'We triggered something epic': an interview with Naquasia LeGrand of the Fight for $15.

• Author: Jaffe, Sarah
• Position: Interview

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When Naquasia LeGrand first got involved with the Fight for $15 workers' movement, it was, she says, "underground." No one, least of all her, knew how far the movement would spread in the four years since she helped launch the first fast-food workers' strike, in New York City in November 2012. New York fast-food workers won their raise in 2015, though it won't be fully phased in in the city until 2018.

Cities and states around the country have acted to raise wages since the movement began, and the battle has spilled over into the presidential election. Fast-food workers, including LeGrand, are demanding that the candidates endorse the $15 an hour wage. LeGrand is now in North Carolina and continues to organize her fellow workers in one of the least union-friendly states in the country, having become a national leader in the movement. We spoke about what's changed--and what still needs changing--since the beginning of the Fight for $15.

Q: I first met you at an early action back in 2012, and someone told me that was your first interview.

Now I see videos of you all over social media, winning arguments with TV pundits about economics. Tell me how this fight has changed your life.

Naquasia LeGrand: It's changed me in so many ways. I'm a different person than I was almost five years ago, with the knowledge of what type of power workers really have. We tend to think that we're supposed to be used to these things [low wages, unreliable schedules, no respect]. We're supposed to settle for these things. At the end of the day, jobs like these are growing rapidly. These are what they're calling good jobs.

I never knew that I could inspire other people to want to stand up and have a voice of their own, too. That's basically what I've been trying to do with this movement, just get people to fight for what's right.

Q: Tell me how you first got involved in the campaign and what you thought would happen.

LeGrand: I got involved when they first started, underground. There were organizers coming around to people's stores, talking to workers and it just sounded like such a great idea. I felt like this was an opportunity to gain some extra money, living in New York City because at the time, 2012, I was only making $7.25 an hour. I was living in a two-bedroom apartment that cost almost $1,300 a month, and sleeping in there with five other people.

So at that moment, what was going through my head was trying to make New York a better place...