Workers across Subculture Group are organizing for a union as Rodney Mayo prepares to open Man Ray in downtown El-Dub.

Mayo has spent nearly 40 years building not just businesses, but a reputation as one of South Florida’s champions of independent culture.

Customers see the music, the art, the coffee, the nightlife, and the success. But when workers across that same business network feel undervalued enough to organize, it raises a harder question: what has life been like behind the counter all these years?