This article introduces a four-part series, Defying the Odds: How Southern Workers Organize, a coproduction of NPQ and the LIFT Fund. In this series, authors share some compelling ways that workers are successfully organizing and why these efforts merit widespread support.

As social justice and philanthropic communities grapple with the many challenges of navigating the country’s political shift in their work, they can look for inspiration in the successful, innovative worker organizing gaining momentum in the South, as a new wave of organizing is underway.

This may be a surprising observation for some, given that the South has long been the epicenter in the United States of exploitative labor policies and poor working conditions, disproportionately affecting Black people and other workers of color. With more than half of the nation’s Black workforce living in the South and more than one in five Southern workers making less than $15 an hour, a two-tiered labor market exists that perpetuates the legacy of slavery and injustice in the modern economy.

But the times are changing. And that’s a good thing because if the dynamic in the South remains a race to the bottom on wages, working conditions, and worker power for all, visions of building an equitable United States will continue to escape us.

In the South…a new wave of organizing is underway.

There is no question that the region’s history of union busting and so-called right-to-work laws makes worker organizing difficult. The lack of investment by mainstream philanthropy, despite the South’s critical role in the national economy, makes it harder. But the South has also been a leading source for civil rights and social justice activism throughout US history.

The LIFT Fund is a collaborative effort that brings together philanthropy, labor, and worker centers to invest in worker power building in this region. Through our Southern Workers Opportunity (SWO) fund, in collaboration with the AFL-CIO, the Ford Foundation, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), we have committed more than $10 million in multiyear grants since 2022 to Black- and Brown-led worker organizations in the region. The goal of this initial investment is to catalyze a transformative process that can lift the life chances of millions of Americans.

Three Promising Approaches

Over the course of the four articles in this series, field leaders who are developing promising strategies share their stories, outlining their hard-earned victories as well as ongoing challenges.

In particular, this series focuses on three promising emerging strategies. The first involves building an ecosystem of support on behalf of workers to help sustain deeper statewide, regional, or sectoral relationships and to fill gaps in infrastructure.

How is this theoretical concept of an ecosystem implemented? Practically speaking, ecosystem building includes collaborations with central labor councils and unions, along with partnerships with state civic tables and worker organizing campaigns, that build the leadership capacity of Black and Brown workers.

In Alabama and Tennessee, communities are banding together to ensure that funding for clean energy benefits workers and local residents—not just corporate shareholders. In Alabama, for instance, Jobs to Move America is leading a campaign to ensure that there are two CBAs in every household: union contracts (collective bargaining agreements) that support workers in the workplace, and communitywide community benefits agreements that support workers overall.

The innovations in worker organizing emerging from the South are striking, particularly for their emphasis on community-driven solutions.

A second promising approach involves regional and sectoral worker organizing. In Louisiana, for example, workers are holding dollar store chains accountable for paying poverty wages and creating unsafe work environments. This community-driven campaign coordinated by Step Up Louisiana has already resulted in unprecedented shareholder action and OSHA settlements that led to significant safety improvements, such as better stocking practices and enhanced training.

A third promising approach focuses on advancing statewide coordination and collaboration that helps organizations exercise political power to move a pro-worker agenda. This includes organizing campaigns to move lawmakers on a wide range of community issues such as education and childcare and to make it easier for workers in the auto industry, manufacturing, meat packing, and other areas to join a union.

Consider the multiracial alliances in Georgia, shepherded by Georgia STAND-UP. This collaborative statewide base-building organization is breaking down barriers for marginalized workers and creating pathways to unionized jobs, affordable housing, and accessible transit.

What all of these efforts share is a focus on strengthening local organizing and fostering collaboration to provide a sustainable foundation for long-term labor movements that go beyond traditional models. The innovations in worker organizing emerging from the South are striking, particularly for their emphasis on community-driven solutions. They also demonstrate that when workers come together, they can challenge powerful corporate interests and reshape local economies.

The Need for Grassroots, Worker-Led Organizing

 The growth of all these promising efforts throughout the South demonstrates that investing in grassroots, worker-led organizing leads to stronger campaigns and more successful partnerships that have a better chance at changing systems. Of course, systemic change needs sustained support.

The South is a place of innovation and resistance, with lessons that could serve as a model for movements across the country.

Organizing is never easy. The movement building work in the South is happening in the face of deeply ingrained systemic racism, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant sentiment, and anti-Indigeneity that have been baked into culture and laws for generations.

Philanthropy, labor, and nonprofit supporters can ensure that Southern workers have the resources to keep pushing for economic justice in this challenging terrain. Investments can also create and support an essential pipeline of leaders who can organize workers and communities. Together, we can reinforce the idea and reality that the South is a place of innovation and resistance with lessons that could serve as a model for movements across the country.

By investing in these grassroots movements, funders, labor, and nonprofits can help create a new story for the South—one where workers have a strong voice, good jobs, and a real economic future. When we halt the race to the bottom in the South, we truly will improve the lives of people throughout the country.