Mission
Labor South: Center for Working Class Studies brings together students, workers, organizers, educators, and artists to strengthen the movement for racial and economic justice in the US South. Labor South engages academics and movement leaders to come together through local geographic hubs, as well as a virtual center and in-person training, for political education and labor studies and to build a career pipeline with working class young people.
Background
The US South faces enormous challenges to economic justice – from racial and class-based segregation, to right-to-work laws, to a lack of investment in education about the region’s history and people. The US South also has a long and rich history of individuals and groups that have organized their communities, families, places of faith, and workplaces. Working-class communities in the US South have generational knowledge of and experience with resistance to oppression.
There is a historic and current lack of investment in infrastructure to support the growing number of unions and worker organizations in the region. There has also been a lack of commitment by academic institutions to labor studies in the South. Through popular education, Labor South is increasing awareness and analysis of labor issues in order to improve racial and economic conditions in the US South.
Who We Are
Advisory Committee
Labor South: Center for Working Class Studies is governed by an Advisory Committee comprising labor leaders, worker organization representatives, students, artists, and university faculty and staff. The majority of the Advisory Committee members live and work in the US South. Its members include:
- Calvin Allen, MDC
- Melanie Barron, Communications Workers of America Union (CWA)
- Kelsey Coleman, Student Labor Youth Movement (SLYM)
- Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway, North Carolina State University
- Angeline Echeverría, National Domestic Workers Alliance
- Raúl Gámez, University of Michigan
- Robert Korstad, Duke University
- Steven Lownes, University of South Carolina Union
- Charles McKinney, Rhodes College
- David Neal, Southern Environmental Law Center
- Paul Ortiz, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR)
- Yadira Paz-Martinez, Student Action with Farmworkers alum
- Maria Perry, Perry Legal Services, PLLC
- Melanie Stratton Lopez, Northwestern Workplace Justice Lab
- Ben Wilkins, Union of Southern Service Workers
- Chris Kromm / Lekha Shupeck, Institute for Southern Studies
Organizational affiliation is for identification purposes only.
Leadership
Melinda Wiggins
Melinda Wiggins is originally from the Mississippi Delta, where her family still resides. She grew up in a segregated working class community and is the daughter and granddaughter of sharecroppers. Melinda was the first in her family to graduate from college. She studied political science and history at Millsaps College, where she began exploring the civil rights movement in the US South, was active with the anti-apartheid movement on campus, and worked with the MS PEER legislative committee helping to redraw district lines in the Mississippi Delta. Melinda moved to Durham, North Carolina to study at Duke Divinity School, where she focused on liberation and feminist theology.
Melinda got involved with Student Action with Farmworkers as an intern and served as the Program Director and then Executive Director. Through her nearly 30 years at SAF, Melinda led and supported efforts to create learning communities for young people interested in workers’ rights, facilitated community-labor alliances, built greater support for equity within the nonprofit sector, and educated philanthropy about the need to support agricultural workers in the South. In March 2012, she was honored by the Obama White House as a recipient of the “Cesar Chavez Champion of Change” award. Melinda helped initiate two key statewide coalitions in North Carolina–the Adelante Education Coalition and the Farmworker Advocacy Network—focused on immigrant and farmworker rights. She co-edited The Human Cost of Food, Farmworkers’ Lives, Labor, and Advocacy. While at SAF, Melinda was engaged with a number of community and worker organizing efforts, including Wake Forest School of Medicine Center for Worker Health; STITCH, a group that built solidarity between women workers in the US and in Central America; and Windcall Institute, a social justice residency program.
After transitioning from SAF, Melinda worked with the Labor Innovations for the 21st Center (LIFT) Fund as the Director of Strategy and Operations for three years. While at LIFT, she was able to connect with worker centers and labor unions throughout the US South and across the country. She was a part of LIFT’s launch of the Southern Workers Opportunity Fund and Imperial Valley grantmaking, the creation of grantee support programs that incorporated training, coaching, and rest, and the development of LIFT’s internal capacity, staffing, policies, fundraising, and financial management. She currently serves on the board of Migrant Clinicians Network and participates in the US Campaign to End Child Labor. Melinda continues to live in Durham with her partner Dave and cat Cocoa.
Collaborators
Labor South builds support for local geographic hubs of organizing where there are interested students, educators, workers, organizers, and allies around the US South. Labor South also brings individuals from the hubs together to network and collaborate.
Workers – Labor South focuses on low-wage workers, including agriculture, domestic, auto, construction, meat processing, health care, childcare, and fast food, which form the backbone of the Southern economic landscape.
Students – For the certificate program, Labor South engages working-class college students who are currently studying in the US South, recruiting a diverse pool of working-class students while prioritizing recruitment of Black and immigrant students.
Allies – Labor South harnesses a community of allies that can support current labor campaigns by providing workshops to inform and to engage them in the current labor struggles.
Educators – Labor South engages faculty, labor leaders, artists, movement elders, and workers in the US South who are committed to mentoring students, connecting students with local worker organizations, and facilitating workshops and other learning opportunities.
Partner Organizations – Labor South supports movement building through partnerships with worker centers, labor unions, and worker rights organizations that are based in the US South.
Fiscal Sponsor
Labor South is fiscally sponsored by The Institute for Southern Studies, a nonprofit research and media center that exposes injustice, strengthens democracy and builds a community for change in the South. Through Facing South and other research, education, and outreach programs, the Institute draws attention to key trends and issues in the South, the growing national importance of the region, and innovative work for lasting change.
Website designed by Alex Rodriguez.
Translations by tilde Language Justice Cooperative.
Photographs provided by the Union of Southern Service Workers, United Campus Workers, Holly Rainey, and members of Labor South’s Advisory Committee.