Black women have a long history of organizing and advocating within labor unions. Nannie Helen Burroughs was a suffragist and an educator and in 1921 she helped form the National Association of Wage Earners, the first labor union for Black people in America. And now we have you, you’re living Black history.  How long have you worked at Whole Foods?

I have been working at Whole Foods for about six months now, since August.

You’ve only been there for six months—you’re not Mase or Ed, who have been putting in a lot more time. You could have just quit and walked away. But at the same time, it’s important to remember that quitting a job is a luxury not everyone has. Not everyone can just up and leave and immediately find new work—especially in towns where these warehouses and grocery stores are the main employers. Can you talk about your decision to keep working at Whole Foods and stand with your coworkers instead of ignoring the fight?

I've always loved Whole Foods—even as a young kid. I grew up right up the street from this specific Whole Foods, right? Like, this was my location. So when I tell people that, they’re like, “Oh, you just shop here.” I said, “No, no, no, girly, this was my Whole Foods.” Like, I hung out here with friends, I came here with family. I was able to grow up here, right? So when I finally got the opportunity to work there, to me, I was like, “Oh, I'm here,” right? I've made it. And not made it as in, like, “Oh, this is a career milestone of mine,” or that this is something that's going to move me within the community. No. This was like, “Oh, I've achieved a goal of mine that I've had since I was a child.” The idea of [finally] working at Whole Foods is what kept me there.  What keeps me there and getting involved in this union is that this is not something I'm unfamiliar with. Even if I think about what ancestors have gone through—how it’s in my body already, like even before I'm able to cognitively understand what is happening, it’s in my body.

Do you have any family members that are in unions?

My family is very union-oriented. My stepfather was a director on a board for the Parents Union. He was a proud member of the Teachers Federation Union. He worked as an ESL teacher at a community college for over 30 years. He advocated for unions. He was the type of guy who would go on Facebook every Labor Day and go in about why he wasn’t doing shit on Labor Day. He was like, “This is because of the fight that people organized for—to make sure we have the things we have today.” He was very vocal about that. Every time I would call him with a problem about work, he’d say, “You know they’re trying to get rid of you. Don’t give them too much. Make sure you’re doing what you gotta do, but don’t…” You know what I mean? He was always that type of person—like, a job is a job. It’s about you. A job will always be there. It’s about what you’re getting out of it and how you’re making sure you’re making a difference and a change where you are.

Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017 and people often forget that Whole Foods has been part of communities since its first store opened in 1978 in Austin, Texas—originally under the name SaferWay. This Whole Foods has meant something to your community. It is and was a staple. 

Growing up, going to Whole Foods was like going to Disneyland. I was like, “Oh my God, there’s fresh produce. There’s access to different things. My stepdad was very hands-on and we would go there and shop for dinner. Now, we didn’t make enough money to shop there for the week—we went there to shop for the day. And that was fine because it was a luxury. We would go through every section. He would go through the seafood, the meats, the specialties. That’s how I got into the flowers, right? Whole Foods would do their holiday decorating. It was a place where I felt safe and comfortable to nerd out about food. On that day, in that moment, I felt safe there. As I got older, my friends and I used to hang out there. We would go to the library, and then we would go to Whole Foods. 

What has it been like to grow up in Whole Foods, have that place ignite your love of food, and then come back to work there and have such a different experience? As a child, it was joy and love and the employees were cool and having fun. That’s not your experience. 

I feel like the Whole Foods from when I was a kid helped me want to seek things out. It made me want to seek out other places because I thought, “Oh, if this place is here, where else can I find things?” Then I found out about farmers’ markets and different fresh, sustainable farms. I didn’t really hone in on it until I was an adult and got into my culinary experience. But to think of that as a link in a chain—absolutely, it was a link in a chain. Now, as the chain grows and I’m here, it’s kind of like, “Was it false? Did I think of it wrong?” But when I talk to people who have been at Whole Foods for 30 years, for 12 years, they’re like, “No, the culture has changed.” It’s prominent. It’s not something they can hide from. You can tell just by the Amazon branding everywhere and how there’s a whole floor of the store dedicated to Amazon distribution. They try to separate it—like, “We’re Whole Foods, not Amazon.” But they’re adapting the ideology of Amazon, so inherently, they’re going to operate like Amazon.  A lot of people used to hide behind Amazon, saying, "Oh, it's convenient. Oh, they're doing all these things to give back." But no—Amazon is a machine, and this machine is trying to turn everything around it into little other machines. It’s trying to monopolize the space. It’s trying to monopolize our grocery stores, which is nuts. Next, they’re going to start monopolizing our housing, then our schooling, then our infrastructure. These are things that will build upon each other, and it’s our fight now to really be loud about it so we can at least throw a wrench in it. There are some things we can’t control, but we can definitely start throwing wrenches into the tracks of that machine-building they’re trying to do.

What things did you notice when you started working there that you wanted to change? It’s wild to say, “What things did you notice?” because you’ve only been there for six months. It’s fresh.

I feel very double-sided about this because I haven’t been there that long, so should I be the voice? Should I be the person talking for other people? I’ve had this conversation with organizers too, like, "Do you think I’m the right person to be talking about this? I haven’t even been here that long." And they’re like, "No, because the fight is in you, girl. You came here this way, right? This didn’t influence you—it radicalized you." But one of the main things that really got me was the predatory nature in which they demand access to you. That spoke to me. Because when you sign on, first of all, the description of what they’re hiring you for versus what you’re actually doing is very skewed. I was hired to do one job, and I ended up doing something completely different. And I’m like, "Okay, I’m gonna roll with the punches. We’re gonna figure it out." I’m in here. And then they ask you to sign this paper—this availability paper. They’re basically like, "These are all the hours in which we operate. You cannot have more than 17 of these spaces empty, or we’ll consider you a restricted employee." And it’s very explicit in how they say it. It’s every hour they’re operational, and they say, "You have to be available for this amount of time, or you’re restricted, and we can consider you a restricted person," which means you can be moved down to part-time. 

So there are full-time employees, part-time employees, and then restricted employees. What’s the difference?

Say you’re signing on for full-time, right? And to them, full-time is basically 36 and a half hours. Full-time isn’t even considered 40 hours at Whole Foods—it’s 36 and a half.

Where are the other hours going?

They don't pay you for breaks. So you're working 40 hours, but you're not getting paid for 40 hours, essentially. And that's something they rolled back, too, because, from hearing other employees, they said they used to get paid for breaks; now they do not. So that's where that time goes.  If you’re under 30 hours you will be considered part-time. Now, part-time means you no longer get healthcare benefits. 

Restricted Employees?

If you're like, "I'm available for 32 hours," they're like, "Okay, you're still considered full-time, but that means you're restricted," which means we may or may not honor your full-time status, which means we won’t schedule you for your 32 hours.

Someone can go to Whole Foods and say, "Yo, I want to be a full-time employee. I can only give you 32." From there, they'll say, "Okay, cool. You can still work with us full-time. We’ll schedule you.” And of course, they won’t really schedule you unless you commit to 36.

The language makes you feel like, "No, I should be giving them 36 because I don't want them to play with my schedule. I want to make sure I'm getting my money." This language is Amazon-implemented. It even says it on the page. These are Amazon rules and policies. So it's like, they hide behind the Whole Foods brand, but I was like, "This is getting weird." 

We talked to Mase and Ed earlier this week. Both said the region-wide wage increase that Amazon/Whole Foods withheld from you all at Whole Foods Center City, Philadelphia had still not been implemented. Has it been implemented yet?

They finally did it, like two days ago.

What's the minimum now?

Basically, the minimum at which they will start people is now $17.  If you were making $16, you now get $17. If you were making $16.50, you're now getting $17.50, so it's a $1 increase. Anyone who's making above $70 gets a 2% increase, right? Standardly, in the language of the negotiation, the offer letter, they do say that within a year of your employment, you would get a 1% to 5% pay raise depending on your evaluation. These are things that they're saying, but a lot of people have said that is not even true. There are a couple of people who are like, "Girl, pay raise? Where? When was the last time you got a pay raise? Let's be real." But they've loved giving out new titles. They love giving out more responsibilities, but they don't like giving you more money, which is crazy.

Jobs love handing out awards but never the money to back it up. It’s never a raise with a promotion.

They love to see who they can play with. They made me team member of the month my second month being there, and they were expecting me to be like "Oh, my God, y'all. Thank you.” I literally said, “That's cool. What does that mean? Does that mean you're actually going to implement the suggestions I've been making? Are you actually going to implement this 1% raise? What does that mean for me?” I feel like that took them aback because they were like, “Oh my gosh, she's not so excited.”  No, I don't really care. I actually told the store leader that should have gone to someone who actually deserved it. I just got here! That should have gone to someone who actually deserved it because I don't really care; awards and my picture in the hallway don’t do what y'all think they do. Listening to what I have to say does that. And they still were just like, “Girl, that's never going to happen.” But anyway, we got our raises like two days ago, and they are going to do retroactive pay on those implementations, starting from when they first initiated it up until today. 

How has your experience as a Black woman informed your work in this union? 

Being a Black woman working in restaurants and working in the culinary industry, you are made to feel like you have to fight to be here, right? And your spot is so sacred because there’s not a lot of you, right? So you should be taking advantage of what you're being presented in front of you. I've held many roles in the restaurant industry. I've been an executive chef, I've been a sous chef, I've been a line cook, I've been a dishwasher, I've been a porter. I've done everything. And I've worked my way up. And I've done that by being committed to the places that I felt deserved my commitment. Some of them did not deserve my commitment. But, you know, I found that out in hindsight. They don’t want you to have boundaries. They want you to believe that we’re such a family, right? But they don’t say that family is synonymous with not having boundaries. They want access. I have worked really hard to be the kind of person who says, “You only get access if I allow you to get access in this capacity.” Being able to walk in that space has allowed me to be a big vocal point for the organizers. They really welcomed me in and were like, “Yo, you have a voice, and you can really understand how this could go farther and how this is bigger than just us.”

The average American has three different jobs, and as a country, we’ve become accustomed to working more and more instead of reevaluating our role in this capitalist system and demanding what we’re owed after being exploited by the bourgeoisie. You just mentioned also working in kitchens and the culinary industry. Could you speak to your experience working multiple jobs?

 I would say that I have three jobs. One job is that I work at Whole Foods full-time. My second job is that I work part-time as a culinary instructor for high school students. I teach culinary to high school students as a part-time job. I like working with kids. Whitney was right.

I believe the children are our future…

I do that two days a week, which I love. That takes up about nine hours of my week. No, close to 12. Let's be real—close to 12 or 13 hours of my week. Then I'm at Whole Foods for 40 hours a week. And then my third job is walking through this world as a Black queer woman. People don't really understand that when you are the person that I am, that is a job—a full-time job. That is compounded on top of the actual labor that you have to do because it's not only just labor for other people that we're doing in these nine-to-fives and these 10-to-sixes. The labor that you have to carry for other people—the amount of times that I get misgendered in a day, right? The amount of times that I have to deal with microaggressions every day, the amount of times that I have to deal with how I present and how other people are uncomfortable with how I present. Being a Black fat queer woman who deals with ADHD and chronic depression—all of these things are things that I have to deal with and walk a long step of doing this labor. So when it is being asked of me to give more to a workplace that I feel like isn't uplifting that or putting that in the forefront, it makes the fight even more imperative because I'm like, now you're going to have to do that, right? You're going to have to acknowledge these things, and you're going to have to make sure that you are doing the work that you need to do to ensure that I feel safe and comfortable in this space. That starts with giving me my coins, right? That I am just due. Listening to people when we tell you that the working conditions are not fair—severely understaffing people because they hope and pray that people like me are going to just mammify the space and, "Oh, baby, it's okay. We're gonna take care of it. Oh, don't worry about it. Y'all do y'all. I'ma take care of it." No. There are too many of us actively at Whole Foods who placate the instability of the workplace, and it has to stop there.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.