MPOWER (Mississippi Poultry Workers for Equality and Respect)

The Mississippi Poultry Workers for Equality and Respect (MPOWER) in Morton, Miss. strengthens the capacity of poultry processing workers across the South to combat abusive labor practices in the industry. A membership-based workers' center, it was founded in 2004, building on collaborative relationships between local workers, community-based groups, labor unions, civil rights organizations, and faith-based social justice advocates in Mississippi.

Through a combination of legal advocacy and community organizing, MPOWER seeks to give low-income families and communities the power to achieve systemic reforms, including increasing the ability of workers to secure fair and safe treatment at work.

UUSC supports programs at the workers' center that promote solidarity between workers of different races and genders through a variety of educational and organizational initiatives, including outreach and labor rights education to injured workers through the Workplace Injury Project, and training on cross-racial organizing and solidarity-building.

Curriculum for bilingual workers' rights workshops:

• English-Spanish language instruction based on a workers' rights curriculum
• Workers' power and oppression classes
• Training-and-dialogue program for community groups and labor unions
• Sharing these organizing and education tools with other workers' rights organizations through the web.