward with this election is an increase in voter turnout. Our voter turnout rate has been very low in the past few election seasons.
And so our hope is with this program that we're doing now with All for Liberation, that we're inspiring enough people and mobilizing enough people to turn out in so many numbers that our opposition can't pull any type of games on us. And we're hopeful that this Workers' Field of Rights, a valid measure, is successful. We've gotten a lot of support, even from some business owners who support our Workers' Field of Rights. And that in itself, it speaks to how everybody wins when workers win, right?
Everyday people win in that regard. And we want to see an improvement in our own quality of lives, where we don't have to stress about what will happen to my employment if I have to take off from work because I'm sick or my family member is sick and I can take care of them. We don't have to worry about people stressing about making ends meet every month because they're living paycheck to paycheck. We want to be able to afford an environment for our communities to thrive, where we start to see a decrease in crime because we actually have opportunities for use and everyone to improve their own lives or actually serve a purpose for their lives.
All of these things are very attainable. We just have to mobilize ourselves and organize ourselves to get there. What I've seen in the next two years for us, or two to four years, is a major mayoral race happening in New Orleans next year in City Council. We're going through those changes in Baton Rouge now.
But I'm excited for next year in New Orleans because there's a change that's coming in leadership, which you want to make or see in. And then there's also, we may see some new faces serving on this new City Council next year. But I just hope that we're impactful. We have the ears of people who do gain elected office and we're able to switch forward with the changes we need to make.
I'm hopeful that we actually have an implementation committee next year in regards to the Workers' Bill of Rights because we won this election in South Denver. I'm really hoping to bring back. But if it fails, I mean, we're back at the drawing board and we're trying again. We just can't give up.
We have to keep pushing. That's great. Thank you so much, Maria, for being on the show. It was really good to hear about your work.
Thank you. I appreciate you. Thanks for listening to Working History, a podcast on the New Books Network channel, New Books in the American South. Email us at workinghistorypodcast at gmail.com and find us on Twitter at Working History.
Working History is a production of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more and become a member at www.southernlaborstudies.org. Thanks for listening.