As we get ready for Thanksgiving, we wanted to pass along exciting news about a new win for working people and families.

Word is out that thousands of laid off Toys R Us employees and their families won a $20 million fund after their hard fight for severance. That’s welcome news after months of demanding justice when several large hedge funds and private equity firms drove the company into bankruptcy, taking away the livelihoods from 33,000 workers.

The campaign to fight back was driven by Organization United for Respect (OUR), a close national partner and affiliate of CPD.

The fund was set up following negotiations between the private equity firms and various public interest groups that organized the employees, including Organization United for Respect, Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Center for Popular Democracy. "This Fund begins to ensure the hard-working people who spent their lives building Toys 'R' Us and making children happy are not left out in the cold," said Marilyn Muniz, a New York-based Toys "R" employee for nearly 20 years. CNN: Toys 'R' Us owners will hand out $20 million severance to employees

That’s something to be grateful about over this holiday.

In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be working with our affiliates and communities across the country to continue to press for paid sick days and family leave, and for minimum wage increases. Since 2014, we’ve engaged with community groups across the country in 39 fair work campaigns and won policy victories that deeply touch the lives of over 18.5 million people across the country.

Those are many reasons to be grateful, and to be hopeful that we can together reverse the direction of our country and build a democracy that responds to the needs of all of us.

How? By elevating the voices of all the people in our country–working families, immigrants, people of color, women. And we’ve seen, today again, that when we act together, we can build power and animate our democracy.

Thanks for being part of our efforts to realize a better way.

HAPPY Thanksgiving!

In solidarity,
Brian Kettenring
Co-Executive Director, CPD