Managers on power trips (In Section 1)

Women are vastly over-represented in the lowest-paid jobs. They are underpaid and overworked. Discrimination against women in the workforce is, unfortunately, common.

Mama Cookie Bradley is a service worker fighting and organizing to ensure workers know their rights and are supported to resist abusive workforce practices. A Durham, North Carolina resident, Bradley is a labor rights activist and organizer of over 40 years, and a co-founding member and leader of the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW).

In one instance, Bradley witnessed a manager at Burger King yelling at a young female employee and intervened on the worker’s behalf. Bertha stated:

“It’s a power thing with managers. They fail to realize they are also just workers. [The manager] felt he could control them; people are not robots. He thought he could talk to her [abusively] because she was a kid…school was out, and she needed the money. They look at Latino women, Black and Brown women and think: ‘[They] have to work. [They] have to make money. [They]’re poor. [They] have to have this money.’

And so managers have a tendency to [tell] these kids, you’re going to have to deal with it. You need the money; your family can’t do something because you have to work. They feel we are beneath them as women. So that’s what kills me. But I have to step back and let them know, ‘No. I’m just as powerful as you are. I know just as much.’ They must get off these power trips and realize who we are as women. They must recognize that we are women and don’t have to tolerate this division between men and women.”