Nabretta Hardin (Starbucks Workers United), Dominic Harris (Southern Workers Assembly), Maxwell Nutter (Starbucks Workers United), Sekia Royall (Southern Workers Assembly), moderated by Mark Wilkerson (Southern Workers United)

A panel of workers organizing to build worker power in the South discuss recent victories, challenges, and hopes for the future. Come imagine a worker-run society with these powerful worker leaders organizing the way in the South!

Nabretta Hardin is a leader of Starbucks Workers United and one of the Memphis 7.  She began organizing a union at her store in Memphis, Tennessee, to address health and safety issues and ensure fair pay for herself and her coworkers. In February of this year, she was fired in retaliation for her organizing efforts. Today, Nabretta works to support and expand the organizing campaign at Starbucks stores across the US.  She is the proud daughter of two union parents and the granddaughter of a civil rights activist who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

Dominic Harris is the President of the Charlotte City Workers Union chapter of UE Local 150. He works as a Crew Chief for the Water department, where he keeps clean drinking water flowing to the city's residents. Dominic is on the Coordinating Committee of the Southern Workers Assembly, and key convener of the Charlotte Workers Assembly. Dominic also sits on the NC Medicare for All Coalition board and is a long-time advocate for single payer healthcare.

Maxwell Nutter is a Starbucks barista in Knoxville, TN. He and his partners organized the fourth Starbucks location to win their union vote in the Knoxville area, and are actively working on helping other partners and stores near them get started. His favorite hobbies include playing guitar, reading, and refurbishing old electronics.

Sekia Royall is a food service assistant at a state mental health facility in Goldsboro, NC. She is President of the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union UE Local 150 and on the Steering Committee of the Southern Workers Assembly. In her spare time, she runs a Kansas City-style Bar-B-Q truck (which is controversial in eastern NC!) called Premier BBQ.

Moderated by Mark Wilkerson. Mark brings over 31 years of experience relating to organized labor and for all those years he can say “I’m Proud to be Union." From the tobacco fields of VA to the cotton mills of NC, he has learned that there’s nothing more lethal than a group of workers who are bound together by trust and love for one another moving towards the same goal of justice and equality for all. Moving through the ranks from shop steward to organizing to Business Agent and now FL/ GA Director for SRJB Workers United/ SEIU, he thanks God to have the chance to improve someone’s life everyday.