expression compassion through...
labor organization
In the Summer of 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, class consciousness and worker solidarity grew to become apparent in the face of employee-employer tensions. In my food service job, I served in a managerial and pivot role in communication between employers and employees. Worker safety was at risk, so I was urged to take a stand to de-escalate the rising tensions.
organizing
To de-escalate tensions, I brought together all the employees in a separate GroupMe group chat to allow them to vent out frustrations. As the leadership for the employees, it was my duty to take care of my community. As a result of the group chat, we were able to direct frustrations into a diplomatically written letter for our employers to read detailing some requests to ensure that we remain happy working. As a result of the letter, employees received a raise to serve as hazard pay, we established plexiglass for the store to protect our workers, and became more strict with COVID-19 precautions. This experience was a testament to my leadership journey. Handling a labor situation at the age of 19 was difficult emotionally due to how important money was during that point of the pandemic. The conflict was addressed professionally and I was able to employ empathetic listening skills because I was able to create psychological safety with my teammates while I served as the head shift leader.