Jahmese Myres

Lead Large Scale Campaigns to Harness Collective Power and Not Be Tokenized: The Inside/Outside Game

Structural inequity holds people of color, women, and LGBTTQ workers disproportionately in low wage jobs. Puget Sound SAGE and EBASE's replicable wins utilized multi-pronged strategies to increase low-wage workers access to mid-wage careers and improve conditions of low wage work. Our panel will present and practice the inside/outside game ensuring authentic leadership, access to power and avoid tokenism of impacted workers and campaign staff of color. People of color and other disenfranchised people are not just “storytellers” but are providers of best solutions addressing racial inequity in our economy, politics and campaigns. As we work for our concrete wins, we have gathered successes and failures refining our transformative practice harnessing power and access for disenfranchised people impacted by our work. Our practice was developed by lead staff and worker leaders of color in our multi-sector Coalitions raising the floor of low-wage work and opening the door to mid-wage employment for structurally disenfranchised workers. Our Coalition work includes: Oakland’s 2014 Measure FF securing $12.25 minimum wage and paid sick days; Seattle’s 2014 $15 minimum wage victory; 2013 Yes! for SeaTac ballot winning $15 minimum wage for Airport workers 71% percent East African immigrants; 2012 landmark Oakland Army Base Good Jobs Policy providing pathways to mid-wage construction jobs for majority Black and Latino workers; EBASE’s Oakland United campaign fighting to win public benefits preventing displacement of East Oakland low-income communities of color; and, SAGE’s Equitable Transit Oriented Development project securing equitable and environmentally sustainable future for Seattle’s workers and communities of color.