Following a string of union victories at Amazon and Starbucks, a group of prominent progressive grant makers is seeking to put a total of $20 million into a coalition with organized labor that will steer funds to organizing and advocacy campaigns in the South.
A contentious battle to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., provided much of the impetus to create the new fund, says Jennifer Epps, executive director of the Labor Innovations for the 21st Century Fund (LIFT), a 10-year-old philanthropy-labor collaboration that will manage the effort.
