On March 16, fast-food workers at the Portland, Oregon, restaurant chain Little Big Burger made labor news by going public with their intention to form a union.

The organizers, who christened their group the Little Big Union, have joined a very short list of fast-food workers who have attempted to unionize in recent years. This matters because fast-food workers are among the lowest-paid and most marginalized workers in American society, and they are generally at the mercy of big corporations. There are currently more than 3.65 million people working in the fast-food industry in the country, and a recent study by the Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California found that 52% of them depend on public assistance.

“Immigrants, poor and working class of all identities, houseless folks, people who've been through the hell of the criminal justice system, people living with disabilities, queer and trans folks, and people of color are all disproportionately represented in fast food, and are at most dire risk of exploitation from corporations and capitalism,” Little Big Union organizer Kenji Nakatomi tells Teen Vogue.

“If you ever eat fast food or work with anyone who does, you bear a responsibility to know about what that experience is like for the folks who don't get to walk out of the kitchen after they finish eating their meal, but instead have to stand in a greasy and oppressive environment full-time.”

The most common problems that affect fast-food workers are low wages, lackluster (or nonexistent) health care benefits, and workplace issues, such as inconsistent scheduling, which makes it difficult for workers to plan their lives outside of work. As Nakatomi says, “Any of these are important outlets for workers to get out of poverty or at least take care of themselves day-to-day while living a low-wage life.”

Little Big Burger’s unionization is part of a fast-food organizing drive in the Pacific Northwest by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which in 2016 helped launch the Burgerville Workers Union. Last year, workers at a Southeast Portland location of Burgerville — a restaurant chain with dozens of stores across Washington and Oregon — voted to form their union. The Burgerville Workers Union is currently the only federally recognized fast-food union in the country. A representative for the Burgerville Workers Union claims Burgerville workers have repeatedly faced backlash, including most recently at one location where several workers claim they were retaliated against for saying they were joining the union, according to Willamette Week. But a followup report said that "workers say management contacted them announcing plans to rescind all disciplinary actions doled out after the union went public," according to Willamette Week. Willamette Week reported that Burgerville would not make a representative available to the paper, but that it did issue a statement to the paper. "All disciplinary actions are based on facts unrelated to the union," the statement read, according to Willamette Week. "Burgerville is pro-employee," the statement reportedly continued, "and remains committed to all of its employees having a voice in the decision of whether or not to join a union."

(Teen Vogue reached out to Burgerville for a statement but did not hear back by the time of publication. We will update this story if we hear back.)

"The only reason things have ever gotten better for the working class is because we organized," Jimmy, a Burgerville Workers Union organizer, tells Teen Vogue. "We truly have no option but to form a union. What's the alternative? We go to management as individuals, and politely ask that they treat us better? We've tried that, and it doesn't go anywhere. A union can fix things, because it builds our collective power as a class."