At a meeting I recently participated in, one of the other speakers was Saru Jayaraman, the fabulous organizer, author, lawyer who has done so much to help restaurant workers advance their fight for greater workplace justice.

The topic of the day was narratives about the connection between economic conditions and health outcomes. Discussing ongoing fights and recent successes in restaurant workers’ movement for better wages, Saru made a number of important points about narratives, and implied others, and I want to lift up a few of these here because they are so powerful and can apply to other topics too.

Workers demand vs. Workers deserve – Many campaigns focus on the idea that workers deserve better compensation than they get. And of course they do! BUT a focus on what these workers deserve is less powerful than the idea that they DEMAND better compensation, from a position of strength – partly because so many left the industry during the pandemic. As Saru points out, when workers themselves are actively pushing the agenda, as opposed to passively hoping for others to do the right thing, the story feels very different.

The virtuous circle of success, momentum, power – Effective organizing builds on past wins, to inspire more people to join the effort, making future wins more likely. Topos research consistently finds that Momentum is compelling, in any issue narrative. The more we can point to successes, the more likely future successes become.

Yes, businesses CAN afford it – As on so many topics, restaurant workers have faced a chorus of “We can’t afford it …” from the profitable industry they work in. It’s the easiest excuse to make about any proposed change – related to wages, workplace safety, environmental protections, etc. U.S. audiences can tend to be sympathetic to the challenges businesses face, and don’t want to cause shut-downs – so it’s important to illustrate that industries continue to be profitable, while also meeting basic responsibilities to workers and the community.

Manipulation of the labor “market” – It’s easy for audiences to assume that “the market” determines wages and other job conditions. The truth of course is that rich and powerful (mostly White) people often do what they can to influence the market in their favor, e.g. by pushing for legislation that exempts them from paying good wages. (See Saru’s discussions of what she calls “the other NRA” – the National Restaurant Association.) Importantly, to avoid triggering fatalism and paralysis (“We’ll never be able to beat them …”) it’s important to both clarify how the economy is shaped by public, big-picture decisions AND to offer empowering stories of how it can be – and sometimes has been – shaped to advantage the rest of us.

Race and “history” – Finally, as we seek the most compelling and clarifying narratives related to race, the example of whole industries still deliberately profiting by building on the legacy of enslaved people’s labor may be a powerful example for telling the story.