Dana El-Kurd

Oh, boy.

Yeah, so I'm going to ask all of you to put a little pin in a city that is technically across the state border from another city, but you just drive over a bridge and you're there.

Let's go talk about some strike shit.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so I guess to start, can we talk about how organizing kind of first started at Real Eola Charles's?

Yes.

It first started because they hired me, Mia.

They hired me.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been enchanted with the idea of a workers' union and people working together to make their conditions better.

It is something that I have had to learn and practice on my own because I didn't know about the IWW.

It's a thing that I was trying to do before I moved out here.

And then this opportunity just drops into my lap.

And it's queer people.

And we're working on queer people.

I've got goosebumps.

It's not because I'm cold.

And how could I, in good conscience, just let that opportunity go?

Yeah, Jackie Mae is very much the motive force behind us getting our shit together and unionizing.

I remember from the time that I started, Jackie Mae was talking about having a goal to unionize the shop.

We weren't expecting it to be on such a quick timeline, but I was really excited to have somebody else who was into doing this because I've always been a hardcore leftist and an extreme socialist, communist, I don't know, whatever label you want to put on me.