Worker Solidarity

Out in the Open stands with workers locally, regionally, nationally, and globally working for more just, humane, and sustainable working conditions. We support workers' rights to organize, strike, and unionize their workplaces to create more fair and equitable places of labor. We join a long history of LGBTQ folks supporting labor. From queer solidarity with coal miners in Wales in the 1980s, to the lifelong work of movement ancestors like Leslie Fienberg, and numerous other examples, LGBTQ folks have been at the frontlines of labor struggles and we continue that solidarity.

In our home state of Vermont, where the tipped minimum wage is only $5.48, the non-tipped State minimum wage $10.78, the hourly wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom apartment is $23.36, and at a time when service jobs and in-person work have a higher risk due to the global pandemic– we are with all workers striving for higher wages and safer working conditions.

We know that pre-pandemic and today, LGBTQ people are both at the frontlines of higher risk, lower paying jobs, and face greater economic insecurity than non-LGBTQ people (1). We support workers who are being fired and laid off due to the economic conditions of the pandemic.

(1) See https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/lgbt-rural-report.pdf page 29, and https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS-Executive-Summary-Dec17.pdf pages 10-11.