Khali Jama

Working People

"I've never been an organizer," Khali Jama says, "but I've always fought." As a single mother, a Muslim, and a Somali-American worker living in Minnesota, Jama has always had to fight for the life she, her family, and her fellow workers deserve. And earlier this year, after bringing that fight to the Minnesota state legislature, Khali and her coworkers achieved a major victory. "On May 16," Lisa Kwon reports in PRISM, "Minnesota lawmakers passed the nation’s strongest Amazon warehouse worker protection legislation with the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which ensures that workers can take breaks during the workday and have access to relevant quota and performance standards and data on how fast they’re working. The bill’s passage marks a significant victory for migrant workers — especially Minnesota’s Somali immigrant population, of which the state has the largest in the country. For Khali Jama, a former worker in Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, the new bill offers reprieve and protections that she worked to mobilize. As a Somali and a Muslim, Jama said the Warehouse Worker Protection Act ensures some equity in Minnesota’s facilities." In this episode, we sit down and talk with Jama about moving to the midwest as a child, about her path to working in healthcare and at Amazon, and about the incredible story of how Khali, her coworkers, and the team at the Awood Center, which organizes in Minnesota’s East African communities, fought to pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. Additional links/info below...

• Khali's Twitter page
• Awood Center website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Isabela Escalona, WorkDay Magazine, "High Injury Rates Push Minnesota’s Amazon Workers to Organize for Safety"
• Lisa Kwon, PRISM, "Warehouse Worker Protection Act Grants Migrant Workers in Minnesota Landmark Safety Protections"
• Matt Furber, Sahan Journal, "Amazon’s Shakopee Workers Rally for Better Pay, Criticize Company for Not Giving Muslim Employees Vacation on Eid"
• Abdirahman Muse, Emma Greenman, & Erin Murphy, The Nation, "Minnesota Enacts Landmark Protections for Amazon Warehouse Workers"

Permanent links below...

• Working People Patreon page
• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song