Teamsters Local 667
Memphis Strong — carrying the legacy of 1968
Powering · Labor Education
Rose Turner
Secretary-Treasurer of UFCW Local 1529 and one of the South's greatest organizers — more than 40 years in the labor movement, from the historic 1990 Delta Pride Catfish Strike to first contracts for poultry workers in 2024. A Shining Light in the South, still organizing her family of workers.
"Rose has been a big sister to me in this movement. She organized the hardest places in America — catfish plants in the Mississippi Delta, poultry lines, nursing homes — and she never lost a worker's heart. When Rose talks, you listen. When Rose organizes, you win."
— Kevin Bradshaw, President, Memphis CLC · Founder of Labor Education
Alongside her sister in the struggle, Gail Tyree of CWA.
- 1981It started in a nursing homeRose Turner's activism began as a nursing home worker in 1981 — more than 40 years in the labor movement and counting. She started by organizing the people who care for everyone else, and learned that the lowest-paid workers fight the hardest.
- 1990The Delta Pride Catfish StrikeA key leader in one of the South's greatest labor victories: roughly 1,200 catfish workers — overwhelmingly Black women — walked out of Delta Pride in Indianola, Mississippi, in the largest strike by Black workers in Mississippi history. They won.
- The Decades BetweenOrganizing her family of workersCatfish plants in the Delta. Poultry lines. Nursing homes. Retail floors. Across Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, Rose organized the South's lowest-paid workers under right-to-work laws — and kept winning.
- UFCW Local 1529Secretary-Treasurer & Executive Assistant to the PresidentThe financial backbone and operational heart of one of the South's most active locals — safeguarding the books, the strike fund, and the members, while never leaving the organizing field.
- Dec 2024750 Peco Foods workers win their first contractRose led the campaign for 750 poultry workers in West Point, Mississippi — first contract, major wage increases, tenure benefits, extra vacation, and holiday pay.
- 2024“A Shining Light in the South”UFCW International honored her decades of Southern organizing with a national feature — the title said what workers across four states already knew.
In 1990, roughly 1,200 catfish workers at Delta Pride — overwhelmingly Black women from the Mississippi Delta — walked off the line. They gutted fish for poverty wages, were limited on bathroom breaks, and suffered crippling hand injuries from the speed of the processing lines. For three months they held out, backed by a national catfish boycott, and won a contract with real raises and dignity on the job. The Delta Pride strike became one of the defining labor victories of the modern South — and Rose Turner was one of its key leaders, carrying its lessons into every campaign since.
Sources: Mississippi Encyclopedia · UFCW · Labor South
“A strong union runs on more than just a strong president. It runs on a financial house that's in order, a team that's ready, and a member who knows somebody will pick up the phone when they need us.”
— Rose Turner, UFCW Local 1529
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