One evening in late March, I found myself sitting in a crowded union hall on Chicago’s West Side. A rank-and-file member of the Faculty Forward graduate workers campaign, I was attending an organizing meeting for the National Day of Action for the Fight for 15 campaign (FF15). The following month, 60,000 workers in 200 cities would turn out for the largest mobilization of low-wage workers in US history.

The meeting brought together a range of organizations. In Chicago, the main group behind FF15 is the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, a union of workers from a variety of service-sector firms, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Walgreen’s, Macy’s, Sears, and Victoria’s Secret. A diverse group of other organizations endorsed the campaign.

Representatives from community organizations like Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation and ONE Northside sat with the group of unionists, mostly from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the primary funder of FF15.