The Worker Center Handbook: A Practical Guide to Starting and Building the New Labor Movement 9781501705892

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Worker Center Background and Vision
PART I. Starting a Worker Center
2. Surveying Your Community
3. Recruiting a Leadership Planning Team
4. Holding Initial Planning Meetings
5. Raising Start-up Funds and Donations
6. Hosting Workers’ Rights Training Sessions
7. Creating Early Programs and Actions
8. Hiring Great Staff
9. Doing the Legal Stuff
PART II. Building the Work
10. Reaching Workers, Building Leadership
11. Mastering Direct Action
12. Organizing a Wage Th eft Campaign
13. Focusing on a Sector
14. Organizing around Health and Safety Issues
15. Working with Faith Communities
16. Partnering with Unions
17. Building Multiracial Organizations
PART III. Building the Infrastructure
18. Being Mindful of Opposing Forces
19. Taking Fund-raising Seriously
20. Managing Money Well
21. Using Data for Growth
22. Nurturing an Awesome Board
23. Fostering a Strong Staff Team
24. Developing a Communications Program
25. Buying Your Own Property
PART IV. Taking the Work to Scale
26. Combining Services and Organizing: Functional Organizing
27. Building Membership Structures
28. Helping Workers Organize Work-site Committees or Unions
29. Partnering with Lawyers
30. Engaging and Honoring Ethical Employers
31. Integrating Civic Engagement
Appendix A Books and Articles
Appendix B Worker Center Networks
Appendix C Worker Centers
Appendix D How Worker Centers Can Keep 501c3 Tax Exempt Status, by Brian Glick
Appendix E Popular Education Training Resources

Citation preview

THE WORKER CENTER HANDBOOK

THE WORKER CENTER HANDBOOK

A Practical Guide to Starting and Building the New Labor Movement

Kim Bobo and Marién Casillas Pabellón

ILR Press an imprint of

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2016 by Cornell University Appendix D copyright © 2016 Brian Glick All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2016 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bobo, Kimberley A., author. | Casillas Pabellón, Marién, 1980– author. Title: The worker center handbook : a practical guide to starting and building the new labor movement / Kim Bobo and Marién Casillas Pabellón. Description: Ithaca : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016013227 | ISBN 9781501704475 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Labor movement—United States—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Labor unions—Organizing—United States—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Community centers—United States—Handbooks, manuals, etc. Classification: LCC HD6508 .B584 2016 | DDC 331.880973—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016013227 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Paperback printing

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Contents

Acknowledgments

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Worker Center Background and Vision 1

PART I Starting a Worker Center 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Surveying Your Community 15 Recruiting a Leadership Planning Team 24 Holding Initial Planning Meetings 29 Raising Start-up Funds and Donations 35 Hosting Workers’ Rights Training Sessions 46 Creating Early Programs and Actions 53 Hiring Great Staff 61 Doing the Legal Stuff 71

PART II Building the Work 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership 81 Mastering Direct Action 93 Organizing a Wage Theft Campaign 102 Focusing on a Sector 110 Organizing around Health and Safety Issues 117 Working with Faith Communities 124 Partnering with Unions 132 Building Multiracial Organizations 139

PART III Building the Infrastructure 18 Being Mindful of Opposing Forces 151 19 Taking Fund-raising Seriously 164 20 Managing Money Well 178 21 Using Data for Growth 186

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22 23 24 25

Nurturing an Awesome Board 192 Fostering a Strong Staff Team 208 Developing a Communications Program 220 Buying Your Own Property 230

PART IV Taking the Work to Scale 26 27 28 29 30 31

Combining Services and Organizing: Functional Organizing Building Membership Structures 245 Helping Workers Organize Work-site Committees or Unions Partnering with Lawyers 261 Engaging and Honoring Ethical Employers 273 Integrating Civic Engagement 278

Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D

Books and Articles 289 Worker Center Networks 291 Worker Centers 294 How Worker Centers Can Keep 501c3 Tax Exempt Status, by Brian Glick 307 Appendix E Popular Education Training Resources 311

241 253

Acknowledgments

This book is the product of the worker center movement. We have both had the privilege of walking with, observing, and learning from worker centers in the Interfaith Worker Justice network for many years. Marién also had the privilege of serving in a member organization of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. We are both huge fans of all the leaders and staff of all the worker centers in the nation that are truly doing the work of God on earth—bringing justice and righteousness to workers. We are also grateful to Interfaith Worker Justice for giving us the time and support to work on this book. Sarah Cho, a wonderful work-study student, helped us compile the appendices. We sought the input of lots of our colleagues in the work. Many graciously gave of their time to read the documents, ask thoughtful questions, and add suggestions they thought might help others. Heroic thanks go to those who read and commented in great detail on every chapter: Jules Bernstein, Leone Bicchieri, Aina Gutierrez, Patrick Hickey, Anne Janks, Jose Oliva, and Hilary Stern. We are grateful to those who read the entire manuscript and offered general advice on tone and direction or corrected sections relating to their work, and those who gave detailed input or feedback on a particular chapter or a few chapters: Gustavo Andrade, Deborah Axt, Adam DeRose, Marcela Diaz, Neidi Dominquez, Janice Fine, Marcy Gelb, Brian Glick, Jennifer Gordon, Jaribu Hill, Cathy Junia, Adam Kader, Esther López, Rudy López, Julian Medrano, Pete Meyers, Celeste Monforton, Lisa Moore, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Mary Ochs, Hunter Ogletree, Brian Payne, Laura PerezBoston, Wade Rathke, Misty Rebik, Angelica Salas, Sarah Shikes, Marilyn Sneiderman, Mayumi Swanson, Emily Timm, Jack Willey, Chris Williams, and Allison Zidek. Adelante! (Forward in the struggle for justice!) Kim and Marién

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THE WORKER CENTER HANDBOOK

Worker Center Background and Vision

Figure 1 New Labor members and allies march in support of Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Photo

Courtesy of New Labor. Photo by Louis Kimmel.

Domestic workers organize support for a statewide bill of rights. Restaurant workers rally outside a restaurant demanding that the owner pay them their stolen wages. Poultry workers expose dangerous chemicals used in their plant and bring in government inspectors. Day laborers organize themselves to move from an outside corner where they bid against one another for jobs to a safe location with clear policies for workers to get jobs and be paid fairly. Immigrant women challenge designer-brand labels that produce clothes in modern-day sweatshops. African American workers battle the exclusionary practices of temp agencies. Dairy workers gather at night to learn their rights. Tomato pickers establish new codes of conduct in the fields. Workers, through worker centers, are organizing for themselves and their communities. 1

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Workers have always organized. From the Israelites in Egypt who organized a strike (Exodus 5) to the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union in the South and the mass organizing of northern workers in the 1930s, farmworker organizing in the 1960s, and the current worker organizing today. Organizing is part of the human spirit that seeks to be treated with justice and fairness. Through organizing, leaders emerge and develop. Structures are put in place to train leaders, recruit members, and make decisions. Organizing campaigns to change particular workplaces, entire sectors, or public policies for all workers demonstrate and build power for workers. Workers and their allies who are leading, growing, and developing the current worker center movement are following in the footsteps of labor and community organizers who went before them. Although the worker center “movement” appears new and in some ways is indeed creating some new structures and models, it is built on the shoulders of previous generations of organizers, both in the United States and elsewhere. Cesar Chavez organized farmworker service centers in the 1960s that modeled the importance of integrating services and organizing. Worker centers build on that history. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian professor and educator, developed models for popular education that inspire worker centers today. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Gustavo Gutiérrez,1 who supported poor workers and organized faith communities in the U.S. South, northern cities, and Peru, inspire worker centers to build faith partnerships and tap the moral imagination of the nation. Courageous union organizers, like those at Teamsters Local 688 in St. Louis and Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, built models of community unionism that united workers and allies across racial lines to fight racial capitalism.2 Today’s worker centers and their union allies strive to build organizations and movements that understand how capitalism uses race to exploit and divide workers and that address challenges workers face in their workplaces and their communities. Organizing is part of the U.S. tradition. Organizing is part of the global tradition. Organizing is inherent in being human. Worker centers build on those traditions and bring to life a new incarnation of the human spirit.

Crisis for Workers Millions of U.S. workers are struggling to make ends meet. Ten million workers don’t earn enough to reach the official poverty line. Millions more are one or two paychecks away from homelessness. Approximately 10 percent of workers earn $8.50 an hour or 1. A Dominican priest who worked with poor people in Lima, Peru, and is widely considered a principle liberation theologian. 2. Robert Bussel, Fighting for Total Person Unionism: Harold Gibbons, Ernest Calloway, and Workingclass Citizenship (University of Illinois Press, 2015), elucidates a long-forgotten history about fighting for community unions and challenging racism in St. Louis. Robert Rodgers Korstad, Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), tells another forgotten story about unionism that fights for the full inclusion of workers in society.

Worker Center Background and Vision

less and 42 percent earn less than $15 an hour. Those earning the lowest wages seldom have benefits. Among that bottom 10 percent of wage earners, 88 percent have no employer-provided health insurance, and 88 percent have no employer-provided retirement savings.3 New contingency structures of work are creating low-wage “permatemps” and so-called independent contractors, denying workers living wages and stable jobs. Millions of these workers, as well as additional middle-class workers, are victims of wage theft when their employers illegally underpay them or don’t pay them for their work. Thousands are needlessly injured on the job because their employers don’t provide adequate safety protection. This crisis for workers has many causes, which is partly why worker centers operate on many fronts. The poverty wages and poor working conditions for many workers are caused in large part due to the lack of power workers have in society, particularly in relation to their employers. Historically the most importance counterbalancing power for workers has been unions. When unions represented approximately a third of workers, as they did until the mid-1970s, they were able to set standards in many sectors, even if all workers weren’t members, and successfully advocate worker protections nationwide. Unions now represent less than 10 percent of workers and aren’t structured to support workers in a wide variety of small companies. Worker centers organize workers because there aren’t enough unions organizing workers. The crisis is caused by weak labor standards, for one thing. The United States has some of the weakest labor standards in the industrialized world. It has no federal standard for paid sick days, vacation days, maternity leave, or universal health care. Some basic standards, like workers compensation to care for injured workers, are left to the states, resulting in a mishmash of programs or no programs. In addition, what labor standards exist are generally not well enforced, despite the best intentions of many dedicated enforcement staff. Federal and state labor agencies are woefully understaffed. Worker centers organize to establish new labor standards and increase enforcement. The workers’ crisis is also caused by a lack of jobs. But while there are not enough jobs for all those who want and need to work, the United States has no comprehensive policy designed to create and preserve jobs. Such a policy simply doesn’t exist. Although the official unemployment figures may not look too bad, the real unemployment numbers are much higher if you count those who have given up looking for work, are working part-time instead of full-time jobs, and college grads who are working barista jobs because they can’t find jobs in their fields of study. High unemployment, without strong labor law enforcement or unions, creates an environment in which workers are afraid to speak up lest they lose their jobs and can’t find another. Workers who understand that their employers are not paying them well or even cheating them of wages often say, “At least I have a job.” Worker centers advocate for job programs and reducing barriers to employment and organize worker-owned cooperatives. The crisis is also caused by immigration with no path to citizenship. The United States is a nation that has been built by immigrants. Even though there has often been discrimination against the latest arrivals, immigrants have been able to eventually

3. Bill Quigley, “Working and Still Poor,” Center for Constitutional Rights, www.ccrjustice.org/workingand-poor-usa.

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become citizens and fully participating members of society. The last immigration “fi x” was when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which resulted in 2.7 million immigrants becoming citizens over the next few years.4 There are now more than eleven million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and eight million of them are working or looking for work.5 Thus more than 5 percent of the U.S. workforce is without a path to citizenship and is vulnerable to unscrupulous employers who would exploit them. History has shown that when a group of workers is vulnerable, some employers will seek them out and exploit them. Exploitation of immigrant workers undermines standards for all workers. Worker centers advocate immigration reform. Growing inequality and concentration of wealth together make up another cause of the crisis for workers. Although the United States has prided itself historically on having a strong middle class, increasingly the middle class is struggling, and wealth and income have become concentrated in an increasingly small percentage of the population. This concentration undermines democracy because a relatively small percentage of families and companies contribute to political candidates and leaders and thus unduly influence them. Worker centers educate workers and allies about inequality and concentration of wealth and are figuring out how to engage workers in civil society. Finally, the crisis is caused in part by racism, which is embedded in U.S. society, including its workplaces, its training of workers, and its labor laws. Worker centers have strong racial analyses and support immigrants and people of color in organizing and challenging structural racism and racial capitalism. (Nancy Leong defines racial capitalism as deriving social and economic value from racial identify.) Workers are in crisis. The economy is in crisis. The fundamentals of U.S. democracy may well be in crisis. Yet workers are fighting back. Workers are addressing the causes of the crisis and finding new and creative ways to organize and build power. Crises create opportunities. Workers and worker centers are seizing the opportunities and changing the face of the nation.

Worker Centers Emerge Worker centers are community-based and community-led organizations that create a safe space where workers organize and build power. Workers learn about their rights, work with others to address problems they are experiencing, access training and services, and organize for social and economic change in their communities and nationally. In 1990, there were approximately ten worker centers in the United States, but by 2000 there were roughly one hundred. In 2015 this number had increased to nearly 250.

4. Muzaffar Chishti, Diane Meissner, and Claire Bergeron, “At Its 25th Anniversary, IRCA’s Legacy Lives On,” Migration Policy Institute, Nov 16, 2011, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/its-25th-anniversaryircas-legacy-lives. 5. Jeff rey Passel and D’Vera Cohn, “Unauthorized Immigrant Population Stable for Half a Decade,” Pew Research Center, July 22, 2015, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/22/unauthorized-immigrantpopulation-stable-for-half-a-decade.

Worker Center Background and Vision

This rapid development of worker centers is not unlike the rapid growth of settlement houses at the end of the nineteenth century, when immigrant workers moved to cities to work in sweatshops. The worker centers also build on Catholic labor schools, Jewish labor lyceums, and farmworker service centers.6 Worker centers are winning real victories for workers, both their own members and the broader community. Almost every worker center helps workers recover unpaid wages—sometimes a few hundred dollars, sometimes millions of dollars. Workers centers enable day laborers to set their own wages and standards instead of competing against one another on the street corner. Workers centers are leading efforts around the country to raise the minimum wage and pass laws to enhance enforcement against wage theft . Young Workers United in San Francisco led the effort to pass the nation’s fi rst law requiring employers to provide paid sick days to workers. Brooklyn-based Domestic Workers United led a six-year battle to pass the New York State Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010, which asserts the right to overtime pay and rest days, and other states have followed suit. These victories are concrete and significant, and as the movement grows, so too will the number of victories increase.

Types of Worker Centers Worker centers come in many shapes and forms. Some were formed around particular sectors of work. Many were formed by day laborers and their allies, and most of these are affi liated with the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON).7 Some centers are focused on restaurant workers, and most of these are affi liated with ROC United.8 Other centers focus on domestic workers, and most of these are affi liated with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA).9 Still other centers have emerged near large industrial centers, again focusing on one sector, such as poultry workers or warehouse workers. Many centers form around ethnic groups, particularly immigrants. In Southern California, the Pilipino Workers Center formed to help Filipino immigrants. Voces de Frontera in Milwaukee was formed to assist Latino immigrants. So too were Casa de Maryland and Somos un Pueblo Unido in New Mexico. Several worker centers that have existed for many years focus primarily on African American workers, such as Black Workers for Justice in North Carolina and the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights. Several additional black worker centers have emerged in the last few years. There are also centers that view themselves as multi-sector and multiracial. For example, Arise Chicago works with Spanish-, Polish-, and English-speaking workers

6. For more information about Catholic labor schools and Jewish labor lyceums, see Kim Bobo, Wage Theft in America (New York: New Press, 2011), chapter 7. For more on farmworker service centers, see the description of the Cesar Chavez Foundation at the organization’s website, www. chavezfoundation.org. 7. For more information, see www.ndlon.org. 8. For more information, see www.rocunited.org. 9. For more information, see www.domesticworkers.org.

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in a variety of sectors. The Northwest Arkansas Worker Justice Center works with Spanish-, Marshallese- and English-speaking workers from a variety of sectors, but especially from the poultry industry. Many of the multi-sector centers are affi liated with Interfaith Worker Justice. Information about six worker center networks is available in appendix B.

Core Worker Center Programs Each worker center is unique. No two have the exact same programs and approach but most serve the functions described below. Build power and organize for social change Worker centers build power among workers to address their broader community problems. Worker centers have led and won campaigns to get paid sick days for all workers (in San Francisco), strengthen enforcement against wage theft (in many communities), require drinking water for construction workers (in Austin, Texas), remove employment barriers for formerly incarcerated workers (in Chicago), and enact bills of rights for domestic workers (in New York and California). Power is the ability to act and the ability to win real improvements in workers’ lives, and worker centers are building this and exercising it to improve conditions for increasingly larger numbers of workers. Offer worker rights education and outreach Most workers have no idea what their rights are in the workplace, let alone what to do if their rights are being violated. Thus, worker centers educate workers about their rights and what they can do to address workplace problems. Worker centers tend to use popular education approaches that engage people based on their lived experiences. Organize to address workplace problems Worker centers help workers address problems they experience on the job. Wage theft and health and safety problems are the two most common problems addressed by worker centers. Most centers assist workers in filing claims with government agencies, connect workers with lawyers who can file suits for back wages, refer them to unions if they want to organize a local in their workplace, and organize direct action campaigns to get employers to pay workers their owed wages. One long-time worker center organizer described the centers as operating in the space between organizing and enforcement. The centers demand enforcement of laws, but they also organize to change and improve the laws. Train leaders Worker centers engage workers in addressing and solving their own problems. They train workers on their rights and how to organize to solve problems. Worker centers seek to develop a strong cadre of committed and experienced leaders who represent fellow workers and are connected with the community. Develop democratic structures for participation Most worker centers eventually develop some form of membership. But perhaps even more important, worker centers structure meaningful and engaging ways for workers to be involved in setting the directions and leading the programs of the worker centers and make decisions over their lives. Many workers are already leaders, and so the centers merely affirm and encourage their leadership. Others have never seen themselves as leaders but become leaders in the process of organizing campaigns.

Worker Center Background and Vision

Challenge racism and concentrated power Most worker centers have a deep understanding of racism and how concentrated power and unbridled capitalism are undermining democracy and hurting workers. Those involved in worker centers see themselves as part of the broader national and international movements seeking economic justice for all. They lead or participate in community struggles for access and fair treatment. They lead or participate in actions supporting workers in other communities, even across the globe. Political and economic education is integrated into the overall leadership training.

Other Worker Center Functions In addition to the core functions described above, many worker centers also serve the functions described below. Arrange for jobs at fair wages Workers centers organized by day laborers create a way workers can negotiate for jobs at fair wages. Workers themselves create systems for negotiating with possible employers, setting and enforcing wage standards and sharing the work in ways that seem equitable. Many workers centers promote their hiring halls in the community in ways that produce more jobs for workers. Create worker cooperatives Worker centers have created cleaning, cooking, and construction co-ops and companies. Usually cooperatives are started in sectors in which there are widespread problems. Workers decide they want to start and operate their own businesses so they can create better working conditions and keep more of the profits of their labor. Offer ESL classes and other special educational programs Because so many centers serve immigrant workers, many offer English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Casa de Maryland offers financial education classes. Centers affiliated with the Restaurant Opportunities Center United offer training in how to work in the fine dining industry. Casa Latina in Seattle, which works primarily with day laborers, offers training on how to stay safe on the job and basic gardening, safe cleaning, and safe moving skills. Some centers partner with unions and offer construction trades training. These programs draw workers into the centers and help them develop skills. Advocate immigration reform and fight attacks on immigrants Many worker centers were started by immigrant leaders or are deeply connected with immigrant communities. Thus these centers tend to be strong advocates for immigration reform and have led efforts to challenge public attacks on immigrants. Some centers assist workers in fi ling for special immigration programs, such as the documentation process for implementing President Obama’s executive order on immigration. If workers’ immigration status can be regularized, they will be much less vulnerable to exploitation. Sponsor social and recreational activities Worker centers build community among workers. Some sponsor soccer clubs, host dances, and organize activities for youth. Worker centers become hubs of social activities. People are drawn to organizations that care about them as human beings and where they find and build community. Most worker centers use a variety of approaches to build their work and develop strong communities. For additional information about what worker centers look like

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and do, see Janice Fine’s marvelous book Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream (ILR Press, 2006).

Who Starts Worker Centers? Worker centers get organized and incubated by a variety of people and organizations. Many existing centers were started by workers upset about treatment by employers, and many of these workers had heard about or even participated in a worker center in another community. Other worker centers are started by organizations already fulfilling one or more of their functions. For example, a local wage-theft clinic run by a law school may want to move into work that is deeper than just handling workers legal problems, or an immigrants’ rights organization may organically move into organizing around worksite issues. Sometimes leaders of academic institutions or policy think tanks that advocate workers’ rights become interested in playing a more direct role in helping build longterm worker power. In some cases, they decide to start worker centers by building upon an already functioning service program, because workers come to them for help and advice on wage theft or other workplace problems. Many community organizations, service providers in low-income communities, and religious institutions have started workers’ centers in response to visible needs of workers in their community, people who have no other place to go or who view government enforcement agencies as cumbersome, ineffective, or inaccessible. Many day labor worker centers grew as a solution to community tensions around day laborers congregating on neighborhood sidewalks. Worker centers are often started and led by people of color who are deeply connected to workers in the community and want to change society. Almost without exception, worker center leaders and founders are passionate, visionary, and bold. They are not willing to accept the status quo. They want to create a new society based on equity and justice. Many have strong analyses of how the conjoined political and economic system is failing workers and their families. By and large, worker centers are founded and run by social change makers who have passion and drive. Part of the reason this handbook is necessary is to match the skills and best practices with the passion and energy of leaders. Few people who start worker centers know much about database maintenance, fund-raising, or the legal practices necessary for running a nonprofit. But change makers will do what it takes to build organizations and power.

Core Values The worker center is not just another social service agency. Most centers, and certainly the most effective ones meet the following criteria and do these things: • Have a deep understanding and clear commitment to worker organizing among the steering committee and initial volunteers of the organization • Include low-wage workers, or the proposed constituency of the organization, in the leadership of the organization

Worker Center Background and Vision

• Develop the voice and leadership of workers • Build community support from allies • Raise money to hire experienced organizers, familiar with low-wage workers issues • Become recognized in the community as leaders on low-wage worker issues • Develop strong and healthy relationships with the local labor movement • Create democratic structures that enable workers and the center members to take part in decision-making about how to address their workplace problems • Concentrate resources on campaigns that are strategic and winnable, and that workers feel widely and deeply about • Hire some staff positions, especially organizers, from within the ranks of the worker center members • Focus on equity and fairness built on an analysis of injustices done to frontline workers. Worker centers are focused on workers—involving them, training them, developing them, and advocating change that improves conditions for them. Although worker centers alone cannot bring about the all widespread economic changes needed in society, they are important new forces for change locally and nationwide.

Stages of Growth Worker centers tend to develop and grow in somewhat similar ways, although each has its own unique twists and turns, and sometimes centers get stuck in one pattern of work. The leadership of the Interfaith Worker Justice Worker Center Network developed the following outline of “stages of growth” to describe the experience of many worker centers and suggest a path for building strong organizations that can challenge the root causes of wealth and income inequality and worker exploitation. Here are five common stages of growth: Worker Center Visioning Phase The Visioning Phase is the time when a handful of workers and community leaders begin dreaming about opening a worker center. These workers and leaders assess the community, draw in interested parties, and dream about what a worker center might do. During the Visioning Phase, a worker center should • Convene a committee or task force of workers (and others concerned about lowwage workers’ issues) that then meets regularly • Seek to have workers lead in the organization (even though that leadership may not be fully developed at first) • Survey the community • Create a vision of how to change and empower the community • Reach out to Interfaith Worker Justice, NDLON, ROC, or other worker center networks for advice and assistance. Worker Center Start-Up Phase The Start-Up Phase is when a worker center goes from being an idea or a dream to a reality. This phase is characterized by structure-building, outreach, and individual engagement with workers. Most worker centers focus on

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case-management-type activities dealing with wage theft. During the Start-Up Phase, a worker center should • Clarify and confirm its vision and mission • Formalize a leadership structure—eventually a board of directors • Establish ways for workers to participate in decision-making in addition to the formal leadership structure • Engage with workers and their communities • Create points of entry and leadership development for workers (e.g., worker rights training and wage-theft clinics). • Get a fiscal agent or apply for 501c3 status from the Internal Revenue Service, or both • Deal with some of the legal and administrative matters presented • Start developing a strategic plan for building the organization’s capacity, including a budget, a fund-raising plan, and a plan for leadership development • Build relationships with labor and faith leaders, including applying for affi liation with your community’s central labor council • Locate space where workers can meet and staff can operate (it is tough for workers to meet if there is no regular meeting location) • Apply for affi liation with one or more of the worker center networks, depending upon the sectors and interests of your center. Worker Center Growth Phase Once a worker center has its basic structures in place and relationships with many workers, it is ready to begin developing ways to be more effective in addressing problems workers face. Usually this means that worker centers develop campaigns at a worksite or legislative campaigns that can enforce or strengthen existing laws. During the Growth Phase, the worker center should • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Hire staff to support and oversee the center’s development Develop a membership program Recruit members actively Offer significant training opportunities Create a worker leadership structure Apply for 501c3 tax-exemption from the Internal Revenue Service Initiate and run workplace justice campaigns that address problems in broader ways than can be done by simply addressing individual cases Offer organizing training and political education sessions Develop a system in which case management leads to organizing (case management is a tool, not an end) Engage workers and allies in public direct action Develop a strategic organizing plan Build organizational identity and capacity Communicate regularly with members and allies via newsletters, e-mail, a website, and social media Expand the budget and diversify funding sources, especially through grassroots fund-raising Participate in joint activities between worker centers

Worker Center Background and Vision

• Deepen relationship with allies (work on a joint campaign or partner on a grant) • Move to larger office space to accommodate growth if necessary; consider whether it would make sense to purchase your own place Worker Center Leadership Phase The Leadership Phase is when the worker center becomes a recognized social change leader in its community and within the network of other worker centers, helping support and grow other worker centers around the country. There are probably only a dozen worker centers now in this phase, but many more are on their way. In this phase, the worker center should • Mentor those developing worker centers in earlier phases • Provide visionary leadership in growing and engaging worker centers throughout the country • Hire rank-and-fi le worker organizers and provide them with strong training and mentorship • Lead and win bold, visionary campaigns for the future of work that not only seeking to recover unpaid wages but also fight for better wages, benefits, and standards • Build a stable, mature organization with • Strong financial systems and internal controls • Grassroots fund-raising structure (worker fund-raising, dues) • Active board • Broad and diverse leadership • Large and active membership • Ability to get people to turn out for meetings, events and rallies • Deepen relationship with allies in organized labor, the faith community, academia, business, the legal community, and other nonprofits • Generate regular media coverage of the organization and its actions based on its reputation, media relations, and experience in working with the media • Articulate a clear and compelling narrative of how workers can challenge and change major systems of oppression and misuse of corporate power • Implement positive changes and expand on victories. Worker Center Social Movement Phase There are probably only a couple of worker centers in the United States that have developed enough to be considered a real social movement, but some are dreaming about how their worker centers can become serious political forces in their states and communities. In the Social Movement Phase, a worker center should • • • • • • •

Build or collaborate with other worker centers to establish statewide presence Win significant victories regularly Be run by strong leaders, many of whom were groomed by the movement Have a steady and diverse funding base Conduct broad-based political education program in the community Organize civic participation programs (voter registration and voter education) Partner with others nationwide to influence or change an industry or large company • Help build and lead a national movement for economic justice • Run members for political office.

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This book is designed to help you develop a worker center by building on the experiences of others. It offers chapters on getting started—doing visioning and other early work, building your program, and running a healthy nonprofit organization to get you through the growth phases. The book then provides suggestion on how to take the work to scale. Settlement houses grew dramatically from the 1900s through the 1930s. Unions grew dramatically in the 1930s. Catholic labor schools and Jewish labor lyceums grew from the 1930s through the 1950s. Worker centers are growing by leaps and bounds right now. Although they are all doing important and good work, the challenge is how to get most of the centers out of the early stages of development and strong enough to be significant forces in their communities. This book is an attempt to share the lessons of existing worker centers so that new centers can move through the early phases of development more smoothly so that their leaders and reflect on ways to work to scale in order to play a more meaningful and powerful democratic role in bringing about economic justice. Building worker centers is challenging but rewarding. May this handbook contribute to advancing the movement!

Part I

STARTING A WORKER CENTER

Surveying Your Community

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Key Questions

Worker centers are formed for various reasons and are focused on different regions, constituencies, and sectors. Thus it is important as you begin assessing your community to consider key questions around scope and focus. You don’t have to answer the questions immediately, but you and your new leadership team will need to answer them as you move forward. There are no perfect answers, but the answers to these questions will help focus your planning, programs, and even your community assessment. What is your geographic focus Will you focus on your city, your state, one section of your city, or one section of your state? Your center will serve workers from where? Who is your primary constituency Will you organize and serve all low-wage workers, or will you focus primarily on a particular ethnic or racial group? How does your leadership reflect your constituency? Do you have a sector focus from the beginning Will you work primarily with construction workers or restaurant workers or another particular sector? Check the list of worker center networks in appendix B to see if there is a network that you should contact initially to get advice.

Why Survey the Community? Whether you are a small group of workers trying to build a solution to the issues you and others face in your community or staff at a community organization, union, or academic institution, the first step to building a worker center is to find others who care, both more workers and more allies. Survey what organizations are already organizing and working with low-wage workers in the community. There are many reasons for taking the time to survey the community: • You don’t want to duplicate efforts. • Turf is important, and you want to be respectful of what others have already built. • You want to make sure that your worker center is addressing real community needs, and the only way to do that is to talk with workers and the broader community. • You want community support or buy-in. This is best achieved by talking with people from the very beginning. 15

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• You can learn about amazing workers who are already providing leadership within their communities. • Having the support of your allies will add to your legitimacy when you start. As the old saying goes, “You are who you hang with.” So try to surround yourself with organizations that have already established themselves as respected and powerful leaders in the community. • Understanding your allies and the forces opposed to change will help you understand community power relationships. • You can find people who can be strong leaders in building the center. If your community is small and you have worked in the community for a long time, perhaps you already know the key players. But in most situations, it is helpful to conduct a thorough survey of the community. This can be done by one or two people over a three-tosix-month period, or it can be done more quickly by dividing up segments of the community among a number of people. Early mapping and surveying efforts are great opportunities to test the commitment of early supporters, potential board members, and possible staff. The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) not only did surveys initially, it also brought together a focus group of stakeholders to get their input in planning a worker center. Several experienced worker center directors commented upon reading drafts of this chapter that their processes for starting their worker centers were much less formal and much messier. Nonetheless, they all thought that such a systematic approach makes sense. One worker center network decided to start a center in community before talking with workers. The organization hired several staff, developed a program, and set up shop without talking with the most important people. Within a year the center had imploded, and the organization had to shut it down. A thorough survey might have prevented wasted effort and resources.

Survey Workers The first and most important group of people to survey is workers. Some leadership teams are composed primarily of workers and thus have lots of means for surveying and talking with workers. Other planners are not as deeply connected to workers as they need and want to be. The purpose of surveying workers is twofold. First, you want to learn more about the pressing concerns of workers in the community and what a center might do to address them. Second, you want to identify existing leaders who could help build the center. Set a reasonable goal of surveying workers. If you already have ten strong worker leaders who are deeply connected in the community, ask them each to talk with ten other workers. If your numbers are fewer and you will need to go through other organizations to find worker leaders, you may need more modest goals or to take more time to reach workers. The workers you survey should reflect the constituencies you wish to engage in the center. Create your own survey questions with simple questions like these: • What problems have you experienced in the workplace? • What are common problems you hear about from others?

Surveying Your Community

• • • •

What do you think could or should be done to address the problems? Are these issues you might help work on? Which key leaders in your community have worked on these issues? What kinds of programs or services could a center offer that you would find attractive?

In many communities, immigrants and low-income workers are invisible to the broader community. The survey process helps identify and illuminate what is often hiding in plain sight. The Worker Rights’ Center of Madison (Wisconsin) grew out of a study of working conditions for Latino immigrants initiated by the newly formed Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice. The ICWJ launched the Latino Workers Project in 1999 to better understand the changing demographics of the community, further investigate growing complaints of workplace violations among Latino immigrants, and identify specific actions that the newly formed organization and the coalition it built through the project could address. Through the Latino Workers Project, the Interfaith Coalition marshaled support from the state university and the local Dominican college. Student volunteers were recruited to help with outreach efforts, including interviewing a wide range of service providers, agencies, and congregations that interacted with the growing Latino immigrant community. The Interfaith Coalition organized a series of well-advertised and well-covered community forums that highlighted the issue of workplace exploitation of Latino immigrants in the community. With the formal structure of a community study, community leaders agreed to serve on an advisory panel (fact-finding delegation), which provided useful history and experience and also gave the effort greater legitimacy and gravitas. Several dozen volunteers went door-to-door surveying in neighborhoods identified by the university’s Applied Population Laboratory as having a high concentration of low-income Latino residents. The survey instrument used asked a range of questions about workplace standards and economic status. One of the recommendations coming out of the study and report was the need to establish a worker center. The process of producing the report helped build the community support for the report’s recommendations, provided useful data and information about the community, and served to advertise the project to the community at large. In the process of doing the report, the organization recruited simultaneous interpreters for its meetings and forums. This group grew to become a worker cooperative of interpreters and translators that the worker center still works with fifteen years later. The attention and process helped prepare the ground for the next step in establishing the worker center. Getting seed funding was much easier with the groundwork that had been done through the Latino Workers Project.

Survey Community Organizations Figure out what community organizations are working with low-wage workers, especially those you are interested in organizing and serving. Talk with leaders of immigrant advocacy groups, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, St. Vincent de

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Paul, local community organizing groups, soup kitchens, homeless advocacy groups, and legal services groups. Ask the following kinds of questions: • • • • • • • • • •

Do workers come to you about workplace problems? What kinds of problems do you hear about? Have you found ways to help them address those problems? If so, how? Are you familiar with worker centers? (Be prepared to explain, of course.) Do you think a worker center could be helpful in addressing those problems? How might you work with a worker center? Who else do you think might be interested? Do you know of possible funders in our community? Which workers are known as leaders on these issues? Do you know of workers who have led actions or organized others at their workplaces?

There is a good chance that many of the community organizations have already been doing some of the functions that you hope your center will assume. People at some organizations will be excited about your center doing these tasks so they don’t have to do them. Others will feel threatened. Regardless of the response, approach these first contacts with the understanding that you are laying the foundation for long-term relationships. You are likely to work with these organizations and individuals for a long time once the worker center is established.

Survey the Labor Community Worker centers are an important new part of the labor movement, so it is critical to talk early on with leaders from organized labor. Generally you should have someone from labor leadership involved in your initial planning meetings. In most communities, it is best to begin by meeting with the president of your local or regional labor council. You can find local contact information by visiting the AFLCIO website at www.aflcio.org. The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the country (although there are some large unions not affi liated with it), has been very supportive of worker centers. It has signed formal agreements with most of the worker center networks and has encouraged its local leadership to work closely with worker centers. In large towns, central labor council (CLC) presidents are paid. In smaller communities and regions, these are volunteer or part-time positions. When you meet with the president or other leader, you should begin by getting to know the person. Find out about his or her background. How long has the person been in the leadership position? How did the person become a labor leader? Use the time to begin building a personal relationship if you don’t already have it. This person is important for the future of the center. Then ask the following kinds of questions: • What community resources or organizations do you know that help low-wage workers who are not in unions? • What unions are organizing low-wage workers?

Surveying Your Community

• What are the biggest challenges unions in our community are facing? • Are you familiar with worker centers? (Be prepared to explain, including the strong support for them from the AFL-CIO.) • Are there ways a worker center might help and work with labor unions in this community? • What union leaders would be the most interested in a worker center? Which ones represent many low-wage and immigrant workers? Could you introduce me to them? • Would you like to be on the initial planning group? • If not, what is the best way for us to keep you abreast of our progress? • Are there unions that might be able to offer financial support for the center? • What are the best labor, employment, and workers’ compensation law firms in town? • Who else should we be talking with about this? • Which labor council delegates would be interested in supporting the worker center? CLC presidents have a wealth of information about the local economy, major employers, potential funding sources, and local funding opportunities. A president may have a seat on the local United Way. Some CLCs may have extra physical space that might be donated to your center.

Survey the Religious Community Congregations and religious leaders in the community are critical allies. Congregations that serve low-income families can help you reach workers and may be very interested in supporting the development of a worker center. More-affluent congregations may have active social justice programs with members interested in supporting you. The religious community tends to be respected, well-connected, and have lots of resources that can help you build and develop a worker center. Around the country, congregations support worker centers in the following ways: • • • • •

Offering free or low-cost office space or meeting space Recruiting volunteers Giving money Promoting training sessions Providing work groups for special projects (sometimes youth groups and sometimes adult groups) • Participating in delegations to help workers recover unpaid wages.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, ask a clergyperson who is active in the community to provide you with an overview of your religious community. What are the congregations that minister primarily to low-income workers and poor people? If you are focused on a particular constituency, ask about the congregations that serve that constituency. What are the congregations that have been actively involved in helping low-income families through soup kitchens, shelters, and advocacy? (These congregations will likely be interested in your work.)

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In most communities, and sometimes even in neighborhoods, there is a council of religious leaders. Sometimes it is interfaith, and sometimes it is just Christian clergy. These councils usually are volunteer associations, but the presidents or chairs tend to know most of the clergy and would be a good place to start. In larger cities, there are denominational staff who are important to meet. For example, the Catholic Church is divided into dioceses. A bishop presides over a diocese. In the diocesan office, there will be important people to know and meet. Explore the website of the diocese to find good folks. There might be a social-action director, or a Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) director, or a Hispanic Apostolate director. All would be good folks with whom to meet. Other denominations and faith bodies may have key folks who work on social justice who would be good to meet. Check to see if your community has a Jewish Community Relations Council. If so, meet with the leadership. Similar to meeting with labor leaders, you are trying to build a relationship. Begin by getting to know the person and his or her background, and learn about the priorities of the congregation or denomination. After you have gotten to know about the person and congregation or denomination, ask the following kinds of questions: • How does your faith group help address poverty? • Have you been involved in supporting an increase in the minimum wage or other advocacy for workers? • What kind of worker problems have you heard about in the community? • Have you heard about wage theft? (Be prepared to explain.) • Are you familiar with worker centers? (Be prepared to explain.) • Do you think a worker center could be helpful in addressing those problems? • How might you work with a worker center? • Who else do you think might be interested? In your congregation? In the community? • Do you know of possible funders in our community? • Which congregations are known as leaders on these issues? Which denominations or faith groups? • Do you know of workers who have led actions or organized others at their workplaces?

Survey Academic Institutions There are almost always faculty and student groups at universities and colleges that would be interested in supporting a worker center. Look for faculty members who teach labor history, social ethics, social movement history, labor law, community organizing, social work, Latin American studies, or business ethics. If you happen to have a labor studies center at a nearby university, start there. If there is a school of public health, find the faculty who teach occupational health. Because so many new worker centers do a wage theft study within their first couple of years, you will want to find potential academic partners to work with you on this and other reports you might prepare. If you are having trouble finding contacts, see if there is someone connected with the Scholars Strategy Network (www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org) who might help you.

Surveying Your Community

Student activists often are huge supporters of worker centers. Every worker center has students who volunteer, translate, and participate in actions. So many young people understand personally the travesty of low-wage work because they work in restaurants, retail stores, and other places that are known for low pay and poor treatment of workers. Even if they personally weren’t taken advantage of, they have seen the abuse of other workers. In addition, most college students know people who have graduated but have not found jobs in their fields and are still working in low-wage jobs. Consequently, issues of work and wage theft are deeply felt for many students. With faculty members, ask the following kinds of questions: • Who in your institution teaches or writes on low-wage-worker issues? • Are there faculty members who have supported labor struggles in town or at the university? • Who might work with a worker center on research projects, such as investigating wage theft in the community? • Who handles interns or community service projects? • Who handles work-study? Do you know if work-study students are ever placed with nonprofits? (Some colleges use all the work-study slots internally. Others allow them to work for nonprofits.) • Who else in other schools should we talk with? With students, ask the following types of questions: • • • •

Which student groups on campus have supported worker issues? What kinds of things have you done? Which groups should we meet with? Are you familiar with worker centers? (Explain how helpful students have been in other communities.) • How do you think your student group might be interested in getting involved? • Do you know student groups on other campuses?

Survey the Philanthropic Community Fund-raising will need to be one of your top priorities if you want to grow the work. It takes money to hire staff, get an office, and reach out to lots of workers. Thus, it is good to talk with potential funders early on. At a minimum, you should survey key foundation folks who fund social justice work in your community. Don’t worry, the list won’t be very long! Also, talk with someone at the United Way about its focus on low-wage workers. There will also be a set of big individual donors who might support the work, but it may be hard to meet with them. Is there a friendly director of another nonprofit who might introduce you? Or a supportive religious leader who knows potential individual donors? Or a union leader who could introduce you? If you can, try to have at least one of the low-wage workers who are part of your leadership team be a part of the meeting with the foundation leaders. Having a worker talk about his or her experience in the community makes it clear that the problems are urgent.

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For folks in the philanthropic community, ask the following kinds of questions: • What kinds of low-wage worker projects and campaigns are you already supporting? • Do you know about the roles worker centers have played in other communities? (Be prepared to explain.) • Do you think you might support a worker center in our town? • What would we need to do to be considered for support? • What would be the concerns you might have about a center? • Who else in the funding world should we be talking with? Can you introduce us?

Survey Labor and Employment Attorneys If you have a strong union movement in your community, ask labor leaders about friendly attorneys in your community. Meet with those recommended. You can also find attorneys who work on labor and employment issues by checking the websites of attorney association groups. For a list of the kinds of attorneys to approach, see chapter 29. Begin by finding out who in your community is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association (www.nela.org) or the Workplace Action and Litigation Group (www.wilg.org) and approaching them. Ask attorneys these kinds of questions: • • • • • •

How long have you been representing workers? What kinds of cases do you see most often? What industries or sectors in the community seem to have the most problems? Are you familiar with worker centers? (Be prepared to explain.) Would you be able to help with the development of a center? How might you be able to help?

Most worker centers work with attorneys in a variety of ways. Use these meetings to build long-term relationships.

Keep Good Notes After each meeting, be sure to type up good notes. Jot down names of key people to meet when you learn of them. Make sure you get and keep each person’s contact information. Eventually you should build a database of contacts. Initial survey meetings will help build your database. Write a summary of the key contacts and institutions in each category—community organizations, labor, religious community, academic community, legal community, and philanthropic community. After you have met with a wide variety of people, think about who had the most passion for your work. Who was excited about building a worker center and wanted to help? Who was well connected with workers, resources, and allies? If you learn about another worker center that already exists or another group of people who wants to form one, schedule a meeting right away. Perhaps you can join forces. If it doesn’t make sense to join forces, figure out how to define the differences in the

Surveying Your Community

work and/or constituencies and support one another. The movement does not need more groups competing and badmouthing one another. Use the results of your survey and the initial answers to the questions around geographic focus, constituency, and sector focus to figure out who should be invited to the first planning meetings. Chapter 3 outlines how to recruit a leadership planning team, and then chapter 4 looks at how to prepare for the first meetings.

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Recruiting a Leadership Planning Team Many people like to be in on a project from the beginning. It allows them to have input into the design and direction of the project. They get to know the others who have a dream of starting and building a worker center. The initial leaders are likely to be the most active volunteers, promoters, and supporters, including fi nancial supporters. Consequently, it is good to think carefully from the beginning about who could and should be invited to the initial leadership table. The very first visionary leadership planning team may indeed be a very small group that is charged with conducting the community survey, but don’t begin to formalize even this team, let alone a more structured board, before you have done a thorough assessment of the community as identified in chapter 2. Care must be taken to assure a balanced, thoughtful, and committed founding group. Once you’ve completed the community survey and followed up with most of the key people recommended, especially those who were repeatedly recommended, you can begin recruiting people to take part in the planning process. Not everyone will want to or be able to participate so don’t worry about inviting more people than you really hope will come. Consider the Categories of Leaders Building a worker center takes skills and connections. First, you want workers in lowwage jobs who have already shown leadership and passion around standing up for themselves and others. Next, you want community leaders who already work with workers in low-wage jobs, such as community organizations, social service agencies, and unions, particularly unions that organize workers in low-wage jobs, as well as official AFL-CIO leaders. Review the results from your survey. Then you want community leaders that are well connected and respected throughout the community and can bring networks and resources. Religious leaders, employment attorneys, and philanthropic staff are usually well networked in the community. Again review the results from your survey. The Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa had a very strong planning process. The organizers had the following organizations, in addition to workers themselves, involved in the planning process: American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Local 12; American Federation of Teachers, Local 716; Catholic Diocese of 24

Recruiting a Leadership Planning Team

Davenport; Church of the Nazarene; Consultation for Religious Communities; Faith United Church of Christ; First Mennonite Church of Iowa City; Grupo Manantial (mothers’ group); Hawkeye Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Housing Fellowship; Iglesia Torre Fuerte; Immigrant Voices Project; International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 238; International Union of Painters & Allied Trades, District Council 81; International Union of Painters & Allied Trades, Local 447; Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement; Iowa City Congregational United Church of Christ; Iowa City Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO; Iowa City Sanctuary City Committee; Iowa Helping Center; Iowa State Building Trades; Service Employees International Union, Local 199; St. Patrick Catholic Church of Iowa City; Sudanese-American Community Association; UE Local 896, COGS; Unitarian Universalist Society, Iowa City; United Food & Commercial Workers, Local 431; United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Local 1260; University of Iowa Center for Human Rights; University of Iowa Clinical Law Programs; University of Iowa Labor Center; and University of Iowa Latino Law Students’ Association

Clear First Date with Critical People If there are a handful of folks whom you believe must be at the first planning meeting, clear the possible dates with them before making a public announcement. Set the date a month or so out to convey the seriousness of the meeting and to give you adequate time to personally recruit people. Draft the first agenda based on the suggestions in chapter 4. Send a letter of invitation to participate in the planning process along with a draft agenda to each person on your prospective planning leadership list. Send this out three to four weeks ahead of time. Ask for RSVPs and give a deadline for responding.

Call Everyone The most important thing to get people to a meeting is phoning. Place a personal call to each person on the prospective planning leadership list. Review the purposes of the meeting and why you would like the person to be there. Get the person’s commitment over the phone to be at the meeting. Do not rely on e-mail for the first confirmation of participation. Talk with each person about: • Your vision for a worker center • Why the person you are inviting is important to the process • Who else has been invited and why this will be a great group of people with whom to work and plan • How you will try to tap each person’s strengths and respect everyone’s time. A couple of days before the meeting you can e-mail or text everyone who has said he or she is coming and ask for a second confirmation. If you don’t hear back from the person, call again. An organizers’ rule is that half of those who told you twice they are coming will actually show up. Given the excitement that you should be generating about this project,

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Chapter 3

your percentages may be higher, but personal recruitment and phone calls cannot be emphasized enough.

Planning Process Time Frame Planning processes vary greatly. Some groups can complete an initial planning process and get a center launched in a few months. Others take several years to plan and launch. How quickly the process can proceed will likely depend on the urgency for creating the center and the commitment of your volunteers to meet and hash out the priorities of the center and develop and implement a fund-raising plan. If possible, consider how long you think the process will last, so you can talk with those you are recruiting about the time commitment you are seeking. For example, “Will you join us for a six-month planning process in which we will meet once a month?”

Do Not Confirm Board Leadership The leadership planning team is only temporary. Be clear that its members will not automatically become the board. Rather the leadership planning team will think about what kind of leadership is needed on the permanent board. It is critical that the leadership planning team be allowed to do its work and think about the future without nailing down permanent leadership roles too early. The planning process allows the group to see who really works and who doesn’t, who gets along with others and who obstructs group process regularly, and who demonstrates deep commitment to moving the worker center project forward. The Madison Worker Rights’ Center called its initial leadership team a transitional steering committee to convey that it was not the final, permanent leadership group. Too often, those at a first planning meeting will declare themselves the board of directors. This is almost always a very bad idea. Allowing the leadership process to remain much less formal for a while provides time for people to prove themselves—as good or bad. There is no reason to formalize leadership roles early and there are many reasons not to do so. Some people are good sprinters, but the work needs marathon runners.

Keep Inviting People during the Planning Process Even though you will try to have most of the key players at the table for your first meeting, you also want to continue drawing in new folks who express interest and whom others identify as important to participate as the process goes along. Keep things fairly loose and open. Call those who miss the first meeting or two but expressed interest, and bring them up to speed. Keep inviting them to participate. Call those whose names are mentioned regularly as folks who need to participate. Also bring them up to speed with the process. Use the planning process to continue to draw good and committed people into the process. You can then see if people truly have the time, interest, and ability to participate in future leadership roles based on how they participate during the planning process.

Recruiting a Leadership Planning Team

Watch for Leadership Values and Develop Skills In leadership roles, recognize that you must find people who share your core values. For a board of a worker center, you need people who are • • • • • • •

Honest Respected by their peers Willing to work cooperatively with others Concerned about the working conditions faced by many workers in low-wage jobs Able to stand up for what is right even if it is not popular Trustworthy in following through on what they say they will do Energetic, passionate, and positive (realizing that people show their energy and passion in different ways—more introverted people may not be quite as talkative) • Humble—able to listen to others’ critiques and understand his or her own strengths and weaknesses.

You also need people who can commit the time to develop a center. Some folks are wonderful and share all your values, but their life or work situations don’t allow them to devote the time necessary for a planning process (or a more permanent leadership role). You need leaders who can attend meetings, read e-mail, make phone calls, and help with organizing work. Worker center leaders are not just expert advisors, they are actively engaged in developing the center. Through the planning process, you will learn which of the leadership planning team members have these core values and who has or can make time for the worker centers. In addition to these core values, it is good to have some people on the fi nal board who bring a variety of skills in such things as organizing, fund-raising, communications, personnel, and administration. But never consider someone for leadership who has particular skills but does not share your core values. Identifying the skills can usually happen quickly. Identifying the values and how people work together often takes time, but you have such time with the planning process. Although most of the skills can actually be learned, it is good to have people with organizational experience on the board who can help in the early stages. But, to reiterate, everyone must share the values and must demonstrate through the planning process that they have or can make the time for a leadership role.

Prepare for Challenges Be prepared for the challenges raised by having a leadership team whose members come from different classes and speak different languages. Some leaders will be quite comfortable in meetings, will speak up freely, will be used to rapid decision-making, and will be well versed in navigating the labor and nonprofit worlds. Others will have little experience with this and may feel intimidated by the “professionals” in the room. Make sure that everyone is recognized as bringing valuable knowledge and experience to the table. Establish strong ground rules initially to assure, as much as possible, a level playing field for all involved. Class and race differences are particularly challenging when people don’t speak the same language. Provide simultaneous interpretation if necessary and consider switching the primary language every other meeting if the numbers justify it.

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Chapter 3

Don’t Confirm Leadership Roles but Take Note Do not confirm formal board leadership roles until you have completed the planning process. Nonetheless, you can be watching folks and taking note how people participate. The planning process, whether a few months or a year, can enable you to take note of who might be good future board members. Those who do not follow through with tasks, those who consistently miss meetings, and those who operate in a less than constructive fashion should be noted and not invited to serve in final, formal leadership roles. Those who demonstrate your core values, regularly participate and follow through and get along with people should be nurtured, encouraged about playing a longer-term role, and offered leadership training opportunities.

Holding Initial Planning Meetings

4

Once you have surveyed the community, as proposed in chapter 2, and figured out who you want to recruit to participate in the planning process, as outlined in chapter 3, it is time to begin planning the meetings and engaging people in developing the vision and directions for your worker center. The first meetings need to be good ones—informative, exciting, and engaging. People should get to know others and begin building relationships. People must leave the meetings excited about the possibilities and eager to come back. The keys to good meetings are good turnout, good preparation, and good facilitation, which should lead to good decisions and outcomes. Good Turnout Getting good turnout to a planning meeting requires you to: Define who you want to attend In these initial planning meetings you want to have supporters, allies, workers, and the core group of community members—the ones who have committed to starting the worker center. Defining “who” will help you define outreach, craft the agenda, and figure out how to communicate to make sure everyone stays connected and committed to this effort. Set the meeting in advance Busy people have a lot going on in their lives. As mentioned in the previous chapter, after you’ve cleared the first proposed dates with the handful of folks who need to attend, send the general invitation letter out to people three to four weeks in advance. Set a time and date that most workers could make if they had enough lead time (e.g., don’t schedule it during working hours). Evenings and Sunday afternoons often work best. Ask people to confirm their participation. For those who use Outlook.com, you can send an outlook meeting request. Call everyone you haven’t heard from About two weeks before the meeting, call all those you haven’t heard from and see if they are able to join you. If not, find out if they are interested in being part of future meetings. Place a reminder call to everyone Even if folks have said they are coming, call them a day or two before the meeting just to remind them. Some organizers would simply send e-mail reminders, and that is indeed easier, but you will get better participation if you make phone calls. 29

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Chapter 4

Recruit people to help Many organizers ask people to help with something as a means for getting them there. Could you bring a coffee pot or extra chairs? Could you make sure everyone signs in? Could you give another person a ride? Could you lead the opening prayer? Could you plan an icebreaker for the beginning? Asking people to take responsibility for parts of the agenda builds commitment and helps assure attendance. Giving people a task also strengthens commitment. Offer rides If you have the capacity and transportation is problematic for some, consider offering rides. If someone is being picked up by another, the person will think twice before not showing up. Getting the right people in the room is always the hardest task, but if you accomplish this, you’ll be on your way to a successful planning meeting.

Good Preparation Good meetings require good preparation. Always prepare a well-thought-out agenda. You may also need to prepare background materials and draft documents for review. It is good to send these materials ahead by mail or e-mail. Some meeting participants need time to reflect on materials before responding. You may be able to get feedback and buy-in even from people who cannot attend the meeting if materials are sent ahead of time. Some tasks are good for a group. Other tasks, such as collective writing, are hard to do well in a large group. Thus, it is important to provide drafts of documents for groups to review. Groups tend to do a better job responding and changing a draft than creating one from scratch. You will want to create drafts, even if they will be totally reworked and changed. One aspect of preparation is asking people to make presentations or lead particular discussions. This allows more people to be involved in leading the meeting and commits them to attending. You must ask people with plenty of lead time so they have adequate time to prepare and don’t feel like a last-minute afterthought. As was suggested under the turnout section, having lots of roles and jobs for people to do at the meeting is a good way to get people to attend. One person can be in charge of coffee, another sign-in, another room set-up. Use your to-do list to help commit folks to come because they have a job to do. One important piece of preparation that will require some time is the compilation of the survey results. What did you learn about the community? Workers? Allies? Money possibilities? The results of the surveys should be compiled in some useable form. This project will take some time and effort, so don’t give it to a procrastinator.

Good Facilitation and Interpretation A good planning process would be well served by a strong facilitator or a strong facilitation team. Running a good meeting is not something everyone can do well. It is a skill that is developed over time. Good facilitation can ensure that everyone participates and that you cover the items outlined in the agenda. Alternatively, a run-on meeting in which one or two voices dominate can discourage people from returning for future meetings.

Holding Initial Planning Meetings

Think about who might be an awesome facilitator. Ideally, the person would be willing to facilitate a series of meetings. Is there someone in your initial planning group with these skills? Is there someone in the community who might be recruited to play this important role? Consider ahead of time whether or not you will need interpretation. Many worker center planning processes involve people who speak different languages. If you will need to operate in two or more languages, start now to figure out where you can borrow (and eventually buy) interpretation equipment and who can do really good simultaneous interpretation. Although some worker centers have built strong leadership teams that commit themselves to having back-and-forth interpretation for an entire meeting, it requires a deep commitment of everyone. Meetings that have back-and-forth interpretation will always be slow. Many people, especially those used to fast-paced meetings, will become frustrated. If possible, figure out where you can get the headsets and find a good interpreter. Ask what organizations use interpretation equipment and ask if you can borrow equipment. Organizations that use interpretation equipment will also know interpreters. Perhaps there is someone who would volunteer to interpret for the entire planning process. This would be a very helpful volunteer role.

Meeting Space Where will you meet? Although the meeting space is not the most important consideration, there’s no reason not to get a nice meeting space that will enhance your planning process. Centrality Choose a location that is convenient for as many people as possible. If you need parking or access to public transportation, make sure the location has this. Cost There is no reason to waste money on a meeting space where there are lots of good free locations available. Ask about meeting spaces in congregations, union halls, colleges or universities, libraries, community centers, or law firms. They all tend to have good meeting spaces that can be made available to the community for free. Using others’ meeting space provides another opportunity to build relationships in the community. Aesthetics Some meeting rooms are pleasant to be in and others are not. You want one that is large enough, has good light, is clean, and makes people feel good. People in a pleasant room tend to be more pleasant. Equipment Depending on your plans, you may ask about an easel (although you should be prepared to bring your own newsprint pad), access to the Internet (for possible Web-based seminar or Skype call), a projector (in case you want to give a PowerPoint presentation or put information on the wall), or a telephone with a speaker (in case someone needs to call in for the meeting). Consistency Even though there can be value in rotating who hosts the planning meetings, it is probably better in terms of attendance just to keep all the planning sessions held at the same place if at all possible. When meetings change location, folks tend to get lost or lose their information about where the next meeting will be held.

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Meeting Notes Taking notes from a meeting and then preparing the meeting notes is a very important task and one that should be assigned to someone in leadership who has experience in preparing good notes. Meeting notes become your historic documents, they help keep people on track with tasks, and they keep those who miss meetings engaged in the process. Consequently, they must be done with care and precision. Meeting notes should not record what each person said. Rather, meeting notes should provide a modest amount of background on an issue and record the key decisions, questions, or next steps and who will take responsibility. The notes should also record the outcome of key votes that are taken, although most planning meeting decisions are made collectively by consensus. Consider ahead of time who can or should do the notes. Generally speaking, someone in your core leadership group should prepare the meeting notes. Th is should be done within a day or two of the meeting and sent to all involved before the next meeting. Notes that are e-mailed or mailed the day after a meeting impresses people and immediately keeps those who missed the meeting aware of where the planning process is. If your group operates in more than one language, all notes should be translated.

Other Preparation Snacks Most people like snacks and coffee at a meeting. Perhaps volunteers can sign up to bring snacks for various planning meetings. Sign-in sheet Always have a sign-in sheet so you can keep track of who came to which meetings. You may also want to have a contact sheet with each person’s contact information so you can double check that you have everyone’s proper contact information. Child care Consider whether providing child care would enable some parents, particularly women workers, to participate. If so, it may be worth trying to recruit some volunteers to help with child care. Handouts Make sure handouts are available in the languages of the expected participants.

Sample Agendas Most groups need at least six to eight planning sessions to address the primary planning topics. Although there is no rush to complete the planning, some people will get frustrated if the planning takes too long. Following are summaries of what you should try to accomplish in the first six sessions, although you can spread the work out over more meetings. Meeting One The purposes of the first meeting are to • Introduce people to one another • Develop a common understanding about what worker centers are and do • Discuss and agree about whether or not your community needs a worker center

Holding Initial Planning Meetings

• Introduce survey results (see chapter 3) • Review the planning process and figure out who else needs to be included. Meeting Two The purposes of the second meeting are to • • • •

Decide on the geographic scope of the center and its constituency Develop a mission statement and a vision statement Brainstorm what you’d like to accomplish in five years Brainstorm what you’d like to accomplish within a year.

Meeting Three The purposes of the third meeting are to • Finalize the vision statement and mission statement • Begin setting priorities for the first year of work and discuss the broad budget questions or review a draft business plan • Brainstorm ideas on office space. Meeting Four The purposes of the fourth meeting are to • Talk more about office space • Begin building a budget • Begin creating a fund-raising plan. Meeting Five The purposes of the fift h meeting are to • • • •

Finalize a budget Develop initial fund-raising plan Decide next steps on office space Brainstorm committees for continuing to move work forward.

Meeting Six The purposes of the sixth meeting are to • Review progress on fund-raising and office space • Decide what programs to do even before money arrives • Decide how to continue moving forward, including setting up committees and engaging in tasks that need to be addressed first.

Keep People Involved Between meetings, someone—or, preferably, a small group of leaders—should follow up with key people. This follow-up can be checking on why someone has missed a meeting, asking why someone got upset in a meeting, or making sure that people are doing the tasks they agreed to do. Make the process participatory and democratic. Help people build deep relationships that make them want to stay involved. Make sure workers are involved in every step of the process. Call worker leaders before and after meetings. Ask about other workers who should be invited to be a part of the process. If workers aren’t actively participating in planning and playing

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leadership roles, you may need to explore what is going on. Some worker leaders may not have served in many planning processes before and thus may not be sure what their roles should be. Some may have child-care challenges or other stumbling blocks. Stay in close touch and address issues that arise. And—it bears repeating—keep good records of your meetings. You are making history. Good luck!

Raising Start-up Funds and Donations

5

Many worker centers operate with completely volunteer staff and leaders for the first year or two and with shoestring budgets. However, raising funds to hire staff and get a good office location will enable your center to grow more quickly. Even if you are blessed with a competent volunteer organizer who can devote many hours (such as a retired person with strong organizing skills), you will still need funds or donations for printing outreach materials, setting up a website, and getting office space. Raising start-up funds and donations, like raising any funds or donations for nonprofits, requires a vision, a relationship, an “ask,” and meticulous follow-up.

Vision Most groups cannot begin to raise funds until their planning team has met several times and clarified the vision and mission of the organization and has begun to outline the framework of how they intend to operate and for what they need money. Visions for fund-raising can be a bit tricky. You want to be broad and visionary enough for people to get excited, but you must be modest enough that people believe you can accomplish what you have set forth as goals. Consider outlining both a five-year vision and a one-year vision, so you can explain clearly where you are going and what you hope to build over the next five years, but also so you can demonstrate your pragmatism around planning and building the worker center. For example, you might say, “In the next five years we want to build a vibrant worker center in our community that builds power among workers in low-wage jobs in order to address the crisis of wage theft in the community, raise core work standards for all workers and improve enforcement of labor laws. We will have a large membership base with strong leaders, and we will be able to challenge unethical employers and sectors and engage in public policy advocacy at the local level and collaboratively with others at the state and federal levels. We will have several paid staff members and a community space where workers can meet and work together.” You might continue, “In the next year, we will build a strong framework for a vibrant worker center in our community. We will recruit and build a strong board of directors, pursue all the requirements for becoming a registered nonprofit 501c3 organization,

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find good community space, hire one staff person, create workers’ rights educational materials, begin reaching out to workers, and implement several successful campaigns to help workers recover unpaid wages.” Writing down your vision and year one goals and objectives can help you articulate them to potential donors and demonstrate your credibility.

Create a Budget Your leadership planning team will need to create a start-up fund-raising budget. There are various approaches to budgeting—probably none perfect. Approach one is to lay out your dream budget—what you’d really like—and go for it. The problem with this approach is that many potential funders may think it is unrealistic to go from nothing to a big budget, particularly if you don’t have staff and leadership who are experienced fund-raisers and administrators. Approach two is to go with a minimalist budget—the least amount you could function on and still move forward. This is more realistic but won’t inspire great passion or large gifts. And you would hate to get too little because you asked for too little. Approach three is midway between the minimalist and the dream budget—one that is a stretch for you but not so much of a stretch that no one would believe in it. Approach four is to have a two budgets—one that is your internally recognized absolute bottom line, an amount you must raise, and another that is a more aggressive and external budget that you want to strive toward. There is no perfect approach to budgeting, especially in the start-up phase. Once you have more history in raising and spending money, it is easier to create a budget. Below are typical income and expense categories for a start-up budget. On the income side of the budget, nothing should be listed that doesn’t have a detailed plan on how to get the money. If you can’t make a plan to raise it, you can’t raise it. So, for example, if you say you are going to raise $5,000 from congregations, you will need to develop a list of all the congregations that you plan to approach. The details don’t need to be in your budget, but your fund-raising plan must outline how you will reach each budgeted income category. A fund-raising plan should accompany the income side of the start-up budget. As you answer the questions in the following section (“Possible Sources of Support”), you may be able to flesh out the details on the income categories. Also, there is more information about developing a fund-raising plan in chapter 19. Suffice it to say that you can’t just put down numbers without having a plan for where you can get the money. On the expense side, make a reasonable estimate of costs. Put a notes column in your budget and explain the basis for your numbers. Most foundations are impressed by a carefully prepared budget. The budget can change as you gain more information, but you need to have one— imperfect as it may be—to be able to raise start-up funds. The process of your leadership team working through the start-up budget will be a good exercise, because groups are forced to answer many questions in order to build the budget.

Table 5.1 Income and expense budget categories

Income categories Foundations

Notes Foundations often provide the largest start-up funds for worker centers.

Congregations/ Denominations Unions Individuals

Sometimes budgets differentiate between large donors (those who give above a certain amount) and smaller donors

Events Law firms Government sources Partnership grants Other Expenses Staff

This will be your biggest expense and thus will require serious conversation. Do you want (or can you afford) full-time professional staff ? Or can you only raise start-up funds for a part-time person? If you can raise enough funds for a full-time person, the work will go much more smoothly.

Benefits

If you have staff, you should offer some benefits. Instead of adding benefits randomly or designed benefits around particular staff, consider what you can afford initially and then plan on adding more benefits as you are able in order of the priorities established by the leadership team.

Taxes

You must pay payroll taxes. Do not pay your primary staff person as an independent contractor. This is not legal. (You might have a legitimate independent contractor for a discrete task, such as bookkeeping.)

Rent

This amount can vary tremendously. Many centers get donated space initially or only pay modest amounts because they are based in a congregation or a union. Explore options for inexpensive rent.

Equipment

You will need some basic start-up equipment such as a computer and printer. Be careful with donated equipment. It is often not worth the trouble. Consider budgeting early on for translation equipment if you will be working with multiple language groups. Explore what refurbished equipment and software you might get from TechSoup (www.techsoup.org).

Telephone

Your staff person will need a cell phone. You may need or want a few landlines in addition.

Internet

Internet access is necessary and can be costly in some markets.

Printing

In the start-up phase you could have some important printing costs, such as workers’ rights manuals, outreach flyers, brochures, and business cards. Get printing done with union printers unless it is donated in-kind.

Payroll service

If you have a staff person, you may want to hire a payroll service to ensure that the payroll taxes are handled correctly. Payroll taxes are difficult for most volunteer bookkeepers. (Continued)

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Table 5.1 (Continued)

Expenses

Notes

Travel

Your staff and leaders should go to training sessions that are held out of town. You should visit other worker centers. You may want to visit potential donors or foundations. Try to build in some out-of-town travel costs. In addition, your staff person may have a significant amount of in-town travel costs.

Meetings

Some worker centers budget for food or translation costs for meetings.

Website

Most centers build a simple website. Try to get a knowledgeable volunteer to design this for you. Nonetheless, there will likely be some hosting or other costs associated with creating your website.

Other

There are a variety of other expenses. Break them out if they are significant—$500 or more. Lump them into another category if they are small.

Possible Sources of Support Who do you know who might fund the start-up of a worker center? Who do members of your planning committee know? Who else has funded the start-ups of other worker centers? Below are the most common sources of funds for worker center start-ups. Consider who you might know, or be able to get to know, in each category. Community foundations Community foundations are common sources of start-up funds for worker centers. Consider who your planning team knows at the community foundation. Is there someone who funds community organizing or immigrant rights? Other local foundations Ask the planning team about other foundations they know that might fund your worker center. You may well uncover some possibilities in the survey you conducted in the philanthropic community (chapter 2). Consider both public and private family foundations. The private family foundations can often fund you quickly because they are controlled by a few family members. State/regional/national foundations There are very few foundations outside your community that will provide start-up funds, so do not assume you will get lots of outside funds. Nonetheless, there are a few state, regional, or national foundations to consider. For example, there are a few foundations that focus on the South and thus might be interested in new centers being built there. The Kellogg Foundation provides focused grants in Michigan, Mississippi, and New Mexico, so there might be possibilities if you are in one of those states. California has several large funders, so there might be possibilities for centers starting in locations outside the major urban areas. The best way to find out about national foundations is to talk with someone at the Working Group on Labor and Community Partnerships (www.nfg.org) or one of the staff people of the national worker center networks who connects with funders (see appendix B for the list of contact people.) Worker centers have received start-up funds from the following foundations. • Spark Plug Foundation (specifically funds start-ups, with grants in the $3,000 to $10,000 range) • Left Tilt Fund (supports several worker centers, with grants in the $5,000 to $10,000 range) • Resist Fund (supports several worker centers with organizational budget less than $150,000; regular grants are in the $2,000 to $4,000 range, but it also provides $500 training/travel funds and $500 emergency funds)

Raising Start-up Funds and Donations

• Ben & Jerry’s Foundation (provides grants of up to $20,000 to organizations with budgets under $500,000) • Hispanics in Philanthropy (convenes groups that focus on funding programs serving Latinos) • Abelard Foundation (two branches, West and East, support community organizing and sometimes provide start-up funds) Religious congregations Across the board, religious congregations care about poverty and fund programs that address human needs. Congregations support soup kitchens, shelters, and a range of services to help poor people and their families. Sometimes congregations may be reluctant to fund social-action programs or projects they view as more controversial. On the other hand, some congregations want to fund social-action work, and you should be able to make the case that helping workers in low-wage jobs recover unpaid wages and address problems in their workplaces is helping get at the root causes of poverty. Unfortunately, you will never find a list of all the congregations that give money to community program, and most congregations have little written information about how to be considered for support. Thus, you must ask around. Ask what congregations have formal giving programs. Ask which ones make regular contributions even without formal giving programs. Review the annual report of your area soup kitchen or food bank to get a good list of area congregations. See who you know in congregations that give. Some congregations will have a formal application process, much like a foundation, but you will need an internal champion for most contributions. In other congregations, the pastor or rabbi may have a discretionary fund or a way to make small contributions happen quickly. Congregations are a good source of long-term support as well as start-up funds, so you will want to develop long-term relationships with their leaders. Congregations are also the best source for donated office space. Many have extra space in their buildings that can be donated for community purposes, or you may be able to rent space at a much reduced rate. Having your space in a house of worship has several intangible benefits. Most workers feel “safe” when visiting a church, temple, or mosque, and having an office located in one indicates a connection to the faith community that can help you overall in outreach and fund-raising, although sometimes workers of one faith or denomination are uncomfortable being in another’s house of worship. Ask the workers in your group about their comfort in a particular location. Denominational and faith group funds Many denominations, orders, and faith groups have regional or national pools of money for funding social-action work. Most of these funds are relatively small, but a couple of them are quite large. The two largest sources of funds for worker centers are the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and the Presbyterian Self Development of People (SDOP). The CCHD raises funds from almost every Catholic parish in the nation and then distributes those funds from local CCHD offices and nationally. Seventy-five percent of the funds raised go to the national program and 25 percent to the local diocese. Local CCHD grants are smaller than the national grants and are controlled by the local bishop and administered by a diocesan staff person who usually works on social-action issues. Local CCHD grants are often applied for and given for start-up of worker centers. National CCHD funds are larger but harder to get in the first year of an organization’s existence. It is worth talking with your local CCHD director about whether you

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might apply for both local and national funds. You will have to have the support of the local CCHD director and local bishop in order to receive national funds. Although the CCHD is clearly the largest religious funder of worker centers, in recent years some groups have chosen not to apply for CCHD funds or to return funds. The CCHD, because it is a fund of the Catholic Church, requires that grantees not promote anything that violates Catholic social teaching. In addition, it must not participate in coalitions that work on positions contrary to Catholic social teaching. The actual wording in the grantee agreement: “Among other things, Grantee agrees that it will not promote or support abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, racism, discriminatory measures toward immigrants, or use of the death penalty.” Some worker centers have joined or participate in coalitions that work on same-sex marriage and thus have chosen to (or been required to) relinquish CCHD funds. The second largest religious funder is the SDOP. A handful of worker centers get support from this fund. Although not all synods and presbyteries (Presbyterian regional divisions) have SDOP Committees, many do. According to the SDOP website, “If a project is in a Presbytery/Synod with a SDOP Committee, applications for funding can be submitted to the Presbytery and/or Synod SDOP Committee as well as to the National SDOP Committee, as long as money from each source will be used to finance different parts of your project.” To find out if your presbytery or synod has an SDOP Committee, call the national SDOP office at 800-728-7228, extension 5791. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has become a strong supporter of worker centers in recent years. The largest grants come from the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, which is money from one congregation. This program has supported many of the worker center networks and a few in the New York area, but the UUA fund that has supported many worker center start-ups and is the more appropriate one for most groups to apply to is the Unitarian Universalist Fund for a Just Society. This fund gives funds to “non-Unitarian Universalist groups in the U.S. and Canada that use community organizing to bring about systemic change leading to a more just society; mobilize those who have been disenfranchised and excluded from resources, power and the right to self-determination; and have an active focused campaign to create systemic change.” For more information: www.uufunding.org/fund-for-a-just-society.html. Most of the other mainline Protestant denominations (Lutheran, United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, American Baptist) have small pots of money at both the regional and national levels, but it will generally require help from local religious leaders to access that money. Ask the religious folks involved to help you get support from their denomination. Catholic orders, both men’s and women’s, also support worker centers. Again, the best way to access this money is through active engagement of men or women engaged in these orders. Even though there is a fair amount of Jewish and Muslim money that supports worker centers, most of it comes through individual congregations, donor-advised funds, and family foundations. The best way to tap these funds is through local community leaders involved in your work. Unions In the last decade, unions have become large supporters of worker centers. Some unions support worker centers because they see potential for building relationships with

Raising Start-up Funds and Donations

groups of workers they find hard to reach, but most unions support worker centers simply because they support the basic idea of workers organizing to improve conditions. The president of a central labor council (CLC) is a key person for helping you navigate and understand the labor unions in your community. The CLC president is the elected leader of the council that represents most unions in the community. Most CLC presidents have been very supportive of worker centers, and many have played critical roles in their development. For example, Richard Shaw, the CLC president in Houston, helped raise the first start-up funds for the Fe y Justicia Worker center and has been on the board of directors since its founding. The CLC president will know which unions have resources that might go to starting a worker center and can introduce you to the right people. Larger CLCs may also have some of their own funds. Smaller ones won’t. The local CLC president will also know leaders of the state federation, which may be another source for modest start-up funds. The unions that organize workers that your center may reach may have a strategic interest in partnership with you. Unions involved with your work locally can connect you with their international offices and help explore whether there might be international funds available. The following are a few of the international unions that have supported worker centers: • The Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), which organizes construction laborers, has partnered with worker centers in the Northeast. • The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which organizes grocery workers and packinghouse workers, has collaborated particularly with centers located in poultry and meatpacking regions. • The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Workers Union (RWDSU), which merged into the UFCW, is a strong partner with New York City worker centers. • The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organizes health-care workers, janitorial workers, security guards, and other service workers. SEIU has worked closely with worker centers in communities where it is organizing workers in the sectors reached by worker centers—usually janitorial workers. • The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC, also just called “Carpenters”) organize carpenters and others who work on building projects served by carpenters. In recent years, the Carpenters have been very active on wage theft and wage fraud issues and have partnered with several worker centers. • The International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union (“Ironworkers”). The Ironworkers have been active supporters of worker centers in about ten communities where they are organizing workers or pressuring employers. For a relatively small union, the Ironworkers have been very active in supporting worker centers. • UNITEHERE. This union, which is a merger of various unions, mostly recently UNITE and HERE, was a founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center in New York City and has continued to work closely with ROC on its development. • The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (usually just called “Teamsters”). Th is union has partnered with worker centers that work with port drivers and warehouse workers. As with any large and diverse institution, there are some politics within the labor movement. Your local CLC president and other union allies involved in your planning

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team can help you understand who’s who and how to work best with various unions. If you can’t figure out who to work with in labor, contact Neidi Dominguez at the AFLCIO ([email protected]). Lawyers and law firms Lawyers and law firms that practice employment law generally don’t give large start-up funds, but some individual lawyers and firms will give in the $500 to $1,000 range. Law firms often will pay for the printing of workers’ rights materials (and review it to make sure it is correct). The firms will generally want their name on the publication as a means of marketing themselves, which is usually just fine. In Illinois, as of 2010, 501c3 nonprofit organizations can receive referral fees from attorneys. Although employment lawyers and employee-side law firms may not provide significant funds in the start-up phase, it is important to build relationships with them and get them giving now so you will be included in future giving opportunities. See more about this in chapter 29. Individuals The quickest source of start-up funds for worker centers is individuals. You may think that you don’t know individuals who can make sizable gifts, but you probably do, or someone in your planning team does. Review the giving lists of other social-action groups or social service groups in your town. Are there big givers that you or someone you know knows? Look at big political donors in your area. Someone who gives $500 to a political candidate could give your center that much or more. The Federal Election Commission keeps detailed records of contributions to federal election candidates. See its website (www.fec.gov) for searchable information. Your state may keep a comparable list of donors to state campaigns. Ask everyone on your planning team to list ten people he or she will approach about making an individual start-up gift. Doing this will not only get you new individual donors, but it will demonstrate which of your leadership team members are willing to work to build the center. Ask everyone on your leadership planning team to make a personally significant gift. This could be $10 or $10,000, but everyone should personally give. Use these lists of donors to begin building your database. The list may be on an Excel spreadsheet at first, but don’t lose anyone’s name and contact information. Be sure to document all conversations with potential and current donors. You may think you will remember details about them, but you probably won’t, and other staff members need the information as well. Write down information about their family members, hobbies, interests, backgrounds, and connections with your work. Events Most worker centers sponsor fund-raising events. They can be fun, engage your members, and bring in money, but be careful that you actually raise money. New Labor members organized parties to raise $3,500 for busses to go to Washington to lobby for immigration reform. Fe y Justicia’s members regularly organized barbecues in the early years. Centro de Trajabadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) has a pancake party. Some events take enormous amounts of volunteer time and raise $50 or $100. When events take lots of time and raise little money, you’d be better off training and sending your members to meet with individuals and organizations that can provide more substantial amounts of money.

Raising Start-up Funds and Donations

Sales of foods that cost little to produce, like egg rolls and tamales, can raise significant money once you have a large enough membership base to provide the labor and a strong outreach network to generate sales. “Dining Out for Justice” is an easy event. This is when a restaurant owner agrees to make a percentage donation for each customer referred by the center who patronizes the business on a particular day. These events don’t usually raise lots of money, but they are fun and don’t require much planning or preparation. See more about fund-raising events in chapter 19. Government sources Many worker centers receive absolutely no government funds, but many of the largest worker centers receive a good deal of public funding, primarily to provide various services. Many worker centers receive these funds directly or through an intermediary from the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, which grants monies to groups to train so-called “hard to reach workers,” like many of those served by worker centers. Although the Susan Harwood grants have lots of paperwork requirements, it funds work that most worker centers want to be doing anyway. Some worker centers get money from cities where they are located. Most worker centers that focus on day laborers and are affi liated with the National Day Labor Organizing Network campaign to get their cities or counties to donate space and resources to establish a day labor center. Casa de Maryland has gotten assistance to establish multiple welcome centers in the state. Cities respond to centers organizing day laborers in part because they desire to get folks off the street. Partnership grants Many worker centers partner with academic institutions, departments of public health, labor studies programs, women and work programs (particularly nontraditional ones), women’s studies programs, or other institutions to reach workers in low-wage jobs. The other institutions apply for and receive large grants and then provide sub-grants to the worker centers as partners in accomplishing the grant projects. These partnerships can be sizeable. For example, New Labor has a partnership grant with Rutgers University to train workers on health and safety issues. Building relationships with academic institutions and interested faculty members will enable you to be written into other institutions’ grants and receive partnership grants. Crowdfunding Consider whether you might raise some start-up funds via Indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com) or Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com). In-kind donations New worker centers need desks, paper, coffee pots, and other items that people and organizations might donate. Make a list of what you need and circulate it widely.

Build Relationships Never just send someone a piece of paper and expect the person to send money. Usually the person won’t. Raising money is relational. You must build relationships with donors, whether they are institutional donors (congregations or unions) or individual donors. It is all about building relationships. Get to know the people or institutions involved. What are their concerns? What are their values? How does supporting a worker center align with their values and concerns?

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What kinds of things have they given to in the past? What is their favorite charity and why? What first got them to give to their favorite charities? Spend more of your time asking questions and listening rather than talking. Building a relationship requires good listening and thoughtful questions. When donors are asked what motivates them to give, studies show that donors are most impressed with the passion and excitement of those asking. It isn’t the grand vision or the details of the program. It’s the passion and energy exhibited by the person doing the asking. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a vision and program, of course, but you must describe the work with passion and excitement. You also must get the donor excited about the work. And the donor or person responsible for the institution’s gift must like and trust you. If you are reaching out to a potential donor that you have never met, see if there is someone who knows the person who might go with you and introduce you or at least help you meet. The hardest part about soliciting funds from individuals, and sometimes also from organizations, is arranging the meeting. If you get a meeting, you can build a relationship. If you can build a relationship, you can ask for money. Building relationships takes time. It is not fast and easy. It is slow and requires thought and persistence. But relationships can generate start-up funds and they can build to long-term large donors over time. The more committed, passionate people you have on your leadership planning team, the more relationships you will be able to build.

Make “Asks” If you don’t ask for money, you won’t get it. If you don’t ask for start-up funds, you won’t get them. The more you ask, the more money you will raise. If you want to raise a fair amount of money, you must be prepared to hear “no” over and over. If you are turned down a lot, it means that you are asking lots of folks. Good! Kim Klein, a fund-raising guru for social-action groups says, “If you want money, you have to ask for it. If you ask enough people, you will get it. The word you will hear most often is ‘no,’ so your success depends on the number of people you ask. If no one has turned you down recently, it’s because you haven’t been asking enough. If you are afraid or uncomfortable asking for money, do it anyway. What you believe in has to be bigger than what you are afraid of.” This quote was taped on the stand-up fi le holder on Kim Bobo’s desk for her entire tenure as the executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice and helped encourage her to keep on asking. When you meet with people in organizations, ask for both organizational and individual contributions. Many union and religious leaders give through their organizations and individually. Also, ask for in-kind gifts such as paper, furniture, printing, or bookkeeping services. In-kind gifts should not replace money contributions, but they can supplement them. Your planning team must make a detailed plan of all the people you are going to reach out to. Create a system to make sure that everyone does the assigned outreach and asks without fail. If there are folks on your planning team who are deathly afraid of making asks (such people do exist), pair them with others who find it easier to do this. Fund-raising “asks” are like those done when organizing. You must ask and then keep your mouth shut. “Would you be willing to contribute $1,000 in start-up funds for

Raising Start-up Funds and Donations

this project?” Stop. “Could your union give $5,000?” Stop. Do not say another word. Let the person respond. Sometimes the person says no, he or she doesn’t want to give or can’t give right now. If it is a matter of timing, find out if there is a better time to ask. If the person has given all his or her charitable donations this year, ask if you might approach the person again next year. Sometimes the person is willing to give but not as much as you asked. Fine! Work with the person to figure out how much he or she feels she can give, or figure out what is appropriate contribution for an institution to make. Sometimes a person can’t give directly but can help you raise funds from others. Will the person host a house party? Will the program officer introduce you to other foundations? Will the lawyer host an informational session for other lawyers? Once you have agreed upon the contribution amount (for a foundation it may be the appropriate amount to request in a more formal proposal), clarify the next steps. What does the person or institution need? Is a letter needed? A full proposal? Otherwise what? Also clarify when you might receive the money or what the time frame is for the organization to make a decision.

Follow Up Sometimes you will walk away with a check, but more often there will be follow-up required to get a contribution. Immediately after your meeting, send a quick note or e-mail thanking the person for the meeting. If you have assigned follow-up tasks, indicate when you will complete them. “I will get you the full proposal next week.” Try to avoid delays, but if some of your follow-up gets delayed, contact the prospective donor and explain this. After you’ve built a relationship and asked for funds, the next step is simply doing related tasks and following instructions. If the donor needs a list of your leadership team, provide it. If the donor needs more information about your budget, work it out and send it. Do the follow-up. Jump through the hoops you need to. Fund-raising doesn’t just happen. It is hard work. Follow-up is not the fun part of fund-raising, but it is necessary for getting those start-up funds. Someone on your leadership team should be in charge of tracking all the outreach plans, requests, and follow-up tasks needed. Everyone must help with the outreach and work, but one person should keep a master list of what work is being done. This can easily be compiled on an Excel spreadsheet. Raising start-up funds can be fun. It can be the first opportunity for leadership development. Raising start-up funds can hone your message and vision as you talk repeatedly and answer questions about your work. Raising funds can get the word out about your program and begin engaging new volunteers as well as donors. And raising critical start-up funds will make your dreams become a reality. Think about fund-raising as organizing. The more people you get involved, the stronger your organization. You are not begging for money. You are asking people to contribute to a cause. It can be fun and certainly is important. Go for it!

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Hosting Workers’ Rights Training Sessions One of the most fundamental things worker centers do is educate workers about their employment rights and organize them to protect these rights and improve conditions in their workplaces. Every new worker center offers some sort of workers’ rights training. Worker centers are known for their passion. Their workers’ rights training sessions reflect this passion. They are not dry, fact-filled presentations. Rather, the sessions are engaging, build on workers’ experience, reflect understanding about how the political and economic system is not serving workers, and involve workers in figuring out their own solutions. This chapter will suggest various approaches centers have used to develop and conduct workers’ rights training sessions. Growing Your Expertise If you are going to offer workers’ rights educational workshops, some of your leadership must become well acquainted with the issues facing low-wage workers. Most worker centers begin learning about and training workers on dealing with wage theft, because it is such a common problem and workers are mad about not getting paid all the wages they have earned. Some worker centers have also become quite knowledgeable about health and safety issues. Although many victims of wage theft do not have adequate protections on the job, workers aren’t quite as angry about these issues until someone has been injured. Most worker centers do not help workers with workers compensation claims (money and health care for the work-related injury workers receive when they are injured on the job), because the process is fairly complicated in most states. Generally worker centers refer workers to workers’ comp attorneys who do not have to be paid upfront if they take a case (they accept a portion of the award), so you will want to become friendly with some good ones. (See the website of the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group—www.wilg.org—for suggested attorneys.) Some worker centers handle unemployment appeals, but they generally do not assist workers in fi ling unemployment claims. You can decide whether you want to do this or not. The following are several ways to approach growing your expertise on workers’ rights. 46

Hosting Workers’ Rights Training Sessions

Create materials, then presentations Some centers create a set of workers’ rights materials, often in multiple languages, and use the process of creating resources to gain self-understanding of the rights and avenues for addressing those rights in your community. Arise Chicago, Western North Carolina Workers’ Center, Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center, and many others started this way. Many groups have good workers’ rights materials that you can use as a template. A good resource for preparing these materials is Can My Boss Do That? (www.canmybossdothat.com). An initial transitional steering committee in Madison, Wisconsin, had a legal subcommittee, which developed the first Wisconsin Workers’ Rights Manual. The committee took the Chicago Interfaith Worker Center’s workers’ rights manual (with permission) and then added its specific state information. Attorneys and state agency staff reviewed it. The manual was translated into Spanish. This manual became an important tool in helping the organization’s volunteers understand which parts of labor law enforcement they could help with and how enforcement worked in Wisconsin. The process of creating the manual helped build ties with the state agency staff. This tool was essential for training the first volunteers. Workers’ rights materials can be prepared in booklet form, flyers, comics, or whatever form you think will work. Be sure to have the materials checked by an employment attorney to make sure you have covered the material accurately. Invite experts to give presentations One easy way to begin offering workers’ rights training sessions before your leaders feel comfortable with the issues is to invite experts to give presentations. Experts can include employee-side attorneys who specialize in wage and hour law or workers’ compensation law, union organizers or union lawyers who are really good on workers’ rights issues, or federal or state Department of Labor people who regularly provide workers’ rights training sessions. Generally such experts are happy to give presentations if you can get workers to attend. If your leadership team members sit in on the training sessions, they can learn the basic material in a fairly short time. Many new centers schedule a weekly class for eight or ten weeks and ask workers to commit to attending the entire class. A variety of experts can be lined up if your leadership is not comfortable yet with the material. Make sure the classes are taught using a popular education model, meaning that they draw on the lived experiences of workers and are highly engaging. You might have to coach attorneys and government staff on how to do this. These initial workers’ rights courses often develop centers’ first leaders. Anyone who would participate in eight or ten sessions is pretty committed! Be aware, however, that if you invite outside experts to lead sessions, your center’s leaders may have to inject the passion and vision into the session. Outside experts may not be familiar with popular education ways of engaging workers.

Regular Sessions at Your Office Many worker centers begin by offering a weekly introductory workers’ rights session. For many years, Houston’s Fe y Justicia offered a Wednesday night charla (chat) at its office. Fe y Justicia focused on Spanish-speaking workers, so the director (the sole staff person initially) made a twenty-minute presentation about workers’ rights, and then the group would discuss workers problems.

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Workers’ Dignity Project in Nashville hosts a workers’ rights training session the third Thursday of every month. Members of the organization explain what the organization does and why workers should become members. Then the members (not staff ) lead a workers’ rights training session. Workers can then meet with members or ally volunteers trained as advocates about their specific problems. If the workers are interested in direct action, the members lead a conversation about what an escalation of actions might look like and how the workers can organize with others to address problems. New Labor in New Jersey hosts a worker council meeting every three weeks. This meeting is open to the whole community. Leadership members of New Labor introduce the organization and provide the training. Then workers describe the problems they are experiencing and the whole group works on developing plans for how to act together and recover the unpaid wages. Offering a regular program gives you something to promote and use to gain traction and support in the community. Keep the day, time, and location consistent for a while, even if the numbers are small initially. These training sessions allow organizers of the newly created worker center to get to know the community and gather new contacts. If the center has not identified a campaign to work on, these training sessions could suggest potential areas of work. These sessions should not just be educational meetings, but also organizing ones. You should use the meetings not just to inform people, but also to engage them in finding solutions and getting involved in the organization. Ask people to discuss what they could do as a group to improve their working lives. If you anticipate having workers come who speak different languages, make sure you are prepared with people who speak these languages.

Outside Sessions Most worker centers that focus on working with day laborers do some workers’ rights training sessions outdoors where day laborers hang out. Jose Oliva, the first director of the Arise Chicago worker center, began his workers’ rights training efforts by leading workshops on the day labor corners in Chicago. Sometimes he’d be there at 5:00 a.m. in order to connect with people. Voces de la Frontera in Milwaukee offers training sessions outside temp agencies. Outdoor sessions have to be super short and super flexible. Workers will not want to listen if cars pull up and they have a possibility of getting hired for the day. Some worker centers have developed short skits, sometimes with large puppets, that can be done outdoors at community festivals and events. The National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) has developed a puzzle for doing training sessions on day laborer corners.

Sessions at Other Organizations Many organizations would like workers’ rights training sessions and would benefit from having them. Offering to conduct workers’ rights sessions at other organizations’ locations is a great way to have ready-made audiences. Most worker centers do a fair

Hosting Workers’ Rights Training Sessions

amount of this kind of outreach early in their histories. Explore offering workers’ rights training sessions for groups and at venues suggested below: Congregations serving workers in low-wage jobs Many congregations serve working-class families. These congregations are ideal for hosting workers’ rights training sessions. If you are working with Spanish-speaking people, check to see if there is someone in the Catholic diocese responsible for a “Hispanic Apostolate” who might help you reach out to all the Spanish-speaking parishes. Depending on the ethnic or racial groups you want to reach, there will likely be particular denominations and faith groups that are priorities. For example, if you are working with Burmese immigrants, connect first with the Baptists. If you are working with Korean immigrants, connect first with the Presbyterians. Consulates Many consulates have memorandums of understanding with the U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA and Wage and Hour Divisions. Some consulates have been instructed by their governments to provide workers’ rights training sessions. The Mexican, Ecuadoran, Nicaraguan, and Guatemalan consulates have such agreements and regularly work with community organizations. If there are consulate offices in your community, they may welcome your offering workers’ rights training sessions in their waiting rooms. The consulates are very eager to make sure citizens of their countries who are working in the United States understand U.S. labor laws. These training sessions have to be very short—no more than fi fteen or twenty minutes. Social service providers Frontline social workers come into contact with workers who may be having employment problems. These include tenant resource folks, drug treatment counselors, domestic violence agency workers, clergy, and public-aid caseworkers. By training these people on basic rights, they are better able to flag and identify violations, provide workers with accurate information, and know when and how to refer workers to the center. The Madison Worker Rights’ Center estimates that social service providers refer a third to half of the workers who come to the center. Community organizations Community organizations, block clubs, and ethnic associations may all be willing to sponsor workers’ rights training sessions, especially the ones that offer ESL classes. High schools Teenagers often work in jobs that are notorious for cheating workers, such as at restaurants and retail shops. Social studies teachers and others may be willing to have you speak to their classes. In many high schools, the last week of school, after grades have been submitted, is a good time for such programs. Elementary schools The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative has given a number of morning talks at Chicago elementary schools. Parents who drop off or walk their kids to school may stay for talks on workers’ rights. Community colleges Most students at community colleges work either full time or part time. Faculty may host you in classes, but so too might the job placement offices. Sporting events Soccer clubs are very popular among many immigrant groups. Some worker centers have distributed materials and offered short training sessions at soccer events.

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City council or aldermanic offices Members of the city council offer programs and services for their constituents. Ask friendly city council members if they might offer a workers’ rights training session. IRS-sponsored tax clinics From mid-January through mid-April, the Internal Revenue Service operates free, primarily volunteer-run clinics that assist low-income families in filing their taxes. Almost everyone who goes to these clinics works in a low-wage job. The program is called the VITA program—Volunteers in Tax Assistance. Check the IRS website to find the program nearest you: www.irs.gov/Individuals/Free-TaxReturn-Preparation-for-You-by-Volunteers. There are two opportunities for training. First, you might be able to offer training for the volunteers about how to spot typical wage theft programs and how they can refer workers to you. This would most likely occur in January during the training sessions for volunteers. Second, in busy locations, some people have to wait for an hour or two before a volunteer can assist them with their taxes. While people wait, you may be allowed to offer quick workers’ rights training. You must have permission of the site director to do this. Soup kitchens and shelters Many people have to use the services of soup kitchens and shelters because their jobs pay so little or their employers have stolen their wages. These agencies are very well connected to workers in low-wage jobs and appreciate the opportunity to provide training sessions to their clients. Finding good times may be challenging given the sometimes hectic schedules of both soup kitchens and shelters. Parent-teacher associations (PTAs) Many workers are active in their kids’ PTA. The Micah Center in Michigan has done workers’ rights training sessions at PTA meetings.

Training Goals Organizers of worker centers always have multiple goals when they are conducting training sessions. They certainly want workers to learn about their rights, but they also want them to be engaged in the training, meet other workers with similar concerns, and learn about the worker center. Content goals Figuring out the content of training is usually the easiest thing. Most worker centers offer training sessions on pay issues and health and safety. If you are doing a training session on pay issues, you will convey workers’ basic rights on: • • • • •

Minimum wage Overtime Last paycheck Deductions Employee versus independent contractor.

You also should talk about what the law doesn’t include. U.S. labor law does not cover very much. Workers have many fewer rights on the job than they sometimes think they do. The only way to guarantee fair treatment, vacation days, or other things not covered by the law is to organize. Workers should understand from your very first training session that the best way to address problems is by organizing. If you anticipate training undocumented immigrant workers, you should add information about immigrant workers’ rights and special protections against retaliation.

Hosting Workers’ Rights Training Sessions

Learning the basic workers’ rights training information is pretty simple. The laws can get complicated on particular subjects, but worker centers provide fairly basic education on core issues, like minimum wage and overtime. Unless you are an attorney or have an attorney on your staff who is supervising the training sessions, you must be very careful about not handing out legal advice to workers. You are merely providing workers’ rights information and training. About 90 percent of labor law is really straightforward. The remaining 10 percent gets complicated. So when workers ask you specifics about their cases, you should say that you are not an attorney and thus can’t answer their question from a legal point of view. Rather, you can explain how other workers have addressed their concerns through a variety of actions, and this worker may be able to do so as well. Most worker centers explain to workers that there are a variety of ways to address problems. Workers can fi le complaints with government agencies, be referred to an attorney who might fi le cases for them, organize unions in their workplaces, or do direct action with their coworkers. The worker centers often file cases with government agencies or refer workers to attorneys, and the worker centers are true experts in direct action. The best way to learn the training content is to write it down and then practice it. Write out word-for-word the details. You probably do not want to present the material by simply reading it, but it is a great way to learn it. Many new centers start by creating workers’ rights materials, which forces those who develop them to really learn the material. Once you have a few people who really know the content, they can help others learn it. Many worker centers have developed workers’ rights materials, so you can ask nearby centers for copies of these. Remember, laws vary by state and sometimes by community. The Department of Labor has materials available in different languages on its website. Organizing goals A worker center is an organizing and social change agent. You don’t want to just convey information. You want to involve people. You want your training sessions to • Encourage people to take action to address problems • Invite people to participate with your center • Give people a sense of their own power. You can meet your organizing goals in a variety of ways. You can: • Share success stories of how workers have recovered their unpaid wages by working with the worker centers (having workers themselves do this is most powerful). • Practice how workers can meet with or challenge their employers (or both). • Show a skit of workers confronting their bosses and winning back wages. • Allow time for people to introduce themselves so they feel a part of a group. • Make the training fun and positive. People will want to work with you further if the work is fun and hopeful. • Allocate time for workers to talk about how to improve working conditions in their workplaces. Talk about the gaps in the law and how workers can organize for change. • Collect names and contact information via a sign-in sheet. You want to be able to reach back to people. Always leave workers with information about how to connect with you and your center. They may not call or connect tomorrow, but they may well stop by in a few months when they are ready.

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Education about workers’ rights is best coupled with suggestions about follow-up and getting organized to defend those rights. When possible, do education and trainings within the context of your center’s campaigns to support workers’ demands and campaigns.

Popular Education Straight lectures tend to be boring and do not empower workers. Thus, most worker centers use popular education styles of education and training that build on workers’ experience and knowledge. As soon as you can, involve workers themselves in leading training sessions. For more information about popular education and how it arose, visit the Popular Education News website, www.popednews.org. Consider the following approaches for conveying the materials in a more interesting, popular education fashion. • Prepare a skit that two or three workers learn and give in training sessions about workers’ rights and what can be done about them. • Write a skit that workers who come to a training session can be recruited to take part in. Make sure to ask people privately in advance, as some are not comfortable doing so or don’t have adequate reading skills. • Put big signs around the room outlining the basic laws, issues, and definitions. Then have the facilitator read a worker scenario and ask which laws apply. For each scenario, ask the group to brainstorm how to address the problem. • Divide a large group into small groups of three or four people. Give each group a worker scenario and ask the groups to figure out how the employer has violated the law. Also, ask each group to figure out what the worker should do. Each group can then present its findings and solutions to the other groups. See appendix E for popular education training resources on workers’ rights and leadership development.

Comic Book Resources There are several new workers’ rights comic books available in both English and Spanish. These are terrific new resources that teach workers’ rights in an accessible format. Order Wage Theft: Crime & Justice, Robo de Salarios: Crimen Y Justicia, and Worker Justice Illustrated from Interfaith Worker Justice (www.iwj.org) and Food Chain Avengers: A Food Justice & Worker Justice Comic Book from the Food Chain Workers Alliance (www.foodchainworkers.org).

Health and Safety Training Thanks in large part to the Susan Harwood grants provided by OSHA, there are many health and safety training materials for use with a wide variety of sectors and in multiple languages. Before you create your own health and safety training materials, check the Susan Harwood–produced materials section of the OSHA website at www.osha. gov/dte/grant_materials/.

Creating Early Programs and Actions

Figure 2 Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa leaders organize for community identification cards.

Photo courtesy of Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa. Photo by Statia Scott.

Worker centers build power among workers, help workers address workplace problems, and advocate improved wages and working conditions for all workers. Once your leadership team has surveyed the community, fleshed out its basic vision, and begun fund-raising, it will want to begin working on some early programs and actions that can get workers to your center, build power for workers, and demonstrate the ability of the worker center to make a difference in workers’ lives. Chapter 6 looked at how to prepare and conduct worker’s rights education programs. This chapter reviews other kinds of early programs and actions that worker centers can undertake in their first year or two of existence. 53

7

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Chapter 7

The programs and actions overall should be designed to reach workers, build leadership among workers, and prove the effectiveness of the worker center, usually through some concrete “wins.” Sometimes worker centers need to focus on getting folks in the door before they can focus on organizing. You also want to generate some positive media coverage for the center because it will help you reach workers and impress potential funders.

Figure Out Ways to Help There are lots of ways to help workers who are having problems in the workplace. Many centers begin by helping lots of individual workers. This can build your leaders’ expertise on the issues and the credibility of your center. Over the long term, however, you do not want to do just individual casework. Most centers that begin helping workers individually are overwhelmed with cases within a year or two. As quickly as possible figure out how to move from individual casework to organizing programs that involve groups of workers in planning and implementing campaigns. Most worker center leaders believe that organizing should be the core focus of worker centers and that services should function to support organizing. Services should draw people into the organization and acquaint them with the mission and the organization. Most worker centers offer a mix of education and service programs and organizing work, although organizing campaigns are best for building power among workers. Creative and often bold organizing is a distinguishing characteristic of worker centers. Thus, to the extent possible, try to build in some organizing approaches early on. Your worker center can: Organize a hiring hall If you are working with day laborers, the first program you will probably undertake is organizing a hiring hall. A hiring hall should help workers obtain employment at a fair price. In order to get workers off the street and working together in a hiring hall, you must make sure your “hall” is located in a convenient spot for workers and employers. You then must figure out how to get employers to seek workers from the hall. Worker centers can not only tap the existing community that is hiring day laborers but can promote the hiring of workers from the centers through their broader community connections. Workers themselves set the rates and conditions for hiring. The National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) and its affi liated worker centers have extensive experience in setting up and getting workers participating in the structural and daily operations of the hiring hall. Ask NDLON for a copy of its publication Building Community: The Components of a Day Labor Worker Center Model if you are building a center focused on day laborers. Only worker centers that work with day laborers organize hiring halls. Others do not. Help workers file claims with government agencies Many workers are unfamiliar with the laws that protect them or uncomfortable filling out claim forms, and they may be fearful of government agencies. Your center can assist workers in fi ling claims. Depending on how quickly or effectively the government agency follows up on the cases, this may or may not be a helpful approach. Workers will certainly appreciate the assistance with forms but will not be favorably impressed if their cases flounder for months

Creating Early Programs and Actions

(or years) at a government agency. The center may find itself pressing the agencies to move more expeditiously. Send “demand letters” to employers Your center can recruit volunteer attorneys or hire one who can assist workers in sending formal letters to employers demanding that they pay workers the wages owed them. You may also use a form letter (on worker center letterhead) that has been vetted by an attorney and then signed by the affected workers themselves. These letters, along with simple follow-up calls, will sometimes help workers get their money back. Refer workers to other agencies or attorneys Although serving as a referral agency is not the most interesting thing you can do, depending on the follow-through of the agencies or attorneys, it may help workers. Perhaps you can ask the agencies or attorneys to meet with workers at your center to at least get folks used to coming to your center. This could be a good way to build relationships with government agencies or attorneys. Organize a worker association or connect with a union Some workers have so many problems in their workplaces that they clearly need to organize other workers to address the problems. Sometimes creating a worker committee or a worker association is adequate for addressing the problems. In other workplaces, workers need to form a union. A 501c3 worker center is not structured as a union and thus cannot organize workers into a union, but it can connect workers with unions who organize in their particular sector or it can support workers in forming their own 501c5 union. See chapter 16 for more information on partnering with unions and building worker associations. Organize a community campaign to improve standards or enforcement There are lots of campaigns that can make a huge difference for workers, but you generally need a base of workers to lead the campaigns. The chapters in section 2 of this book have much more information about how to plan and run campaigns. Most worker centers do not take on a broad community campaign until they have a good base of workers and supporters involved. Organize a women’s program Within some immigrant communities, women are reluctant to step forth into leadership roles, and many woman are uncomfortable talking about the discrimination or sexual abuse they experience in the workplace in a public setting. Many worker centers find it helpful to create a special, safe apace for women to talk about the problems they experience and to develop leadership skills. The Western North Carolina Worker Center created its Mujeres Luchadores (Women Fighting for Justice) Program. The program brings women in the door of the center, enables them to talk about the discrimination and sexual abuse they experience in the workplace, and provides leadership training opportunities. The center sponsors an annual women’s congress.

Offer Wage Theft Clinics or Strategy Sessions Another initial program approach is simply to start helping workers deal with their wage theft problems. Worker centers often offer regular wage theft clinics. Set an evening or two or a weekend time during which workers are invited to visit and someone will help them address their wage theft problems. You will need to have

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figured out ahead of time your procedures for helping. Will you begin by fi ling a complaint with a government agency? Will you send a demand letter? Will you plan direct actions? Will you refer cases to competent lawyers? Usually the first paid staff person and volunteers staff these clinics. Some groups use the clinics as leadership development opportunities for their members, as described in the preceding chapter. In Nashville, Workers Dignity decided that its clinics would only be led by its worker leaders, not its paid staff person, and that the clinics would focus on developing worker-led direct action strategies. When a group of hotel housekeepers came into a clinic in 2013 and told of sub-minimum wages paid at downtown Best Western and Comfort Suites hotels, the workers themselves and other worker leaders launched a broad community campaign. Not only did workers win back wages, the company also improved wages and breaks. Since then, Workers Dignity has made “Just Hospitality” a long-term campaign targeting the cleaning industry in hotels. The campaign has been enormously successful, winning victories for workers at Sheraton, DoubleTree, and Super 8, and putting the organization on the map. Since the fall of 2014, every Thursday between twenty-five and forty people go to the worker center for meetings, training sessions, and planning. Workers’ Dignity’s Just Hospitality campaign aims at improving conditions for all cleaning workers in metro Nashville, and workers have developed their own code of conduct for area hotels. What began as a relatively small direct action campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of the center and set it up for its longer-term campaign and direction.

Develop Formal Relationships Some worker centers develop formal relationships with government agencies and a central labor council as part of its early program. It is important to take workers with you when you have these meetings and give them a role to play. Partnership with government agencies Developing a good working relationship with government agencies that handle workers’ rights disputes is important and could be a good first achievable project. The following are the first agencies to reach out to: • Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. This division enforces the national minimum wage and overtime laws (and many other laws). Find the nearest office at www.dol.gov/whd/america2.htm. • State department of labor. Almost every state has its own department of labor, although most state agencies are woefully understaffed. Regardless of the effectiveness of your state agency, it is worth meeting with the state agency staff and understanding how the agency works and how you might work together. • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Some OSHA programs are run by the federal government and some are administered by state agencies. Either way, you should meet with OSHA enforcement staff people. To find the nearest OSHA office: www.osha.gov/html/RAmap.html. • National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB enforces the law that gives employees the right to act together to try to improve their pay and working conditions and protect their rights on the job, with or without a union. If employees are fired, suspended, or otherwise penalized for taking part in protected group activity

Creating Early Programs and Actions

(usually involving two or more people), such as discussing pay, wage theft, or working conditions, the NLRB can help protect those workers and restore what was unlawfully taken away. The biggest limitation of this agency is that it cannot get an undocumented worker his or her job back if it is known that he or she cannot work legally. The agency will recover back wages and will not report the worker, but it may not be able to get an undocumented worker his or her job back if fired. But for documented workers, this agency is a great one to make sure workers can act together without getting fired or harassed and thus is an important one for worker centers to know about. Find the nearest NLRB office at www.nlrb.gov/whowe-are/regional-offices. • State attorney general’s office. The attorney general plays an important role in many states in taking to court cases that were investigated but not settled by state departments of labor. Many worker centers work closely with attorneys in attorney general’s offices. Over time, you should also build relationships with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) that handles discrimination cases. Like most labor agencies, the EEOC does not have enough staff to pursue all the cases that come to it, but its staff members tend to be highly dedicated. Some cities may have an office of civil rights or an office of labor standards that you should work with. You may also work with your state’s department of transportation, around how employers or temp agencies transport workers, or your state’s department of business or commerce on shady ways employers use check cashing to pay (and cheat) their workers. The first part of building a relationship is just getting to know the people and understanding what work they do. Share your vision of the worker center and perhaps even your thoughts on how change for workers in the community can happen. Seek to understand their work and ways of operating. Explore ways that working together can meet your (and their) goals and visions. Next you want to explore how you can send government offices cases in ways that will be most effective. Some agencies assign particular people for worker centers to work with. Others create particular forms for the worker centers to complete for the agencies. If you want the agency to train your volunteers or staff or to offer an expert workshop, you can ask them when you meet with them. Sometimes agencies and worker centers sign a memorandum of understanding on how they will cooperate. Other times it is a huge deal to obtain such a memo and not worth the time and trouble. Partnership with a central labor council The AFL-CIO, the national organization that represents most unions (although not SEIU, the Teamsters, and Carpenters—all important ones for worker centers), has developed a formal process by which worker centers can affiliate with local central labor councils. This is an excellent way to develop ongoing relationships with the labor movement and get the word out about your existence. (A central labor council exists in all large cities. In more rural areas, a council may cover many counties.) See chapter 16 for more information on formal relationships. Many worker centers around the country have taken advantage of this opportunity to formally affiliate with the AFL-CIO. If your central labor council has never affiliated with

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any organization other than a union, it may take some time for it to work through the process. Although you don’t want this to be the only project your center takes on, because it may do little to engage workers, it can be a very tangible project to undertake in year one.

Organize a Modest-scale Direct Action Campaign Many employers who don’t pay workers all their wages do so because they believe no one is watching and that there will be few or no consequences for stealing workers’ wages. Worker centers desire to change this view. Employers who routinely steal wages from workers should experience consequences. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Worker centers help bring wage theft to light by bringing a group of workers and allies to an employer’s place of business or home and demanding full payment of wages. Direct action to recover unpaid wages is generally the fastest approach for getting money, and, when successful, it is the most empowering for workers and their allies. (If workers go to court, they are entitled to double damages, twice the owed wages, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, so workers might opt for the higher wages even if it might take longer.) If you are considering direct action, make sure you have strong evidence or a finding from an agency to back up your public claims. Also, make sure the worker is committed to participating in the action and is willing to be seen in the public. Workers who are undocumented are sometimes identified publicly as undocumented, which can hinder future job prospects. Workers need to understand the risks. And worker centers must accept that some workers, perhaps many, may not want to undertake direct action initially for fear of retaliation. Often this fear is legitimate and must be acknowledged and respected. Workers may move beyond their fears and be willing to take action, but it is often a process, and you can’t push people. Your first direct actions should be focused on cases you can win without too much effort. So, how do you know if you can win? You can probably win if: • The employer cares about his or her reputation in the community. • The place of business is visible in the community and dependent on walk-in business. It is easy to disrupt restaurants, retail stores, groceries, and other visible businesses. • Workers and allies purchase goods or services from the employer and thus it is easy to see how your work could hurt their business. This is not true for various manufacturing or other types of firms. • The employer is making decent money. It is harder to win when an employer is just scraping by. • The business depends on government contracts. The very threat that a company’s contract could be in jeopardy usually brings employers into compliance quickly. For public awareness and media attention, it is good if the situation can: • Be somewhat egregious. Workers earning significantly below the minimum wage (e.g., $3 an hour) will be a much more compelling situation than those earning just a few cents below the minimum wage. Other details may also be compelling. For example, one time Arise Chicago (formerly Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues) was supporting a group of laundry workers who were being mistreated. The issue that generated people’s outrage was when they learned that these workers, in hot and sweaty working conditions, were denied drinking water.

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• Involve a group of workers. This is not just an individual problem. This is a group problem. • Focus on an employer who is known in the community and perhaps one who likes to be known for all his or her charitable or social concerns. • Avoid attacking likely allies or close friends of allies. Once you are established, if you believe you need to challenge someone in your community sphere, you can do so—carefully. But you certainly do not want to do a direct action early on against someone close to or respected by your key allies. For example, you would not want one of your first direct actions to be focused on a generally good union employer or a charitable foundation or a congregation. Once you start direct action with an employer, you must continue till you win. Make sure the organization is willing and able to commit the time and resources to win. Your direct action must send a loud and clear message to other employers in the community that the worker center won’t give up. Your direct action protests will serve as deterrents against wage theft among other employers. Direct actions are great ways to win real victories for workers, give workers a sense of their own power, and generate publicity for the center. See chapter 12 for more information on mastering direct actions.

Organize a Wage Theft Study or Task Force Some worker centers have gotten themselves on the map by undertaking a wage theft study and then releasing a report or calling on the city or county to establish a wage theft task force to investigate the problem. Both of these can be good first projects. Organize a wage theft study The Micah Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before it was officially a worker center, organized a wage theft survey. Workers and allies were recruited to talk with others about the problem. A short report was released that showed that wage theft was widespread in Grand Rapids. New Labor and Seton Hall University did a study on wage theft among construction workers in Newark, New Jersey. This report triggered energy for creating policy around wage theft. A wage theft study is a good project on which to collaborate with academic allies. Sometimes a professor will oversee an entire class working on the study. Make sure, though, to find ways to engage workers in the process so you build your own leadership in the process of the study. Workers can help conduct surveys, bring other workers to the center to be surveyed, and run meetings informing workers of the survey process. A wage theft study forces your leadership to document problems and develop clear solutions. The process will help the organization clarify its understanding and begin developing messages it will likely use for the next few years. Studies are great for generating media coverage. Your leaders can speak at a press conference talking about the result of the study and their own experiences. You can promote your center as the solution to the crisis of wage theft in your town. Form a wage theft task force Another good first project is to organize a community wage theft task force to investigate the problem and propose solutions. You could organize the task force yourself, recruiting some of your leaders and key allies to serve on it,

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or you could do a mini organizing campaign to get the mayor to create such a task force. There are pluses and minuses to each approach. The task force can: • Hold community hearings to learn about the problem. • Invite community experts to testify about the problems and what could be done. • Issue a report about the problems and possible solutions (including establishing a worker center). • Find out what wage theft cases are pending in federal and local courts. • Hold a press conference about the report. • Call upon the mayor or county to strengthen enforcement. Make sure you agree with the recommendations around strengthening enforcement because you may end up wanting to advocate them.

Getting Workers in the Door Some centers at the beginning struggle to get folks in the door. Many centers offer various services to get folks coming in and keep new workers coming in on a regular basis. The most common services that draw workers to centers are: Computer classes New Labor’s first program was computer classes, from which the organization built a base of members. English as a Second Language (ESL) classes Most new immigrants who don’t speak English want to learn it. ESL classes have been offered at probably one hundred worker centers. Some large centers, like Make the Road, Casa Latina, and Casa de Maryland continue to offer ESL classes on a regular basis. Specific skills training If you are focused on a particular sector of workers, offer specific training in skills for that sector. Record-expunging workshops Many workers have criminal records that limit their job opportunities. Hosting a workshop on how to get some of those records expunged is a big draw in many communities. Immigration assistance If you are capable of providing some sort of assistance with immigration documents, this can get lots of people in the door. Make sure you really are prepared to handle this. Find active and well-respected local immigration lawyers. Job fairs. Lots of workers are in need of jobs. If you can organize a job fair, you will get folks in the door. All of these projects and campaigns are typical for new worker centers and good for getting experience, generating publicity about your work, and making real improvements for workers. If you can achieve it, winning a campaign will do the most to build your center quickly. Choose one or more of these approaches or develop some of your own. Whatever you do, move forward. Planning is good, but too much planning without doing real work will discourage workers and lead to volunteer burnout. Bite off a few projects and go!

Hiring Great Staff

8

Worker centers need staff to function and grow. Although almost all worker centers begin with a group of dedicated volunteers or perhaps even one or two dedicated visionaries, a center needs dedicated staff for it to grow and flourish. Sometimes the initial staff person is obvious—the person who is driving the creation and vision of the center. Other times, the volunteer leadership conducts a formal search process. This chapter is designed to assist the leadership team in hiring its first staff person, who is usually the director. Once a director is in place, the director should be authorized to hire other staff. Sometimes a new center is in the position of being able to hire a couple of new staff members initially. If this is the case, it is best to hire the director first and allow him or her to hire the others. The leadership team should seek staff with a set of relevant core values and skills, and then you will want to support the person in learning other skills. Building and running a worker center is a big job. No one immediately has all the skills they need to do it well, so seek a person who has the fundamental values, some basic skills that are hard to learn quickly, and a willingness to learn other skills. Prepare for Hiring Before you hire a person, your leadership team needs to have the following in place. Money Although you don’t have to have all your money in place, you should have some money and some commitments for money lined up before you actually hire someone. Always be honest and aboveboard in conversations with prospective staff about money. Consider the real costs of staff, which include payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and benefits. The most expensive benefit is health care, which is clearly essential for most workers and their families. The biggest cost will be salary. How much are you going to offer? This is a tricky number as you start out. On the one hand, you probably don’t have enough money to offer a large salary. On the other hand, offering a bit more in salary may get you a more experienced candidate who will be better equipped to raise money and build the program. Most staff members of worker centers are not in the jobs for fabulous salaries but are there because they are deeply committed to the work. Nonetheless, you don’t want your staff worrying about having enough to eat or survive. Most worker centers seek to provide a modest salary and then work to raise it and the benefit package over time. Ask allied social justice organizations about reasonable salaries. 61

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Some of the basic legal stuff You do not have to have all your legal paperwork completed, particularly the 501c3 application or state sales tax exemption, but you do need to have gotten a Federal Employment Identification Number (FEIN), found a fiscal agent for handling your funds until you can get your own 501c3 tax designation, and figured out what you need to do in terms of state unemployment taxes and state workers’ compensation insurance. Your fiscal agent should be able to help on figuring some of this out. See chapter 9 (“Doing the Legal Stuff ”) for more details. A job description Creating a job description allows your leadership team to talk about the values and skills sought in a staff person. Although a job description can be modified based on experience, it provides an overview of the work you want done by a staff person. If you are hiring for multiple staff positions, you should have multiple job descriptions. Sometimes when you are hiring multiple staff members, you will discover that people’s skills and experience don’t quite match how you’ve outlined them in your job descriptions. It is fine to revise job descriptions modestly to take advantage of the combination of skills and experiences you found in your candidates. Work plan In addition to a job description, each staff person should have a basic work plan that outlines the goals and objectives he or she needs to achieve in the course of the year. Often when a board hires its first staff person, the process of ironing out the work plan is done in collaboration with the staff person. The work plan should focus on the organizational priorities as set by the board and the commitments made in grant agreements. Sometimes the job description is detailed enough to serve as a work plan, but usually the job description is a more general document and the work plan sets the expectations upon which the staff person will be evaluated. Although you want your staff to help flesh out goals and objectives, the leadership team should have some goals and objectives for year one that it wants the staff to help it achieve. The goals and objectives, combined with the job description, help the candidates understand what is expected of them. If you’ve followed the visioning process outlined in chapter 4 you should have a good idea of the first-year priorities. Basic benefits Staff members need to know what benefits they will receive. Although it would be ideal to have a full personnel policy in place before hiring, this is something you could work with the new staff person on developing. Nonetheless, you should have a few things, like sick days, holidays, and vacation days thought through so you can mention them in the hiring process and put them in a hiring letter. For organizers who tend to work long hours and lots of nights and weekends, it is good to have a flextime policy, but be careful on how this is worded. You don’t want organizers and senior leadership staff to think that if they work one extra hour that they should get one hour off, or that they can take a month off after working lots of overtime the previous month. You want to encourage hard, but steady work so that people pace themselves and don’t burn out. Health care is challenging for a variety of reasons. It is expensive for everyone. The cost varies greatly based on someone’s family size, age, gender, and health. And as a new organization, you don’t have a health insurance plan already in place. In addition, sometimes staff members can be on their spouses’ or partners’ insurance. Consequently, health care could cost you nothing (if the person is on someone else’s plan) or

Hiring Great Staff

it could cost $18,000 annually to cover a full family (in some markets). Needless to say, as a worker justice organization, you want to provide full family health insurance, but it can be costly and some groups can’t provide full coverage initially. The Affordable Care Act has opened up many more affordable health care options via health exchanges. Your planning group must discuss this issue and consider what it can and should do in terms of providing health insurance. For more details on how to think about benefits, see Walking the Walk: A Values-Centered Approach to Building a Strong Nonprofit, by Aina Gutierrez. Commitment Do you want to ask candidates for a multiple-year commitment to stay in the position? Although it is next to impossible to hold people to this commitment, it does convey how important it is to you that a person be in the position for a few years. Do you want to ask for a two-year commitment? A three-year commitment? Moving costs If your dream candidate is out of town, are you willing to help move the person to your town? If so, how much are you willing to pay for moving? (Better to spend a little on moving costs to get a great candidate than settle for someone less qualified.) Office Do you have an office where the person can work? Or is the person expected to work from home and then help the organization find an office? Having an office space for the center is important because it provides continuity and grounding for the work. Having a physical office space helps workers know where to find you. The place does not have to be perfect but needs to be accessible. Churches, unions, and other nonprofits may be willing to share office space with the center for free or for a small rent. Equipment Does the office have equipment (computer, printer, phone), or does it need to be purchased or gained via donation? Can someone donate desks and chairs? Will the organization get the staff person a cell phone, or will you reimburse the person for using his or her own phone? If the organization plans to reimburse for the phone, what will the rate of reimbursement be?

Staff Structure If your leadership team is only going to hire one staff person, you don’t need to think much about staff structure, but as soon as you have more than one staff person, the issue must be addressed. Thus, you may want to at least have an initial conversation about the issue of staff structure even if you are only hiring one person. There is a tendency among many new and small worker centers to create a completely “flat” staffing structure—one in which all staff members are directly accountable to the board and no one is the director. Given worker centers’ commitment to equity and fairness and what bad experiences many people have had with bosses, it is understandable why groups might want this. Although this nonhierarchical approach sounds good in theory, it seldom works well and we strongly discourage it. Here are a few of the problems such flat structures experience: • No one is in charge. When everything is going perfectly, it may be fine to have no one in charge, but when does everything go perfectly? Organizations need someone who is ultimately responsible to deal with problems.

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• Boards are poor managers. Boards have a hard time supervising and evaluating one person, let alone trying to support more than one staff person. Generally it just doesn’t happen, and thus staff are not supported, trained, or evaluated appropriately. • Staff members are unaccountable. One poorly performing staff member in a flat-structured worker center said, “I have no boss, so I can do what I want.” • Staff tensions are unresolved. With almost any size staff there are tensions. Usually it is the director’s job to try to resolve tensions or deal with staff performance issues. In a flat structure, staff members have no one to turn to when there are tensions. While theoretically they might turn to the board leadership, this is usually not done, and easing staff tension is a terrible use of board talent. • Funders are confused. One rule of fund-raising is that funders give money to people, not programs. Fundamentally most foundations and large donors give money to a person they trust will use money wisely. Without the person there being responsible, the donors don’t want to give. A flat structure is not helpful for most fund-raising. One worker center had a standard structure (a director who was responsible for supervising two others staff members), but then the staff members were put on the board of directors. This situation created an untenable situation for the director. How could one adequately supervise one’s staff members if they were on your board and thus responsible for supervising you? It is difficult for a worker center to grow without a strong leader. One would be hardpressed to find a worker center that has taken its work to scale with a flat structure. There are examples of co-directors that work, but not overall flat staff structures with no one in charge. Most workers, especially young workers and workers new in a position, need supervision and guidance. Such guidance is difficult to provide if no one is a supervisor. Co-director models work well when the co-directors are very experienced long-term colleagues who know one another well and have very clear divisions of labor. The co-director model does not work if imposed by a board with two people who do not know or trust one another well.

Key Values and Skills to Seek No one will have everything you want in a director or staff position. So it is important to be clear on what is essential to bring to the job and what can be learned or developed on the job. Most worker centers place a very high value on hiring people from the community and constituency. They want people who have personally experienced some of the workplace problems the center addresses. All people hired on your staff should have the core values you seek. The first hired staff and the director should also have a good base in the skills you seek. The following seem to be essentials for the job: Commitment to workers and worker justice Your staff person must be committed to the very mission of the center. Work ethic and self-motivation You should not have to worry about whether someone is working.

Hiring Great Staff

Good relationship-building skills A director or worker center organizer must have good people skills in order to recruit volunteers, recruit donors, and work with the leadership team. One’s ability to build an organization depends in large part on one’s ability to build relationships with people. Language skills If you are working with an ESL population, your director or organizer may need particular language skills. These cannot be acquired quickly. Positive spirit A director or organizer needs a can-do spirit. This doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t get frustrated or angry every so often, but the person must be focused on making things happen. Experience with organizing Although there are many organizing skills that can be learned, most organizers have been organizing all their lives. They see a need and they create something. They organize soccer clubs, singing groups, high school walkouts, or community support groups. Look for people who have created something out of nothing, even if just as a volunteer. Most organizers have had to do some public speaking, even if not formal speeches. Writing skill The leader of a new center needs to be able to write. The person doesn’t have to be a brilliant writer, but he or she must be able to create copy for the website, e-alert, press release or newsletter, write a funding proposal, and prepare a board agenda. Well-written e-mails conveys a sense of professionalism that helps establish the organization’s credibility. A person’s writing skills can improve over time, but it will be hard to move forward if the person’s communications skills are poor. Self-awareness and willingness to grow If someone can admit weaknesses and seek help, the person will grow. If a person is defensive about weaknesses, it is hard to support the person in growing. Ability to manage multiple projects During the first years of the center the director or the organizer will have to manage multiple areas of work, such as fund-raising, organizing, and administrative work. When you are only hiring one or two people, it is really important that the person or persons hired be able to juggle multiple projects and kinds of work effectively. The following are skills that it would be nice if someone had, but they are all skills that can be learned relatively quickly (within a year or two): • • • • •

Fund-raising skills Media skills (speaking and writing) Board development skills Research Familiarity with the labor movement.

Develop the Hiring Process There is no perfect process for hiring staff. Your leadership team should figure out how it wants to proceed and make sure everyone agrees on the process. Be sure to stress confidentiality in the process, which means that you should not talk about the candidates outside of the leadership team.

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Decide what you want from candidates It is standard to ask for a resume, a cover letter, writing samples, and names and contact information for three references. You can ask for other things if you wish. Decide where resumes are to be sent Will they go to the e-mail address of someone on your leadership team, or should you set up a separate e-mail account just to collect the resumes? Set a deadline By when do you want all resumes submitted? Will you wait till that deadline to hire? Review all resumes Given the rough economy and what great work it is to build a worker center, you may get lots of resumes. Some leadership teams like to have everyone review every resume. Others ask a few people to sort through the resumes and sort them into piles, such as “great,” “maybe,” and “no.” It is best to get the number of resumes down to a manageable number, perhaps five or six at the most. Call all the top candidates Ideally one person, or perhaps a couple of people, should call all the top candidates and ask them a standard set of questions. These screening calls will take thirty to sixty minutes each. The questions should be pretty open-ended, such as the following: • • • • • • • •

Why do you want to work for the worker center? What experience prepares you for this job? What have you organized or built? What languages do you speak? How fluent are you? What have you written? What experience do you have with the labor movement? Have you ever raised money for an organization? If so, how much and from whom? Have you ever worked with or served on a board? What did you learn from that experience? • Are you willing to make a commitment of two or three years to the position? • What do you consider your strengths for the job? Areas in which you can grow? Several of these questions should be ones that allow you to narrow the pool of candidates. For example, if you want a three-year commitment and the person can’t make that long of a commitment, then you need to drop the person from consideration. If you need someone who speaks Spanish, because part of the vision of the center is to work with Spanish-speaking immigrants, the language question becomes another critical one. If someone responds to the question about labor by spewing anti-union rhetoric, the person is not a good fit for the work. Asking why the candidate wants the job enables you to understand the person’s motivation and passion for the work. An organizer and director of a worker center needs to have some experience that is relevant. The person should have organized something else before, even if it was simply a volunteer organization. Organizers organize. They create something out of nothing and see possibilities when others see only difficulties. A director of a worker center will need to have organizing experience and ability. The question about strengths and weaknesses is a good way to assess how honest and self-aware a person is. If the only weakness a person can identify about himself or

Hiring Great Staff

herself is something like, “Oh, I work too hard sometimes,” the person is either not very honest or not very self-aware. Mature and self-confident candidates (the kind you want to hire) are honest about themselves and know themselves. Reference checking Reference checking is essential. Too often it is either not done or not done in thoroughly. Do not skip reference checking. It will help you understand your candidates and the areas in which they might need to grow. Everyone needs to grow, but some things are easier to teach and learn than others. First look at who is on a candidate’s list of references. Has a candidate listed previous employers or supervisors? If not, why not? It will not serve your interests to talk with a candidate’s best friends. You want to talk with those who supervised the candidate, not just colleagues. Is there someone on the list of references whom someone on your leadership team knows well enough to call and be sure of getting an honest assessment? Who else could you call who knows the person? Some of the most important references are people not on the list but whom you know and who knows the candidate. These references will likely give you the most accurate assessments. Here are some questions to ask references: • • • • • • • • • • • •

How long have you known the candidate and in what capacity? What was the work the candidate did? Why did she or he leave your organization? What in general are the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses (or growth areas)? What are the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses related to the job? (You might have to explain the job a bit.) Does the candidate work hard? Is she or he consistent with hours and work? How is her or his Spanish (or whatever language pertains)? How are her or his writing skills? What did she or he write? How does he or she present in public settings? Would you rehire the person? Why or why not? Whom else should I talk with about the candidate? Is there anything else I should know or explore?

If a reference can’t identify a candidate’s growth areas, the reference is either not being completely honest or doesn’t know the candidate very well. Everyone has growth areas and weaknesses. Push on this. You need to know. When an official reference, someone listed by the candidate, does not appear to know the candidate’s work very well, you should be concerned. Why doesn’t the person have someone who knows his or her work well listed as a reference? Narrow candidates to two or three Based on the calls with candidates and the reference checking, narrow your candidates to two or three for personal interviews. If a candidate is from out of town, you can arrange an interview by Skype, but an in-person interview is always preferable. Interview candidates Sometimes a small committee is asked to be the interview team. Other times, the entire leadership team wants to interview the final candidates. Either can work. One person should serve as the interview coordinator who welcomes the candidate to the interview and outlines the process. You should have a standard set of

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questions that all candidates are asked (similar to the questions asked of the candidates by phone). In addition, you should ask questions that are candidate-specific and reflect concerns you have. Be sure to leave time at the end for the candidate to ask the interview team questions. You might consider having one or two “exercises” for the finalists. For example, ask the person to prepare a five-minute talk on wage theft. Or at the end of the interview, ask the person to take ten minutes and draft a simple press release on a simple topic. The first exercise will demonstrate the candidates’ speaking ability. The second exercise will demonstrate writing skills. Rank candidates Is there one candidate you want to hire? Is there a first choice, but would you be very happy with the second choice? Rank your candidates, and decide how you want to proceed. Recognize that just because you offer a job does not mean the person will accept it. Offer the job Usually one person is designated to call the first-choice candidate and offer the job. At this point, the person usually wants to understand the salary, benefits, and so forth. Do the best you can to answer and respond. You may need to go back to the leadership team on some matters. You should also clarify the starting date and any other details. Send an offer letter Once the person accepts the job, send a formal job offer letter, clearly outlining the wages, benefits, and expectations. If you have a personnel policy, include it. Call other candidates you interviewed Any candidate you personally interviewed should be called and told that he or she did not get the job. This is not pleasant but is the right thing to do. Notify other candidates Notify all other people who applied, by e-mail or mail, that the position has been filled. Most organizations don’t do this, but again it is the right thing to do and reflects your center’s values. Avoid conflicts of interest No one who is a candidate for the position or a relative of the candidate should be a part of the hiring process. Anyone who has some other conflict of interest around the position should also be removed from the process.

Recruit Great Candidates Building a worker center is an important job—difficult but rewarding. There are people out there who will want to work with you to build your center. Allow a couple of months to recruit some great candidates. You should: Circulate the job description widely Everyone on the leadership team should send the job description or job notice around to friends and colleagues. Do targeted outreach to allies and supporters. Call your dream candidates If there is someone you know who would be perfect, call that person and urge him or her to apply.

Hiring Great Staff

Post on social justice job boards The most commonly used national site is Idealist (www.idealist.org). It is worth the $80 to post a job opening on this site. Your community may also have local nonprofit job boards and electronic discussion lists. Ask the worker center networks The various worker center networks know people who love worker centers. Ask them to circulate your job description. See the listing of network contacts in appendix B.

Get Off to the Right Start If your center is hiring its first or its only staff person, the leadership team must be involved in making sure the person gets off to a right start. Your job is not over once the person is hired. Consider how you might: Welcome the person At most jobs, the new person is welcomed. Could members of the leadership team take the person out to lunch the first day? Could you have flowers on the desk? Could you have a copy Janice Fine’s book, Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream? Or a copy of this handbook? What can you do to make the person feel welcome? Create an orientation process As a new organization, you probably don’t have an orientation manual, but you could create an orientation process that would be helpful and demonstrate your commitment to supporting the new staff. The orientation might include scheduling one-on-one meetings with every member of the leadership team. Consider talking with other worker centers or one of the worker center networks about whether the person could spend a week or two trailing another worker center director. Most of the networks have training sessions that your staff person might be able to attend. Many worker centers are located at the heart of the community where they are going to organize. Give the new hire a tour of the community. Show the person where constituents work, live, and attend religious services. This tour will give them a sense of the environment surrounding the center. Provide a written orientation packet, staff manual, or both Even if a new staff person can’t absorb all the policies at once, it is good to compile whatever policies and background materials you have on the organization into an orientation packet. As your staff grows, you will develop a staff manual and staff policies that should be compiled for a new person. Arrange for weekly check-ins A new staff person, especially a sole staff person, needs to have someone to check in with on a regular basis. Weekly check-ins are probably good for the first few months, and then these can move to every other week or so. Continue leadership meetings Sometimes a leadership team will want to take a break once it has hired staff and dump all their work onto the new staffer. This is not a good idea. The leadership team needs to continue providing leadership. Moving the worker center forward now becomes a team effort of the leadership team and the staff person. If the leadership team has been meeting monthly, keep meeting monthly. Address problems quickly Most organizations have a six-month probationary period during which staff members can be let go without a more formal process. Even if you don’t

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have an official probationary period, you should use the first six months as a time to quickly address problems that emerge. Problems that you identify will likely become bigger problems if not addressed. Figure out who from the leadership team is best to meet with the staff person. It is usually the chair of the leadership team or the chair of the hiring committee.

Support and Keep Your Great Staff The relationship that the leadership team (or the board of directors) builds with its fi rst staff or its director is critical to the success of the organization. There are many books written on nonprofit board and staff relations, but the bottom line is that building a worker center must be a team effort between the volunteer leaders and the staff. There are different roles and responsibilities, but it is a team effort. The staff must respect, encourage, and support the volunteer leadership, but so too must the volunteer leadership respect, encourage, and support the staff, especially in the case of a new or solo staff person. Building a worker center can feel daunting to new staff. Almost as soon as a worker center opens its doors, there will be a stream of workers with wage theft and other problems. The staff person will be dealing with workers, recruiting volunteers, balancing checkbooks, and raising money. This can quickly become overwhelming. Without support and structure, a person can burn out quickly. The movement can’t afford to lose talented staff or its own momentum. Here are a few suggestions for supporting and nurturing great staff in the first couple years: Focus on goals and objectives The board should work with the staff on setting goals and objectives that they both work on. The objectives should be ones that can be accomplished, so that everyone can feel the progress. Encourage training sessions Set aside a modest amount of money for training, and encourage staff members to participate in training sessions that would be helpful. Find a mentor Mentorship is important, especially for people in the early stages of their careers. Think about who in your networks might be the perfect mentor for your new staff person. Thank the person You can never thank anyone too much for his or her work. Thank the person publicly at events and at leadership meetings. Recognize his or her birthday or anniversary with the organization. Avoid micromanaging your director If you micromanage your director, you will stifle the person’s creativity and stunt his or her growth. Work with the person to set and review goals and objectives. Create a personnel policy that rewards longevity Work with your staff person to create a personnel policy that supports people staying with the organization (such as a maternity/ paternity policy) and rewards longevity (such as increased benefits over time). Worker centers are built by leaders, both volunteer and staff leaders. Recruiting, hiring, and keeping a strong staff leader is critical to the center’s growth and vitality. Take the time needed to recruit, hire appropriately, and then train and support the first staff or the director, who plays a lynchpin role for workers and the organization.

Doing the Legal Stuff

9

In order to hire staff and operate as a nonprofit, there are a good number of paperwork things you need to do. None of them is hard, but they take time, and for people who got into this work because of passion for the mission, these tasks can seem boring and a distraction. Indeed, they may be boring, but they are essential for moving forward and deserve focused attention. For those building a worker center, or any nonprofit organization, the best and most comprehensive book on the back office tasks associated with nonprofits is Walking the Walk: A Handbook for Building a Values-based Non-profit by Aina Gutierrez, the former deputy director of Interfaith Worker Justice. The book is a clear and practical guide that addresses all the issues in this chapter and many more. Consider buying copies for your entire leadership team or board of directors.

Who Should Do the Legal Stuff? Anyone on your leadership planning team who writes well and is used to completing forms and budgets can handle the required tasks. Often attorneys are asked to do them, but you do not need to be an attorney to complete the forms and file the appropriate paperwork. Sometimes the first staff person will work on these matters.

When Should It Be Done? Even though it is tempting to jump right into these matters, there usually is not a rush. Wait until your leadership planning team is well underway and has worked its way through figuring out the core mission and program directions. Having these directional questions completed will enable someone to complete the forms. Plus, you don’t want to waste energy and time on these mundane matters that are better drafted or completed by one or two people. So wait a few months, or even six months to a year, before filing these things. Another reason for waiting is to develop your leadership before nailing down who will be on the board. If you want to begin raising funds and need to have 501c3 status, you can ask a partner organization that has 501c3 status if it might be a fiscal agent for you for six months or a year. This will give you breathing space for focusing on programs at first. Some of the national worker center networks are also willing and able to serve as fiscal agents for you. 71

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If an organization agrees to be your fiscal agent, it becomes legally responsible for you, so it should establish clear procedures for how you operate, which you will have to follow. Most likely, the fiscal agent will give you a formal agreement to review and sign. If it doesn’t, you and the fiscal agent should write one that outlines the roles, expectations, fees, reporting, and how the agreement can be terminated. If you want to receive foundation funds or large donations from individuals, you will need 501c3 status or have a fiscal agent with one. Basically, having a 501c3 means that the Internal Revenue Status (IRS) has officially approved you as a charitable organization and that people can get tax deductions for their gifts to you (501c3 is the number in the IRS code). Most foundations and large individual donors give only to 501c3 organizations. Smaller donors are not usually as concerned about tax deductions, and unions generally don’t need to give only to charitable organizations. If you have a fiscal agent, your organization can probably hire your staff person through that fiscal agent. If you are not using a fiscal agent, you will have to complete and fi le some basic forms before you hire and employ a staff person.

What Are the Tasks? Below are the primary legal and administrative tasks that need to be done to establish a worker center. They are outlined in the order in which they are usually completed. Unfortunately, there are often timing issues that are challenging. For example, you probably want to raise money and get a bank account before you get office space, but it is good to have an office address to put on the checks. It is hard to have everything done in exactly perfect order. State incorporation You will need to get incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation at the state level. This helps make sure that the organization, not individuals, is responsible for itself. In the case of lawsuit, the organization normally gets sued and not the individuals involved. This creates some protection for your leadership. Incorporating is super easy. Although every state is a little bit different, generally you need: • • • • • •

A person to be listed as the agent for the organization A name for the organization A mailing address for the organization (this can be the agent’s home address) A mission statement or description of the organization A few board members A modest filing fee (this can be paid with a personal check).

Make sure you incorporate as a nonprofit, not as a regular for-profit corporation. To find out about your state’s process, simply Google your own state’s not-for-profit incorporation process. Usually you do not need by-laws to get incorporated. While you are checking about how to incorporate, note what the requirements are for annual reporting. There will likely be something that is related to the annual federal filing with the IRS. Federal Employment Identification Number (FEIN) Getting a FEIN number is also easy. You should get it even before you have employees because you may need it to open a bank account. You can file online Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Doing the Legal Stuff

Eastern Time and get your number immediately. Go to the IRI home page (www.irs. gov) and search for FEIN to fi le online. Bank account With your state incorporation approval (sometimes called the articles of incorporation papers), your FEIN, and a small amount of money, you can open a bank account. You should open a small business account, even though you may have to pay a small fee if you don’t keep a balance. Having a bank account is good if you need to accept money and pay for things with the money you have collected. You may need a temporary address printed on the checks if you haven’t finalized your office location. That’s fine. Just don’t order too many checks. You will need to decide who can sign checks. You will want at least two people so if one person is out of town the other can sign. Check signers need to be easily and regularly accessible because the organization may need a check quickly. Before an organization has any staff people, usually the board president and the treasurer are the authorized check signers. Once you have staff, particularly an executive director, you probably should have that person be a check signer, perhaps with some limits on how large a check can be signed without a second signatory. There is no simple answer as to which bank to choose. On the one hand, you clearly would like to bank with the community bank or a union-owned bank or a bank that does the most to invest in the community. On the other hand, sometimes these banks are not near you or do not offer the services you need, such as online bill payment. Discuss with other nonprofits in the area which banks to use and why. By-laws The by-laws are the rules by which your board of directors and the organization will operate. They are required for fi ling for your 501c3 status and for your state sales tax exemption. And they will need very particular language for both filings. For most organizations, by-laws are not used much until there are problems. Then by-laws are essential because they dictate how to move forward. Thus, on the one hand, you should not spend hours developing your by-laws. This would be a terrible waste of time. On the other hand, you must make sure that your by-laws are accurate, include the required language for the IRS and state sales tax exemption filings, and will help you resolve problems when necessary. You can always revise the by-laws in the future. The easiest thing to do is to work from another 501c3 group’s by-laws, preferably a group who is from your state, because each state has very particular rules for nonprofit governance. For example, most states have requirements on the minimum number of board members and sometimes on the allowed range between the minimum and maximum number of board members. In order to fi le for the IRS 501c3 tax-exempt status, you will need to have clear information about what would happen to the organization’s assets were it to dissolve. Again, other organizations in your area should have this language in their by-laws that can simply be copied. Ask someone who is an expert in your state’s nonprofit laws to review your by-laws before you formally approve them. Otherwise you may have to revise them soon thereafter. Many law firms provide pro bono assistance to new nonprofits to help with such matters. The by-laws have to be voted on by the board of directors, so they can’t be finalized until your first board meeting. But they can be drafted well ahead of time and then reviewed and formally voted upon at the first board meeting.

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501c3 tax status At some point you will want to get your own 501c3 tax status with the Internal Revenue Service. Some groups wait for a few years before applying for this and have another 501c3 organization serve as their fiscal agents till they get their own. Other organizations apply for their own 501c3 immediately after having their first board meetings. There is no single right way or time to do this. The reasons to file immediately are: • Some large foundations (although not most) want you to have your own 501c3 before you apply. • You have to do it at some point, so you might as well just get it over. • You will not have to provide any past financial history, because you have none. • The IRS often has a backlog of more than a year, so it is best to go ahead and get the process started. The reasons to wait and do it later are: • Functioning with someone else serving as the fiscal agent is easier at the beginning. • It seems overwhelming to project budgets for several years out as requested by the application given that you have no funding track record. • No one is prepared to devote a week to working on this. (The IRS estimates that it takes one hundred or more hours to complete, although many nonprofit directors have done it in less than a week. No question about it: the process is time-consuming and tedious.) • You don’t want to file a 990 or a 990EZ, which is required annually for most nonprofits. (This is your annual report to the IRS.) • You don’t have or want to spend the money to fi le ($850 in 2015). • Fiscal agents do your books so you have more time to focus on program. Although lawyers are often asked to work on these documents, you don’t need to be a lawyer to file them and get approved. It is helpful to be able to look at someone else’s successful filing. Because the IRS is very watchful and concerned about how much lobbying activity you do or plan to do, be careful how you talk about your public policy education and advocacy work, most of which is not lobbying. And your articles of incorporation need to have all the proper nonprofit language on topics like purpose and dissolution. You can hire folks to do this for you, but it could cost several thousand dollars. Who wants to spend that kind of money on something you can do yourself? It is a good idea to get an attorney or firm that specializes in nonprofit law to review your application before it is mailed in. Many firms have pro bono programs that assist nonprofit organizations. It is easier to fi x problems before the IRS begins questioning you. State charitable registration Most states require nonprofits to register in order to solicit money from people in your state. If you expect to be soliciting in more than one state, you may need to register in multiple states. Usually you need to have filed for your 501c3 tax exemption before registering in a state. Until then, your fiscal agent will be registered (and you will be covered). State sales-tax exemption After you get you 501c3 approval, you can then file with your state to be exempt from sales tax. This entails completing what is usually a fairly simple

Doing the Legal Stuff

form and straightforward process. This means when you buy supplies or computers or whatever in your state, you will not have to pay sales taxes on it. Th is exemption will not apply to things purchased in other states. Given that some worker centers do not purchase that much, it may not be a top priority. Those that purchase a lot of supplies for events may really need the exemption. If the form is simple, why not save money and not pay state sales tax. Some state grants require you to have this exemption.

Handling Money When people and organizations entrust their money to you, they expect you to handle it honestly and responsibly. If you don’t, people won’t trust you and won’t give you money again. If you have a fiscal agent for a while, that agent may handle most of the bookkeeping functions for you, but the agent will still want to know who can authorize spending. Chapter 20 provides much more information on handling money, but this section can get you started. Decide who handles money Whether or not you have a fiscal agent, as soon as you begin getting money, you have to figure out how to handle it. You will need a treasurer on your leadership team and eventually your board of directors. The treasurer is the lead person in your leadership team working on the budget and then making sure that money that is raised is spent in ways the leadership wants it to be spent, which is usually outlined in an annual budget. Someone needs to handle the bookkeeping functions. This includes writing checks, recording checks, recording income, depositing income, and running reports. Usually someone signs the checks who is not the person who writes the checks. This could be someone on your team or done by your fiscal agent. When organizations are starting, sometimes the board treasurer will serve as the bookkeeper. Other times, the executive director or another staff person will do that until the organization is large enough to hire either a bookkeeping service or a parttime bookkeeper. Some organizations recruit a volunteer, such as a retired accountant, to help. Bottom line: someone must do the bookkeeping. Keep track of money When you have very few deposits and almost no expenses, you can simply use an Excel spreadsheet, but before long you will want to use a simple accounting program. Most worker centers use Quickbooks accounting software, either the simple version or the online version. The online version costs a bit more but allows multiple people to see and work with the data from wherever they are. If you are using a fiscal agent that is doing the bookkeeping for you, simply clarify how often you can get reports and how you should structure your budget to easily align with the reports you will get. Put checks and balances in place When there is money, there can be thievery. Don’t think it can’t happen to you. Too many worker centers have learned this lesson the hard way and found their work set back dramatically, because donors and members then lost trust in the organization. Consequently, you must put in place reasonable checks and balances to make sure that people aren’t stealing money. If one person writes checks, another signs them. The entire board or leadership reviews the income and expenses on a regular basis. You may require that a large check require more than one signature. Basically, no one person should be able to handle all aspects of money. Various people should be involved.

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Don’t hamstring your staff Once you hire professional staff or someone to function as your director, some of the money-handling procedures need to change. You do not want to waste your staff ’s time getting permission for small checks, so you need to allow your staff to make certain spending decisions. This can change over time, but be careful not to have a board micromanage a director’s spending. Regular reporting Once money is involved, the leadership team or the board of directors needs to regularly review and discuss the financial records. Regular reports of income and expenses plus the balance sheets should be provided at least quarterly to the leadership team. If you cannot get reports, you should worry about how the organization is handling money. Audits A certified audit is a review of your finances and your systems for handling money. This is done by a certified public accountant (CPA). An audit will tell you what you are doing well and what you need to improve in your financial systems. The IRS requires an audit if you bring in more than $750,000 in income. Many states have their own audit requirements, usually at lower thresholds. Many foundations will not give you money if you don’t commit to having an audit. This audit becomes a public document that foundations can (and usually do) request before they give you money. Given the costs of audits, usually thousands of dollars, most very small organizations do not get them. However, as you begin to raise more funds, you will want to have an audit to assure your donors that your funds are handled properly. Sometimes a CPA “financial review” instead of a full-blown audit will suffice for donors, and it is much less costly. See more on this in chapter 20. Audits are a bit like going to the dentist for teeth-cleaning. No one enjoys it in the moment, but it is good for you and keeps your teeth (or books) clean and prevents future problems.

Hiring Staff When you hire staff, you have additional legal (and moral) responsibilities. Do not hire someone as an independent contractor to avoid these responsibilities. If you are hiring someone to build your worker center, you are hiring an employee and not an independent contractor. Paying the person incorrectly—as an independent contractor instead of an employee—would be both illegal and immoral. Not a good way to start for a worker rights organization! So as soon as you decide to hire staff, do the following: Create a simple personnel policy A personnel policy outlines the rules, benefits, and responsibilities for staff. No staff person should work without one. You could ask your first staff person to draft it for the board of directors to review, but don’t let many weeks or months go by before developing one. (See Aina Gutierrez’s Walking the Walk for information about what should be in the policy.) Arrange to pay payroll taxes The fastest way for a nonprofit to get in trouble is to mess up or not pay payroll taxes. The IRS is not forgiving. Nor are the states. Claiming ignorance is not an excuse. A good bookkeeper can do it manually, but many nonprofits find that they prefer just hiring a payroll company to make sure that their payroll taxes

Doing the Legal Stuff

are handled properly. Ask other managers of other nonprofits which companies they use, and get bids for the costs of doing this. While your budget is still relatively small, if someone else handles payroll, your staff person or a volunteer may be able to handle the rest of the bookkeeping functions. Check whether you need to pay workers’ compensation Workers’ compensation insurance is required in most states once your organization reaches a certain size. Because workers’ compensation laws vary by state, you must check your state laws. For example, Illinois employers with even one part-time employee must get workers’ compensation insurance. In Mississippi, the employer isn’t required until he or she has five employees. Even if you are not required to get it, you might consider doing so as a protection for the organization and the employees. Workers’ compensation insurance provides medical coverage and lost wages if an employee is injured on the job. The rates are fairly inexpensive for most office jobs, which is what most worker center positions are. Make sure you are classified correctly. Other categories, like construction workers, are much more expensive because the chances of injuries are so much higher.

Annual Filings Annual fi lings are due once you become your own 501c3, so perhaps this is another reason to keep a fiscal agent for a while. IRS filing Once you receive your 501c3 exemption letter, you must fi le annually with the IRS. Your fi ling is due four and a half months after the end of your fiscal year. So if your fiscal year is a calendar year (January 1–December 31), your report is due on May 15, although it is super easy to get an extension if you file the extension paperwork. More than one worker center has neglected to file annually with the IRS. This is a big mistake and will cause lots of headaches and possible revocation of your tax-exempt status. Always file your report on time or ask for an extension. If your annual receipts (income) are under $50,000, you simply have to send in a postcard, called a 990-N. It is easy, and anyone can do this. If your receipts are more than $50,000 but under $200,000, you can file the 990-EZ, which is a simplified version of the form 990. If your receipts are above $200,000, you must fi le the full 990. As with other official fi lings, it can be done by your staff or volunteers, but it can be confusing. Most groups that have to fi le the full 990 pay their auditor to do it for them. Annual state filing requirements In most states, nonprofit organizations have to file annually in two different places. First you have to file an annual report with the agency with which you filed your incorporation papers. In most states, this is the office of the Secretary of State. The report is usually related to your federal 990. Sometimes it is referred to as your “state 990.” You can either prepare this yourself or have your auditor do it. You will only fi le your state 990 in one state. If your state requires you to register for charitable solicitation, then you probably have an annual fi ling here too. This usually requires an annual fee. If you operate in multiple states, you may need to register and file annually in multiple states in order to solicit funds from multiple states.

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Insurance In the same way that individuals need different kinds of insurance, so too do nonprofit organizations. In the previous section on hiring staff, you learned about workers’ compensation insurance. As your organization grows and develops, ideally you will provide health insurance for your staff members. Some organizations also provide short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, and life insurance. In addition to the staff-related insurance costs, you need to protect the organization itself, your belongings, and your board. The two main kinds of organizational insurances to consider are general liability and “D&O,” which is directors’ and officers’ liability. General liability insurance General liability is often referred to as “slips and trips.” If someone slips at your office, gets hurt, and sues you, your general liability insurance will cover it. If someone stole all your computers, general liability would cover it as long as your deductible was met and you had properly valued your equipment when you applied. General liability insurance is generally not very expensive when you don’t own much, like most worker centers, but it is great to have when calamities occur. Directors’ and officers’ insurance (D&O) Directors’ and officers’ insurance is designed to protect your board members and officers in case they get sued. Generally speaking, this insurance is very costly and doesn’t cover as much as it should. According to Allianz’s Introduction to D&O Insurance, “The core purpose of a D&O policy is to provide financial protection for managers against the consequences of actual or alleged ‘wrongful acts’ when acting in the scope of their managerial duties. The D&O policy will pay for defense costs and financial losses.” The largest number of claims brought in the United States are for human resources matters in which the managers did not follow their own policies against discrimination and sexual harassment. Most worker centers do not have this insurance because of its cost and the unlikeliness of needing it. But sometimes people will refuse to serve on a board of directors unless it has D&O insurance. This tends to be a concern of more well-to-do people who feel their assets could be in jeopardy without D&O insurance. As your worker center grows in power and influence, it may need to get D&O insurance. Starting a worker center is serious business. Unfortunately, starting a nonprofit organization is like starting a small business, but perhaps a little harder, because there are even more requirements and forms to file. Although the legal and administrative tasks are never easy, they are indeed the hardest at the beginning when they are all new and your resources are the fewest. In addition, you are excited about advancing the cause and want to be working to promote and develop the mission, and you must juggle the organizational tasks with the program tasks. None of this work is terribly difficult. It simply takes time. It must be done if you hope to succeed, and you can do it!

Part 2

BUILDING THE WORK

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership

Figure 3 Damayan leaders enjoy one another and good food at the end-of summer-picnic. Photo cour-

tesy of Damayan Migrant Workers Association. Photo by Rita Ortiz.

My name is Maria Cachua. I came to this country because a friend of mine invited me to visit. Here I met my husband for the first time. I have been in the US for the last twelve years. I’ve belonged to the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa since the beginning in 2012. I got involved because I wanted to better my community. Iowa is a very racist place. Blacks and Latinos were suffering lots of abuses in the hands of the police and that is what united us. We also worked on immigration reform. I volunteer with the center. I am also the coordinator of the social committee, which develops different programs. Right now we are developing and coordinating an English-as-a-second-language program. 81

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I got involved in the committee and the center because I wanted to learn how to protect myself. You feel tied up, and you feel that you can’t defend yourself. I got tired of that feeling. The first thing the center did was send me to that [IWJ organizing] training in Chicago. There I was able to see that I have power to do great things. I was able to understand that we are not alone and that if we work together against our targets we can win. The center has given me the opportunity to fight. For example, we were able to win a community identification card. I build my worker center by participating and inviting others to become part of the center. I am part of the committees, and I support the actions that we do at the center. As women, we need to know what our rights are. I’ve come to realize that there is a world of possibilities out there, bigger than what I’d ever imagined. I had never organized before. I was never part of a group like this when I was in Mexico. I feel good about being active. I get an opportunity to get my children involved while they are little. To get the community identification card we developed a campaign and gathered signatures. We made the case that it wasn’t only immigrants who needed an ID. There were older people and poor people that didn’t drive that couldn’t get identification. I value the fact that I was part of this and that Misty (organizer for the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern, Iowa) didn’t do it for me. If I didn’t get involved and Misty had won the ID for me, then it would have been like somebody that doesn’t need it is giving it to me. The fact that I participated in making the program possible, makes it more “Las cosas que te cuestan son las que valoras” (The things that cost you something are the ones that you value.) The people that support us in the center are professionals. They know how to guide us in building the organization. We are not alone. We are supported by unions and by other people that know what they are doing. They talk with us about what happens if we do x or if we go in a different route what could happen. Then we make the decisions. Sometimes our goals are limited, but sometimes we talk about these big things. It was like looking into a different world, a world very different from the one I was living in. And I liked it. Before I didn’t do anything. I would not get involved. I used to see people marching for immigration reform on TV. On TV everything looks far away and so uncertain. It is very different when you live it. It is better to be part of it. The thing I value the most from the center is that I am taken into account. I have a voice in the organization, and I have been heard. Now we will fight to increase the minimum wage to $15. We have to think big.

Maria Cachua’s life has been changed by the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa. And she is helping change conditions in eastern Iowa for many more workers like herself. Worker centers recruit workers and build leadership. Engaging people in this work changes their lives as they change the world. Getting People in the Door In order to build a worker center, you need workers. Some worker centers struggle initially to fi nd and keep workers. Don’t laugh, but finding workers is often like playing that game “Where’s Waldo?” It is a combination of observation and understanding of the community or workplace you are trying to organize. There is no secret—you can’t recruit workers with your computer. You must venture out. Other worker centers are deeply imbedded in the fiber of the community and thus have no trouble finding workers, but worker center staff and board members must learn to think strategically about engaging and developing leaders who can challenge the

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership

status quo in the society. They must also think carefully about how and where to recruit. Your center should: Clarify the purpose of recruitment You want to recruit workers or members of the community who personally connect with your mission and the issues you work on or want to work on. You are not just trying to mobilize for an event. Think strategically about whom you are trying to engage in your organization. Women? Men? Youth? A certain sector of workers? Base your outreach plan on that focus. Create points of entry to the organization Sometimes organizers think only about meetings or training sessions to get people in the door. Do not underestimate the power of a social event, a soccer game, a shared breakfast, or an evening showing of a social-justice-themed movie. It is better to build relationships first with the community before you start talking about campaigns. Let’s say you invite people to a movie night Make sure you talk about the organization and its mission. Talk about the problems you hope to address and your hopes for change. Map it. Get to know your community What are the transportation routes people use to go to work? Where do people congregate? Where do they go to find work? Where do they work? When do people go to the park? Where do people go to do their laundry? (A laundromat is a great place to reach workers because they are held hostage to their clothes. They are not going anywhere and you can chat about the worker center.) If people cash their checks on Fridays at a check-cashing place, you should be there. How many schools are in your community? Know your rap Make sure that everybody is on-message. Every person doing outreach should know how to explain what the worker center is, its major programs, where the office is located (if there is one), and hours of operation. If you are trying to get people to attend an event, be sure you know the details about it. If you are making a general invitation to people to come to the worker center, know how to explain the mission of the organization in a very simple and consistent way. Writing down the desired message, then practicing and memorizing it, is the best way to assure consistency in message. You should have an accompanying flyer or leaflet too. If you are speaking one-on-one with someone and the person is not rushed, take time to ask the person about himself or herself. Explore the person’s interests and connections to the issues you present. People don’t want to feel like they are being recruited but rather invited and motivated. Create an action plan and delivery system Make an outreach plan for each event or type of outreach you are doing. Develop a calendar of dates for conducting the outreach so members and allies will commit to particular days they can go out. Prior to going out, practice the rap by having everyone role-play. New Labor calls its outreach team the Street Team (Equipo de la Calle). Members of the organization, volunteers, students, supporters, and organizers go out together, each wearing one of the organization’s T-shirts, to recruit people. After workers participate in two street teams, they receive their New Labor T-shirt. Street teams are trained to talk with as many people as possible. The goal is not to unload flyers but rather to get

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contacts. Street teams can be used for outreach for ESL classes, worker council meetings, training sessions, marches, and actions. After your street teams come back from their recruitment, hold a short debriefing session. Participants can share how they felt and how many contacts they gathered. They also should discuss who will do what follow-up. Finally, participants should share some snacks and refreshments. Be sure to thank everyone for participating. Identify individual social networks Workers have multiple affiliations. They belong to congregations, sports leagues, women’s groups, and parent-teacher associations. The National Guestworker Alliance uses soccer games to recruit and engage workers. Sometimes workers’ social activities will surprise you. One organizer from New Labor who was sent to recruit people in the Newark Ironbound neighborhood assumed that Latino construction workers would be found playing soccer in parks. She was wrong. Hundreds of Latino construction workers were playing volleyball on improvised courts. An organizer’s dream! In order to find where people spend their leisure time, talk with them. Listen to them. After gathering this information, prioritize where to go first and to whom you should reach out. Knock on doors Door-knocking is more effective when done as part of a broad campaign, such as a workplace campaign, a city-wide legislative effort, or big immigration reform effort. The goal of door-knocking is to get inside the house and have longer and deeper conversations with people. You want to get a commitment from people to be part of the campaign long term. It is a good idea to send people in pairs when door-knocking. Th is allows the door-knockers to support each other and feel safe and confident. During a house call don’t take notes while people are talking, do more listening. Then, after the visit and when you are out the door, you can write down the most relevant themes and recommended follow-up. Don’t forget, before you leave each house, ask for a commitment: sign this petition, pledge to come to this meeting, or send a text to an employer right now. Also, be sure to collect people’s contact information. Talk with workers on street corners In many communities throughout the United States (those without day laborer worker centers), workers hang out on street corners or in big-box parking lots soliciting work. Too often, workers are pitted against one another by employers who seek to drive down wages. These day laborer spots can be tough places to talk with folks, because their first priority is to get jobs for the day, but you can find workers there. And if your vision is to build a center focused on day laborers, these corners and parking lots will be the first place to go. Visit local congregations Build relationships with leaders and other members of congregations of faith. Many low-wage workers are active in churches or mosques or other houses of worship. Remember, you have to find people where they are. Go back to school Try to build relationships with the people at schools in your community. Talk with them about your mission and how the lack of payment of wages, respect, and control over the employment relationship has a direct effect on families. The PTA may let you make a short presentation at a meeting. But don’t try to talk to parents when they are picking up their kids at school. They are on the run! This is not the place to have meaningful conversations, but it is an opportunity for leafleting.

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership

Ask about back-to-school fairs In many low-income communities, congregations and other nonprofits, and sometimes schools themselves, sponsor back-to-school fairs that distribute backpacks and school supplies to children. You can get your information put into those backpacks, especially if you supply some volunteers for stuffi ng, or have an outreach table at the fair. Track and document your outreach activities Make sure that every outreach effort is documented. Keep track of numbers of contacts and who needs follow-up. A mistake often committed by organizers is that they have a bunch of sign-up sheets but don’t then put the names in a database or other document available to all the organizing staff. Newly reached people (named on those sheets) don’t receive the organization’s emails, texts, phone calls, or mailings. They don’t get integrated into the organization, because the organizer hasn’t seen that the wrinkled handwritten lists scattered on desks get entered into whatever database system the organization has. It is particularly important to keep track of where people work, if they have had a workplace accident, if they haven’t been paid, if they have suffered police brutality, or other information that may be relevant to your campaign. Jot down other important information such as partner’s name, information about children, and what the person likes to do, so you can know how to effectively engage him or her. Prepare recruiters Try to engage in recruiting activities that will give you face-to-face time and allow for some kind of conversation. Make sure that you communicate to the recruiters that they are representing the organization when they are engaging in these activities. Inoculate the participants: tell them about what can happen during outreach activities and give them the tools to react in these situations. Organizers may be used to people ignoring them or throwing away their flyers, but some volunteers and members may otherwise be upset. Prepare them. Here is a common outline organizers use when doing outreach: • Introduce yourself, the organization, and why you are doing outreach. As discussed earlier, make sure you have your rap down. Be clear and crisp. • Listen. Ask the worker a question that gets him or her talking. Ask follow-up questions about working conditions or whatever issue on which you are working. • Agitate and listen. The word “agitate” means to stir up. Are there questions and comments that you might make that would stir people to action? • Ask and Listen. Always make a request and then shut your mouth. Do not stop backtracking on the “ask.” • Follow up. Clarify exactly how you will follow up next with the person. Plan teamwork Engaging outreach activities as a team (of members, volunteers, and supporters) increases the visibility of the organization, projects strength in numbers, and builds trust.

An Outreach Plan for Health and Safety Training There are lots of different kinds of outreach plans, but following is a sample five-week plan for getting twenty workers from day labor corners or temp agencies to participle in a health and safety training session. The plan assumes that the outreach folks will talk

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with eighty people at least three times. This level of interaction with new people will likely get twenty new people to a training session. Week 1 • Identify where, when, and who is going to do outreach. • Create a list of materials needed for the training. • Secure a training location and make sure it will accommodate your anticipated number of participants. • Go to day laborer corners and temp agencies three times. (The outreach locations will vary based on the targets.) If this is the first time doing outreach there, don’t ask for names and numbers. Usually people will be suspicious of who you are and why you want their information. • Figure out what food will be provided for the training. Week 2 • Arrange transportation if needed. • Make round one of phone calls to confirm numbers. • Go back to the day labor corner or other places and start getting contact information. Begin to get people confirmed to come to the training. Week 3 • Make round two of phone calls. Contact those people you know and get some additional information about them, such as how long they have been working at the temp agency. • Place phone calls to those whose contact information names you garnered from week two at the day labor corner. • Go to the additional locations three times. • Continue adding people’s contact information. Week 4 • Make round three of phone calls to those you know. • Make round two of phone calls to workers from the day laborer corner. • Visit the corner three times. • Make home visits to individuals you want to make sure show up, such as people who seem to be potentially powerful leaders. • Review workshop activities with the facilitators (if members are doing trainings). • Send postcards to those who signed up for the training (optional). • Finalize training logistics. Week 5 • Place reminder calls to those who’ve signed up for the training at the beginning of the week (or four to five days ahead of time) and the day before the training. • Place calls the day of the training if some people have indicated they need this. Ask again about transportation needs. Visit the day laborer corners again three times to make one last push for participants. • Conduct additional home visits if needed.

Day of the training Arrive early and prepare the room. Make sure to have a list of confirmations with you in case you need to call people the same day. Set out sign-in sheets,

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership

training materials, and additional organizational materials. Everyone should know his or her roles and responsibilities before the day of the training, so each person can arrive and get to work. Make sure the logistical tasks can be completed ahead of time, so organizers and leaders have time to visit with workers when they arrive. Whoever comes should be celebrated. Do not bemoan who is not present. Do not act discouraged if turnout is not what you expected and you did not reach your goal. As long as you did what you could to reach people (and the above plan is a very strong one), you will probably meet your goals or you will have at least demonstrated your commitment to outreach, which will impress those present. If one of the participants mentions the small numbers, explain what you did, so people know you are serious about outreach, and ask for the person’s help with future outreach. Outreach and credibility in the community both take time. Be persistent—both will come. Most organizers use the “too few chairs” approach. Set out fewer chairs than you actually think you will need. Then as you rush to add chairs to accommodate those who come, there is a sense of excitement. This may sound silly but it works. If you expect thirty people, set out twenty or twenty-five chairs, and then add the extras you need. This is much better than setting out forty chairs and having ten empty ones. After the training or event, conduct a debriefing session with the staff and members who helped with the event preparation and outreach. Ask the following kinds of questions: • Did you reach your goals? If not, why not? Was the event scheduled for an appropriate day of the week and time of day? Was the location good? • Was the event good for the workers you were trying to reach? • What did we do well? What could have been done better? • What lessons were learned? • What follow-up is needed? After the evaluation, thank everyone who participated in the outreach and the leadership of the training. Find time to celebrate if you can. In an ideal outreach situation, you should plan on reaching out to three times the number of people you want to participate in an event. A new organization may have to reach out to four times as many people to reach its goal. Try different approaches until you find the right combination of outreach elements.

Building Leadership The house is full of people who came to your worker center, and some of them have participated in multiple events. Everyone is fired up and ready. Now you have to build leadership skills that can help members get involved in a meaningful way. Slowly but surely this will make the worker center grow. At all times, leadership development needs to be part of the worker center’s work. Once you start it can never stop. It has to be consistent, continuous, and intentional. In the words of Frederick Douglas, “Who will be free themselves must strike the blow.” Collective power is built on workers’ confidence to act on behalf of themselves and their communities. So, how do you develop leadership? Build relationships In most cases people come to the organization looking for something. They may have a wage claim or a landlord-tenant issue. They may not have any

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family in the country and are looking for a place to connect. They have self-interest— something they need and care about deeply. Organizers need to find out what that selfinterest is for each person. In doing so, you can more efficiently connect the person to the worker center’s programs and activities. Understanding self-interest allows you to identify potential areas of growth for that member. Trust and relationships are built through oneon-one meetings, working on projects together (like the outreach teams described above), and visiting the person at his or her home, on the soccer field, or in a congregation. A one-on-one meeting is a scheduled meeting between an organizer and a leader or a potential leader. The primary purpose of these meetings is relationship building. You want to find out about the member’s interests, hopes, dreams, and experiences that shape his or her character, affi liations, and values. During these meetings, ask openended questions and listen. Remember: you can steer the conversation and share a little about you. The meeting should be a conversation, and it shouldn’t last more than an hour. All organizers should regularly be doing lots of “one-on-ones” with leaders and potential leaders. Eventually you can train your volunteer leaders and members to conduct one-on-one meetings with one another. Train everyone to take notes and enter those notes in your database. Getting notes into a database may be unpleasant work, but it must be done if you want to ensure continuity and good follow-up. Should you make an “ask” as part of your one-on-one? Some organizers will say yes and argue that after the one-on-one you as an organizer have built trust and have a sense of a person’s potential, so you should not miss the opportunity. Other organizers will say that you should not, because the whole point of the conversation is to build a relationship. If you make an “ask” right at the end, your entire meeting could be perceived as disingenuous. There is no one correct answer. Follow your instincts. Search for values and passion The best leaders are people with strong values and deep passion for justice. They don’t just want what is best for themselves. They want to stand up for what is right for everyone. Sometimes potential leaders enter an organization because they want to change their situations, but they care about others’ situations as well. Leaders are respected by their peers. They are people others turn to when they need support and guidance. Organizers must always be on the lookout for people who have these core values and passion. Often they are angry about injustice in their workplace. Righteous indignation is appropriate when people are being abused. If you are listening in your one-on-ones, you can hear a worker’s passion and values. You can learn to judge whether someone is a complainer who won’t do anything about a situation or whether someone is angry about a problem and willing to take steps to change it. Organizers should also be asking workers about whom they trust and look to in their workplaces for leadership. Often other workers can point out those who are the natural leaders in the group. Leaders aren’t necessarily outspoken or even outgoing, but there is something about their values and passion that draws people to them. These folks may not have any official leadership role anywhere, but they could likely be awesome leaders in your center. Train for skills Every single member of your organization should have the opportunity to develop his or her skills. Almost everyone can contribute to the growth and development of the organization. Worker centers must design training and provide

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership

people with opportunities to participate. Many worker centers offer the following kinds of skills training to all members: • • • • • • •

Basic organizing skills—power analysis, strategy, tactics Outreach and recruitment Public speaking Social media for organizing Media training Running meetings One-on-ones.

For leaders you want on the board or in higher levels of leadership, you may also want to offer training on: • Board responsibilities • Understanding financial statements. Many worker centers, particularly those that focus on one or two sectors, offer job skills training. For example, Casa Latina, which works primarily with day laborers, offers training sessions on green gardening, electrical safety for construction workers, and how to lift heavy loads without hurting yourself. Many centers that work with domestic workers offer CPR training. New Labor, which works with warehouse workers, offers forklift training. Although this skills-based training is important, it is not the same as leadership training. You could have developed the greenest gardener and not have developed a strong leader. On the other hand, you may get a sense of who might be a good leader by observing how workers participate in job skills training sessions. Leaders always want to better themselves, so you are likely to find leaders in your training sessions. Watch how members participate and interact with one another. Keep your eyes open for people who demonstrate the vision, passion, and respect from colleagues needed to be fabulous leaders for your center. Provide political education Workers want to learn organizing skills and work-specific skills, but they also need to understand why the economy and the political system are not working for them. Many worker centers use popular education materials on the economy to help people understand the context in which they find themselves. Political education is critical in building leaders who can think strategically about how to build a movement for justice and how to use current campaigns to address the larger social and economic problems faced by workers. Many leadership courses help workers grapple with the full set of systems of oppression such as racism, sexism, and homophobia that affect our work and lives. Make the Road in New York City has a very well developed leadership program. There are seven core skills classes that each leader is expected to take. In addition, there are three “democracy schools” that provide political and economic training and education. A leader must have completed all the skills training and level one of the democracy school to run for the board. Create opportunities for workers to exercise their leadership People become great leaders through practice. All worker center activities offer opportunities for members to exercise their leadership.

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Worker center organizers and directors are often overwhelmed by the number of tasks facing them. If they can stop long enough to think through the tasks carefully, there may well be dozens of opportunities for delegation and for workers to exercise their leadership. Workers can be invited and trained to: • • • • • • • • • •

Do street outreach to other workers (in teams is the most fun). Conduct interviews with workers during a wage claim intake process. Plan a meeting. Run a meeting. Call workers or allies. Write an article. Post on social media. Plan a direct action to recover unpaid wages. Lead chants or songs at an action. Represent your organization at a local, regional, or national gathering.

Most people are initially terrified of public speaking. In general, fear of public speaking tops all polls on phobias. And many potentially fabulous leaders are fearful of public speaking. It is really important to adequately prepare people for public speaking, or they won’t do it again. And the only way to really get good at public speaking is to do it a lot. Make sure that a member’s first time or two goes well. Don’t write what a member should say and just have the person read it. Workers have real stories to tell and should be encouraged to share them. But no one should just wing it in public speaking. Everyone needs preparation. Organizers should accompany workers in the process of crafting messages and telling their stories. Help them think through what should be highlighted, but don’t write it for them. This is a great opportunity for them to grow. Do urge the worker to write down what he or she wants to say, either notes or word-for-word. An inexperienced speaker will tend to ramble and forget things if he or she does not have notes or a script. Building workers’ leadership skills takes more time in the short run than just “doing it yourself,” but it is essential to have a strong group of leaders involved in the organization. Organizers’ roles will never disappear, but they should change over time. Organizers should practice “step back, step up.” The organizer steps back so the leaders can step up. More seasoned leaders step back to mentor the new leaders who are stepping up. Provide lots of leadership roles Powerful organizations have lots of ways that people can be leaders. Fe y Justicia in Houston has neighborhood committees that all have three leaders. That’s a lot of roles. Make the Road in New York City has thirteen standing committees that all have several leaders. Somos un Pueblo Unido in New Mexico has ten committees around the state and dozens of workplace committees, all of which have leadership roles. Give people titles, mini job descriptions, and recognition publicly for their leadership roles. Dream up lots of ways that workers can lead, and then begin looking for folks to fulfill those dreams. Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), which organizes Latina immigrant women in San Francisco and Oakland, provides training sessions for its members to take leadership in a range of committees that serve a variety of functions, from grassroots fund-raising to peer counseling. Once a worker has been a member of a committee for a while, she may

Reaching Workers, Building Leadership

move into deeper leadership roles on that committee, taking on mentoring and co-facilitation while also making space for new workers to step up and join the committee. Because of this commitment to building worker leadership, both in external organizing and internal organizational operations, many MUA members have developed a range of skills and are able to support each other in taking leadership in new ways. Help workers have a sense of their own power Many members of worker centers have experienced abuse and disrespect on their jobs and sometimes in the community. The message workers hear repeatedly is that this is the way things are and that there is nothing anyone can do to change the situation. Worker centers face this obstacle daily. Organizers must overcome feelings of powerlessness. Organizers must always remind themselves that they are building member leadership to build power, and this can only be accomplished by doing. You must engage members and leaders in activities that will make evident how powerful they are and can be. Direct actions to recover wages, members testifying at hearings, members training others to gain new skills, and members participating in fights to get access to services or rights they have been historically been excluded from gives workers a sense of their own power and potential. For example, Elpidia was afraid of talking in public, but she wanted to fight for increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey. She was told by a representative of the state legislature that she could only talk about the minimum wage issue. She told the representative that it was her turn and she was going to use it as she pleased. She then proceeded to tell everyone in the room about how temp agencies exploit workers. At the conclusion of the hearing the representative approached her to apologize and thank her for her comments. When you have a success, celebrate it. Talk about it. Help workers understand that what they did made a difference. Mentor others Worker centers must create a space for leaders to support and mentor each other. There may be very sophisticated ways to do this, but it is really a very straightforward process. Pair new and seasoned leaders together to run meetings, do outreach, make phone calls, or speak at forums and town hall meetings. Provide social spaces for leaders to integrate and share experiences and just have fun together. Avoid quid pro quo. Be careful not to build relationships based on favors. For example, the organizer helps the work with a problem, such as driving a worker to an appointment, in return for the worker volunteering on one occasion. This is almost impossible to avoid now and then, but keep an eye on relationships that start to develop primarily around this kind of “you help me, and I’ll help you” mentality. Follow up! Acknowledge leaders’ contributions and participation. Call them to ask if they will do something, and call them just to chat. If you have a leader that has always been active and then all of a sudden he or she falls off of the grid, you have to find out what is going on. The leader may be ill or have a situation at home or in his or her home country that has affected the person’s participation. The organization should be able to support its leaders when they are going through a rough patch. Good follow-up will increase retention of leaders. Following up will matter and will remind leaders that they are an important part of the organization. Follow-up could be a phone call or a home visit. It could be getting together for coffee. It could be sending a handwritten card.

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Leaders should know they are missed when they are not around and should know that you care about their whole lives, not just their volunteer work with you. Document, track, and share information Document the interactions that you have had with your leaders. Document your one-on-one conversations and recommended follow-up. Many workers have a system for ranking how engaged members are. You will need to make some kind of assessment of your leaders and members. Some organizations use the figure of a ladder to illustrate where members are within the organizational map. Organizers must share information with their colleagues. Imagine for a moment that a female leader tells you in a one-on-one that she is worried that she can’t continue to participate in the organization because her husband is so jealous that she gets in trouble every time a man from the organization calls. If you don’t tell anybody or write this information down, she may stop showing up at the center and you’ve lost a leader. This happens all the time in worker centers. Sharing information with the rest of the staff is vitally important. In some situations it may keep the leader safe. It also keeps the leader in the organization. Staff members must address gender issues as part of their organizational development programs. There are many ways to share information. You can have the one-on-one report form stored in Google drive, e-mail, database, or on an Excel document. If your worker center is more comfortable with paper, then take good notes and maintain a good filing system that everyone on the staff can easily access. You can do great policy work. You can run dynamic campaigns. But if you don’t recruit new people and develop new leaders, the movement will not grow. Workers need to be the owners and stewards of the worker center. Your center’s job is to build their confidence and enable and encourage them.

Mastering Direct Action

Figure 4 Workers Dignity leaders protest at Sheraton Hotel. Photo courtesy of Workers Dignity. Photo

by Sebastian Lasaosa Rogers.

Worker centers are known for their direct action tactics. Direct action is when a group of people directly confronts a target (the person or people with the power to give you what you want) with a specific demand. When a group of workers and allies goes to an employer and demands that the employer pay workers all of their wages, this is a direct action. The workers have directly confronted the employer and demanded that back wages be paid. A direct action isn’t necessarily militant or loud, but it does need to involve people directly affected by problems, focus on the target (or a secondary target), and ask for specific demands. 93

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Mastering direct action is important for your worker center. Direct action helps you win real victories. Groups often find that they have done apparently fruitless back-andforth “negotiation” with employers over back wages, and then all of a sudden the employer agrees to pay after a group of workers confronts the employer directly. Direct action helps you develop leadership. Many low-wage workers feel beaten down and discouraged in their workplaces. Direct action demonstrates very visibly and physically that indeed workers do have power if they join together and collectively confront their employers. Direct action builds your organization. In addition to winning victories and developing your leadership, which clearly helps build your organization, direct action gets your name out in the community and generally generates media attention. Direct action is usually more gutsy, much more fun, and more effective than signing a petition or sending an e-mail to a target.

Planning a Direct Action A direct action is a tactic, usually a step within a broader strategy. The Midwest Academy’s strategy chart can be used to develop your entire strategy, but it can also be used to focus on one direct action. For a direct action tactic, use the chart as follows: Column one: demand What exactly do you want from the decision-maker? Column two: organizational considerations Who can work on planning and moving your action, and how can you use it to build your organization? Column three: constituents and allies Who do you want in your organization that would be interested in being a part of this action? What allies could you tap as well? Column four: target Is this direct action focused on the decision-maker (the target) or someone (a secondary target) who can help you get to the target. What do you know about this person? Where can you find him or her? Column five: tactics Yes, you will have tactics within a tactic! How will you have the constituents and the allies directly confront the target (or the secondary target) and ask the person to meet your demands? How can you have the tactics, the things that you do, help build the organization? Can you collect names of friendly people to add to the database? Can you generate media coverage? Can lots of folks have roles so the action becomes a leadership development opportunity?

Components of a Good Direct Action A good direct action is one that: Feels appropriate for workers The workers themselves must think that the direct action is appropriate. They must feel comfortable with what is planned. People’s comfort and sense of what is appropriate changes over time, but organizers need to be careful not to push workers to act in ways that don’t feel appropriate (at least not yet). An organizer should have done lots of direct actions, and most workers (most people) have little experience

Mastering Direct Action

with direct action. Planning a direct action with workers, step-by-step, helps ensure that organizers are in sync with what workers want and are ready to do. Has clear and winnable demands Workers should be able to articulate clearly what they want the decision-maker to do, and the demands should help concretely address their problems. Is fun A direct action should be fun. Limit the number of boring talks or endless marching. People should enjoy themselves and want to come back for the next one. Is relatively short. A direct action shouldn’t take too much time. Be prepared to go to a target’s home or place of business, go in, say a few things, voice the demands, and get out. Every so often a negotiation ensues, but generally if you seem to be entering a long dialogue, you should set a date to work out the details. Your partial victory will be having gained a meeting to negotiate on the issues, and you will hope to achieve full victory at this meeting. Is not quite comfortable for the target Most employers are not used to being confronted by workers and thus it is not that hard to make the target a bit uncomfortable. But be careful that you don’t infuriate the target. At the point when targets get so angry that they can’t think rationally, they will not operate in what is in their best interest, which is working things out with you. Provides a variety of leadership roles Developing your leaders is one of your goals from any action. Thus, it is good to have various leadership roles available for people. Could one person be the scout to find the employer? Could another lead the chants on the way to the workplace? Could one ally lead an opening prayer once you get to the workplace? Could one worker place the demands to the employer? Could another worker report on the results? Is family-friendly Direct actions should be family-friendly. You should be able to bring your kids or your mother. Make sure that the language is clean and that the tone feels peaceful. If police officers arrive, and often they are called, assign someone to meet with the officers and assure them that the action will be peaceful. Sends a message Conducting a direct action should not only get the attention of the employer immediately involved, it should also send a message to others in the community— both workers and employers. For workers, the message should be that if you organize together (and through your worker center), you can get results. For employers, the message should be that if you stiff or injure workers, you will be directly confronted by workers and their allies. Thus, it is important that you send out information widely about your action both before and afterward. Send pictures as well as words. Leads to a win Although not all direct actions get results immediately, they should help lead to a win. No one wants to participate in things that don’t go anywhere. Talk about disempowering! When you do win, point out the role that direct action played in the win in order to encourage people to participate in the future. Generates media attention Most of the time you want to generate media attention at a direct action, so you should think visually. What will make a good picture? How can you make your event interesting to the media?

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Things to Avoid Some things are good to avoid if you can, including: Unplanned arrests Some actions involve civil disobedience, in which your group decides that some members will intentionally get arrested. This is a tried-and-true tactic in social change movements. Planned arrests are very different from unplanned ones. Most people do not want to be arrested, and certainly low-wage workers who need to go to work the next day or need to be home to care for their children do not want an unplanned arrest. Immigrant workers without proper documentation and workers with felony records are particularly fearful of arrests. Do your best to avoid unplanned arrests. If police show up at an action, send someone to talk with the police officer in charge. Assure that police that you are peaceful. If you are asked to move to another location, do so. Ugly confrontations with the police Even if you don’t have unplanned arrests, you generally don’t want ugly confrontations with the police. This is frightening for many people. Make sure someone is designated ahead of time to interact with the police. In general, it is a good policy to develop a relationship with the police and make a habit of giving them a heads-up when you are planning an action. In some cases you may not want to give the police a heads-up because you want to send a delegation into a business without being stopped. Just make sure you are clear about the laws about where you can demonstrate, what is public property, and what is private property. Given the many frustrations with police departments, you may need to watch that some of your allies don’t go off message and make the police the target or focus of attention. In public actions, you want to seek a good relationship with the police. If police show up unexpectedly, send one of your strongest leaders (one who appears least threatening) to talk with the police and assure them that you are a peaceful group. Bothering a target’s family Do not plan a direct action at a school, wedding, bar mitzvah, or other location or special event of a target’s family. A person’s children are offlimits. Doing a direct action related to kids will backfire with the public. Don’t do it! Disrupting religious practice Disrupting religious practices is also off limits. Do not post or distribute flyers outside a church, mosque, or synagogue service, even if the employer attends regularly. You will alienate others who attend. Personal attacks against owners and employers Focus on the behavior and not the person. (Condemn the sin, not the sinner.) Personal attacks alienate the general public and detract from your main message about injustice. Don’t let opponents frame your concern as a personally motivated one because your attacks were too personal and not focused enough on the issues. Violent language Even though your target employer may have stolen wages and used economic violence against the workers and their families, you should still avoid abusive language. Workers will be uncomfortable. Listeners will be offended. Media will be turned off. Trespassing on private property without purpose If you are going to an employer’s house, stay on the walkway up to the front door. Do not go snooping around the house

Mastering Direct Action

or peeking in windows looking for the employer. Even though your snooping may be harmless, it can be intimidating to an employer’s family. If you are asked to leave, you will probably want to leave before the police arrive. Unsubstantiated claims on flyers Be very careful that your flyers are accurate. Do not make wild claims that you can’t backup. You can be sued for defamation. Sometimes your organization may be sued for telling the truth, but you will be able to defend yourself.

Good Direct Action Examples Arise Chicago and HomeMade Pizza Company HomeMade Pizza was a gourmet pizza company based in Chicago, with twenty-two locations throughout the Midwest. Six workers prepared ingredients at a central commissary, which were then sent out to various store locations. In January 2009, all six of those workers walked out in protest because they could no longer tolerate the combination of intense pressure, surveillance, underpayment, and instructions to use expired ingredients. When they returned the following day, they were told they were fired. They asked for their final paychecks for the work they performed for an entire pay period, minus the half-day when they walked out. The owner told them that it was his money and that he would not pay them. The workers contacted the Arise Chicago Worker Center, where they learned about their rights, presented evidence for their case, and developed a direct action strategy. HomeMade Pizza management refused to speak or meet with Arise Chicago Worker Center and referred the group to the company’s attorney. When contacted, the attorney refused to speak. In February, the HomeMade Pizza workers, along with clergy, volunteers, and worker members of Arise Chicago Worker Center, went on delegations to five Homemade Pizza locations in Chicago. The worker center co-affi liate in Minneapolis, then a part of Workers Interfaith Network (now Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha), sent a delegation to the Minneapolis location. The delegations in the respective cities brought the same demand to their targeted locations’ managers: call the owner to demand a meeting with the workers to discuss the matter. (These managers were effectively secondary targets—folks who had more power and influence with the owner than the workers did.) The nearly fift y people in the delegations reflected broad support for these workers. At some locations, the managers complied and phoned the owner. (At one location a supporter dialed the owner’s number on a cell phone and handed it to the manager.) At other locations, the managers refused, and the delegation distributed flyers to passers-by during the dinnertime rush to call the owner. Within twenty minutes, the owner agreed to a meeting. Two meetings and a week later, the workers recovered $8,000 in unpaid wages. The actions won a clear victory, engaged lots of worker leaders and allies, and helped build the credibility of the organization as an effective problem solver. For those involved, the actions were fun, short (most took less than thirty minutes), and made sense. A small group of workers and allies was easily able to disrupt business at a

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HomeMade Pizza outlet and get the attention of the manager. As expected, these managers put pressure on the owner. Even though these workers recovered their money, the company leadership did not change how it treated workers. In the summer of 2014, HomeMade Pizza abruptly shut its doors. Treating workers poorly and cheating them of wages does not build a strong business. They help destroy it. Casa Latina and Queen City Grill In 2014, Casa Latina was a member of the Labor Standards Advisory Group, a committee that was assisting the City of Seattle in recommending enforcement strategies for the city’s newly passed minimum wage law, as well as its other city labor laws, including wage theft and paid sick and safe time (PSST), the latter including time off from work due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The advisory group consisted of members representing unions, business associations, a worker center (Casa Latina), and worker-side employment law attorneys. During the discussion of how the city should best use its limited resources to enforce labor laws, the worker-side groups advocated targeted enforcement in industries where there was a high incidence of wage theft. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Seattle Restaurant Association argued that despite national research indicating that there were certain high-violation industries, Seattle was different. Seattle businesses were more ethical and wanted to do the right thing. They claimed that if an employer did short an employee of her or his pay, it was most likely a mistake and the employer should just be given some education and a warning. Casa Latina, the unions, and workers’ attorneys argued that there needed to be more rigorous enforcement to stop the bad actors, but no amount of national research was going to convince business advocates that wage theft was a problem in Seattle. So Casa Latina and the unions decided that it was time for a high-profile direct action, and Casa Latina chose one of its current cases on which to focus. Moreno Ruiz had worked for over six years for the owner of Queen City Grill, a well-known restaurant in a trendy neighborhood of Seattle. In 2014, his employer began to shortchange him, promising that he would catch up later. Moreno, like most workers, needed his wages to support himself, his wife, and his two kids. He asked his boss for the money but kept getting the runaround and finally left the job. “I tried to do honorable work, and he didn’t know how to honor me as a worker,” Moreno said. Moreno had come to Casa Latina’s workers’ defense committee seeking help a few weeks before. He and Casa Latina volunteers had calculated that he was owed $5,500 in unpaid wages. Casa Latina advocates had already attempted to contact the restaurant owner and his business partner through letters and several phone calls to the restaurant but had received no response. So Casa Latina, along with support from SEIU, Working Washington, and UFCW members, decided to take direct action. They invited a reporter along. Moreno and Cariño, the Casa Latina advocate, and a group of supporters from the unions and the Casa Latina workers’ defense committee went to the restaurant on a late summer afternoon. Moreno and Cariño approached the bar with a line of people following wearing their union and worker center colors and carrying signs that read “Wage theft is a crime,” “Pay your workers or do the time,” and “You pay, we leave.” Moreno asked to speak to the boss. The bartender answered that he wasn’t there. Cariño said, “You need to call him and ask him to come right now.” The bartender agreed but told the group that they

Mastering Direct Action

couldn’t wait in the restaurant. The group went outside the restaurant and started to picket in front. While they were outside, a US-born worker from a restaurant down the street came to see what the commotion was about. When he saw the signs he yelled to the group, “Yeah! I used to work for him and he did the same thing to me!” Within five minutes of picketing, the owner of the restaurant showed up and signaled to Moreno to follow him inside. Moreno and Cariño went inside. The rest of the group followed along. By that time, a policeman had arrived and was chatting at the bar with the bartender. He barely looked up at the group as they fi led by. The owner tried to find a private place to talk to Moreno and Cariño and told them to leave the group behind. The owner led them down a back stairway out to the alley and the parking lot where the owner’s car was parked. After some negotiation, the owner agreed to pay Moreno $800 in cash and signed a contract that Cariño drafted right then and there, on the hood of the car, in which the owner committed to paying the rest of the amount that he owed. After a little back and forth, the owner paid his debt and the reporter wrote a feature article about the action. When it was published in Seattle Weekly on August 26, 2014, it included a color photo of a happy Moreno holding fanned-out hundred-dollar bills. In the subsequent meetings of the Labor Standards Advisory Group the business associations stopped insisting that employers in Seattle were more ethical than normal, and negotiations for stronger enforcement became much easier. It became much harder for the Seattle Restaurant Association to argue that wage theft in Seattle restaurants, unlike in the rest of the country, was not an issue. In the end, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Seattle Restaurant Association agreed that employers who were found guilty of wage theft after one worker’s complaint should have their books reviewed by investigators at Seattle’s newly established Office of Labor Standards to see if other workers had been affected and that all workers should be paid their back wages as well as interest. The Labor Standards Advisory Group also agreed that when there was evidence of a pattern of intentional wage theft, employers should pay fines to the city. New Labor and On-Target New Labor worker center’s main office is in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A worker came to the center complaining that he was owed $86 for a day’s work from On-Target, a temp agency in the region. Although the dollar amount was small, New Labor had received multiple complaints from workers at that temp agency. New Labor made the strategic decision to engage in direct action for two reasons: 1) New Labor wanted to help the worker recover the check, and 2) it wanted to send a message to the temp agency that if it wanted to continue doing business in New Brunswick it would need to change its ways. A small delegation composed of the worker, another member, and two organizers went to On-Target. The company refused to pay the worker but claimed the check would be available in a few days. New Labor pledged to return with more people. On the day the check was supposed to be ready, New Labor was hosting a train-thetrainer program, with twenty-five worker members in attendance. As part of the training, New Labor always engaged folks in a direct action. So New Labor decided to take the twenty-five trainees to the temp agency. Other community folks were invited, and ten additional folks showed up. All thirty-five people sat on the chairs of the temp agency as if they were waiting to be sent out to work. The check was supposed to arrive at 1:00 p.m. but didn’t. When the

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temp agency office manager asked the group who wanted to go to work, everyone stood up and started chanting, “Estamos aquí y no nos vamos.” (We are here and we are not leaving.) The temp agency called the police. The employer told the police that New Labor had threatened agency staff, which was not true. Eventually five police cars descended on the location. Following a previously discussed plan on what to do if the police were called, most of the New Labor members agreed to vacate the building but insisted on waiting outside until the worker was paid. The worker who hadn’t been paid and an organizer stayed inside. Finally the temp agency decided to pay the worker. The worker, the New Labor members, and the police officers all started dancing in celebration. Others who’d been watching from their cars got out and joined the celebration, saying, “It’s about time somebody did something about On-Target.” New Labor got the worker’s money back, demonstrated power to the temp agency, and extended its reach and credibility to additional community residents. The action was fun, fairly short, and well done. New Labor had assigned action captains who were prepared to and did talk with the police. All participants were prepared to and did follow the directions of the captains. This was critical, given that some of the participants were undocumented and fearful of the police. New Labor’s management of the action demonstrated its competence and professionalism. Workers’ Dignity and Sheraton Hotel Workers’ Dignity is a worker center in Nashville that operated as an all-volunteer group for its first two years and has since grown and launched Just Hospitality, a multiyear campaign to improve wages and conditions in the cleaning industry. The campaign began when Delma, Neptali, and other workers came to the center complaining that they had not been paid by the cleaning agency that employed them for housekeeping and laundry work at the Sheraton Hotel in Nashville’s downtown tourist district. They were urged to talk with coworkers and bring a larger group to a Defend Your Rights workshop, where veteran members of the center would accompany them in developing a direct action plan. Ten Sheraton workers joined Workers’ Dignity and launched what became a fivemonth campaign. After the hotel management refused to respond to a call or a demand letter, four housekeepers, accompanied by two other members and a student, handdelivered a demand letter to the general manager, who in turn threatened to call the police. The Sheraton workers regrouped, mapped out the Sheraton’s pressure points, and planned a series of public protests. They met two more times with experienced members and allies for training in writing a press release, speaking to media, using a bullhorn, and security for nonviolent direct action. Forty workers and community supporters descended on the hotel for the first action. The following week, the management offered to pay workers about half of their stolen wages. Workers’ Dignity responded with a march through the downtown tourist district, urging tourists to call Sheraton. Although the parent company refused to pay, workers later learned that corporate management had fired the general manager and issued pay raises to all housekeeping and laundry staff at the Sheraton and another local hotel. The company was flinching.

Mastering Direct Action

As Christmas approached, Workers’ Dignity called two more actions around the theme of “The Grinch That Stole Wages.” The actions included a march to the downtown Holiday Inn Express, a secondary target owned by the same parent company. The negative press coverage of a billion-dollar corporation robbing cleaning workers’ families of their Christmas pushed the Sheraton into action. Management overnighted checks from its corporate office on New Year’s Eve and paid the full wages owed. Workers celebrated a belated Christmas, and Workers’ Dignity demonstrated power to the hospitality industry. In addition to winning back wages, the group made lasting changes. The workers had removed a hated manager and improved wages and benefits for about seventy-five employees by more than $230,000 per year.

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Organizing a Wage Theft Campaign Wage theft, the illegal nonpayment of workers’ wages, is a major problem affecting low-wage workers. In the Interfaith Worker Justice worker center network it was found that 86 percent of workers came to the centers seeking help in addressing wage theft. Consequently, it is not surprising that worker centers undertake wage theft campaigns. Although you could organize a wage theft campaign focused on a particular employer or sector, this chapter focuses on public policy wage theft campaigns. For decades dedicated legal aid attorneys and private employee-side attorneys advocated for modest improvements to state laws, trying to strengthen enforcement against wage theft. In recent years, worker centers have led most of the campaigns around the country to improve enforcement, and they have led the moves to create city and county structures to address wage theft that are stronger or more effective than many state entities.

Good for the Organization Organizing a wage theft campaign is good for most worker centers. A well-designed wage theft campaign meets the fundamental principles of direct action organizing. It wins real improvements in people’s lives, builds your organization, and gives your members a sense of their own power. A well-designed and implemented wage theft campaign will: Generate a public win for the organization Lots of groups, new and very experienced, have planned and won wage theft campaigns, so your group probably can too. One of the best indicators of whether you can win something is whether someone else has won it somewhere. Indeed, many other groups have won wage theft campaigns, so you too can, especially when you build on others’ experience. Winning is good for the image and reputation of your organization. Strengthen enforcement and deter wage theft Wage theft is a serious problem in every community. Whatever you win will likely improve enforcement against wage theft (which is universally inadequate) and help deter (although not stop) wage theft. Garner media attention Most wage theft campaigns, especially those that take a while, generate a lot of media coverage for the organization. The media likes the issue of wage 102

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theft, particularly when you can provide victims to be interviewed, and so most groups get great positive media coverage from their campaigns. Develop your leaders’ experience in public speaking and media interviews Most wage theft campaigns offer lots of opportunities for your leaders to testify in hearings, speak to organizations, and give media interviews about the issue. This is great training experience for your leaders. Build the organizing capacity of your core leaders Worker-leaders can learn critical organizing skills through a campaign. A wage theft campaign provides the opportunity for advanced leaders to participate in developing strategy, planning direct actions, honing their outreach and turnout skills, and even developing the substance of the policy based on their own lived experiences. Attract donors and supporters If you use the campaign to reach out and engage lots of new people, you can attract new donors and supporters to your work. Attract new members Workers will hear of your organization and be drawn to your center as a direct result of the campaign. Build ties with key allies To win a campaign, you usually need to recruit lots of allies to support you. Reaching out to them will help strengthen your relationship with them. You can use the campaign to build ties with labor unions, a central labor council, religious organizations, student groups, social service agencies, and immigrants’ rights groups. Introduce you to ethical business leaders There are ethical business leaders in every community who are hurt by wage theft because they are placed at competitive disadvantage. Most campaigns need to find ethical business leaders to speak in support of your proposals. The campaign gives you a reason to reach out to these ethical business leaders and get to know them. Help you meet legislators and understand the legislative process Most groups begin wage theft campaigns with few connections with legislators and little understanding of how the legislative process works. Both relationships and understanding of the process are built during the campaign. These relationships and experience can come in handy in the future.

When to Run a Wage Theft Campaign There are external and internal considerations in considering when to run a wage theft campaign. If you are planning to run a statewide campaign, most states’ legislatures only meet part of the year and so you would probably want to begin planning for the campaign about four to six months before the session starts. Most city councils and county boards meet throughout the year, although there may be particular times things have to be done if money is involved. Many state legislators are particularly busy during budget periods, so it may be hard to reach them. You may need to plan your campaign to accommodate when they can meet and work with you. The scope of your campaign and the legislative body involved will determine the external timeline issues.

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Internally, you have to decide if it is a good time to run a big campaign. Do you have the capacity or could you use the campaign to build your capacity? Are your members interested in working on it? Will your top allies support you? Can you get some extra funds to support the campaign? Worker centers have run wage theft campaigns at all stages of their own growth and development. The Micah Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, used a citywide wage theft campaign as an initial way to educate people about the crisis of wage theft, meet other concerned allies in the community, and build support for creating a worker center. The successful campaign helped launch this worker center. Fe y Justicia Worker center in Houston, Texas, launched a citywide campaign in 2011 after it had been around for five years. At the time, undertaking a citywide campaign in the fourth largest city in the United States was a big stretch for a relatively modest-sized organization. The campaign helped Fe y Justicia build ties with key allies, including business leaders, developed the leadership skills of members, generated enormous media coverage, pushed the organization to look at its base in various city council districts (which resulted in the Fe y Justicia’s neighborhood membership model), and enabled it to raise new funds. The campaign and the victory helped put the organization on the map. The campaign also developed many new leaders, According to Mitzy Ordoñez, a leader with Fe y Justicia, I went to the center because I had a wage theft complaint, and the worker center helped me to resolve my case. First I went to a charla. There were about thirty people. When I won my case, I looked around and realized that there were so many people going through the same thing I was. It hit me that this wage theft is not an individual problem but a problem for everybody. I started attending the neighborhood’s meetings. These meetings are held in places where we don’t have a physical space. Some of our members have a hard time getting to the center because they don’t drive or they don’t have anyone who can take care of the kids. So we divided the city into four areas and organize this way. We do leadership trainings, and we give workers tools to organize their neighborhoods. They start talking to their neighbors and people start fighting together. I got involved in the fight for an anti–wage theft ordinance. I gave my testimony at the hearings. I realized that there were council members that were not educated on the issue. As part of the campaign, we educated them on the incidence and impact of wage theft. When we won the ordinance, I realized that when we use our voices we can make changes. I’m so thankful for the center! I didn’t know that organizations like this existed. In this country there is a lot of diversity but not so much integration. You feel alone as an immigrant in this country. I didn’t understand the importance of being organized. If we want to make changes, we can’t make them alone. We have to organize. People can’t be accomplices to injustice or abuses. We have to understand that the border is not the only barrier. There are so many others, and we have to work together to achieve justice.

Make the Road, a worker center with sixteen thousand members who live in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island, had primarily worked on New York City legislative issues, but to address wage theft enforcement the organization needed to change state policies. Thus, in 2010 it launched a statewide campaign. Even though the campaign was launched during a mature phase in the organization’s history, the

Organizing a Wage Theft Campaign

campaign helped build the organization further. Make the Road members and staff learned a great deal about state politics, they had many opportunities to speak in public, and they and their supporters were excited to gain a victory. Wage theft campaigns and victories can work to build worker centers at all stages of their development. If you are not working on a wage theft campaign, consider whether one is needed in your community and if it might work to help build your organization.

Planning a Wage Theft Campaign The following are the steps you should undertake in your planning a wage theft campaign. Decide who should plan it First you must decide who should be involved in planning the campaign. Will it be planned exclusively by your members and leaders? Or will you create a campaign leadership group that includes other allies as well as your members? Either way could work, but allies will be more involved if they are at the planning table. Essentially, the planning group, whoever is on it, will first work on choosing the issue (what solution you want to work for) and then will develop a strategy (a plan for winning, building your organization, and involving your members in winning). Research possible issues (solutions) Most wage theft campaigns do one of the following: • Create a process for studying wage theft and figuring out solutions. These “process” type campaigns are the easiest to win and set you up for the next fight of advocating one of the solutions. • Improve the city or state laws, processes, or staffing levels for wage theft enforcement. • Create new structures, processes, or staff for wage theft enforcement. You may know what you want to push for given your depth of knowledge of how the system is not working. But if you don’t, research what is not working and what folks think would improve things. Talk with other workers’ rights advocates, employment attorneys, and experts in your community. Also, look at the types of policy changes and improvements that other groups have won. The best resources on policies for which to advocate are compiled in several National Employment Law Project (NELP) documents. “Building Robust Labor Standards Enforcement” (March 2015) by Haeyoung Yoon and Tsedeye Gebreselassie is an eight-page paper that could be printed and given to everyone on your planning team. Winning Wage Justice: An Advocate’s Guide to State and City Policies to Fight Wage Theft (2011) is a 136-page book outlining the range of options groups generally consider to improve enforcement against wage theft . (Please note that there are several later documents that appear to have similar titles. Look for the March 14, 2011 document. Documents are arranged in chronological order. Both the paper and the book can be downloaded for free via the NELP website. See www.nelp.org). Use the combination of research and your own members’ knowledge to put together a list of possible solutions you might advocate in a campaign. Clarify your criteria for choosing between issues You can’t work on all the issues, so you have to choose between them. The decision will be easier if you are clear about the

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criteria you want to use for choosing. Spend twenty to thirty minutes with your leaders developing the criteria you want to use for deciding which issues on which to work. The following are examples of the kind of criteria you might have. The issue: • • • • • •

Can be won if you run a good campaign. Will build your organization. Can give your members a sense of their own power. Is easy to understand (if possible). Excites your members—they care about the issue. Has a clear target (decision-maker) and the target makes sense for you. (For example, if you are a new citywide organization, you should not undertake a statewide campaign.) • Can engage a large base of allies. • Can help you raise money. • Will help your members. Essentially, the policy should be one your members can use and benefit from. Develop your own list of criteria that will help you decide why one issue (solution) would be better for a campaign than another. Choose the issue based on the criteria There are no perfect issues. Lots of issues can be won and make good campaigns. But you can’t work on everything. You must choose. Use the criteria to help you reduce the list to just a few items and then grapple among yourselves about why one issue (or one small package of issues) would make a good campaign. Develop the strategy A strategy is an overall plan for winning that builds your organization and involves your membership base, helping it get a sense of its own power. Your planning group should develop the strategy using the framework outlined in the Midwest Academy strategy chart in chapter 11. Begin with column one there, which asks you to articulate your vision and your issue demand. Your vision is likely fairly straightforward—something like “eliminate wage theft in your community.” Your demand, what you want to win, should include a time period. For example, your demand might be that you want the city council to pass a bill by the end of the year to do certain things. Make the demand as specific as possible. Column two looks at your organizational considerations. What are the resources you have right now that you can put into the campaign? How many leaders can work on it? How much money do you have? How many names are in your database? How do you want the organization to be stronger at the end of the campaign and what are concrete ways to measure that strength and power? For example, can you use the campaign to train five new people to speak in public, add two hundred new names to the database, and raise $20,000 for the campaign? Column three considers constituents and allies. Who are your constituents? Where do you find them? The more specific you can be about who they are and how you find them, the more likely you will be to develop an effective outreach plan. Allies are people who can help you win but whom you don’t necessarily want in the organization or view as your constituency. The reason to distinguish between the two categories is so you

Organizing a Wage Theft Campaign

make sure that the majority of the work done to win the campaign is done by your constituents. If your allies do all the work, then you won’t build your membership and your members’ experience and sense of power. Column four focuses on the decision-makers, called “targets” in organizing lingo. You must be very clear on your targets. Who has the power to give you what you want? If you are dealing with a legislative body, you will need a majority. You will need to know something about each member in order to develop your target list, so you may need to talk with some expert lobbyists who can help you develop your priority targets. In most legislative bodies, there is a group of legislators who will support you with little work. There are those who will probably never support you. Then there are the legislators who swing various ways and whom you will need to focus most of your attention. Assume there are ten members of your city council. You will need six votes. Two are staunch champions of your work. Two are staunch opponents. You will then have to get four of the remaining six votes in order to win. Thus you will need to quickly confirm your champions and then focus the rest of your efforts on the six undecided councilors. Don’t waste your time on the opponents. The goal is not to convince everyone of the rightness of your position. The goal is to win, and to do so you must focus your resources. If indeed you need to focus on six people, you might consider doing six strategy charts, with six mini campaigns devoted to each target—say, each city council member or legislator. If you have direct ways to reach your target and people who have real power over the target, simply use your time and energy to mobilize your base. If, on the other hand, you believe you have little direct power over the target, explore whether there are secondary targets you might get to help you pressure the primary target. In organizing, a secondary person is not the person you go to second but rather a person who has more power over the primary target than you do. For elected leaders, a large contributor or someone whoever coordinates volunteers on Election Day is a good secondary target, because the elected leader certainly cares what he or she thinks. Column five, tactics, is the column where you get to have lots of fun. Tactics are what the people in column three (constituents and allies) do to the people in column four (targets or secondary targets) in order to win column one (your demand) and build column two (your organization). Be careful not to jump to column five before you have completed the first four columns. Save the fun till last. You cannot do a good job with column five unless you have answered the questions for the previous four columns. In most campaigns, and certainly in most wage theft campaigns, think about the campaign in phases—the preparatory phase, the education and outreach phase, and the high-intensity phase. The preparatory phase is when you compile your research, prepare your fact sheets and outreach materials, gather information on targets, and build your outreach lists. It may also be a period in which you hone the details of your demand and possibly draft legislation. You may want to expand your campaign steering committee to involve more members and allies. Many large campaigns take three to six months to prepare for launching. The education and outreach phase is when you are building your base and demonstrating your power to the targets. This is when you organize meetings with the target

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from various constituents and allies. You might do various public relations events. You could release your research report. Make sure that you have concrete things you want people and groups to do during this phase. Every time you speak to a group you want to be able to ask them to do concrete things. For example, ask everyone to sign a postcard to the council member or get an organization to endorse and attend a rally outside a restaurant that is stealing wages. The high-intensity phase is the month immediately before an expected vote or the moment when the mayor calls and wants to sit down with you to discuss your demand. Sometimes you can determine when the high-intensity phase should be, based on the legislative calendar. Other times, the phase is more fluid and emerges in the context of the work. The high-intensity phase is when you pull out all the stops. You organize a big rally outside a city council meeting. You do simultaneous actions across the city. You bombard City Hall with calls. You mobilize as many people and groups as you can, drawing upon all the work done in the education and outreach phase. Most groups cannot keep up the high-intensity phase for long, so pace yourself.

Lessons from Wage Theft Campaigns Lots of worker centers have run and won wage theft campaigns. All of these campaigns have aided the development of organizations, but for some groups they have dramatically increased their reputation, membership and ally base, leaders’ experience, and bank account. Below are some lessons that have emerged from a variety of campaigns. Take your time in figuring out demands Many groups have used the process of figuring out what you actually want as a good organizing time. Centro Humanitario and Colorado Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice partnered on their wage theft campaign. They convened a wage theft task force to review what changes were needed in state law. Lots of key allies were involved in the process and thus were brought into the campaign. Casa Latina in Seattle talked extensively with workers who had experienced wage theft. Workers knew firsthand how employers could evade the laws. The workers involved in designing the demands became very involved in the campaign and met regularly with legislators, representing the work center. Identify legislative champions If your campaign is a legislative one, you need to identify and recruit key legislators who will make your proposal one of his or her top priorities. Make the Road found out how important this was in its work on the 2010 state campaign when Representative Carl Heastie, who championed its bill in the New York State Assembly, threatened to walk out at a critical moment and take the entire Bronx delegation with him if the Assembly didn’t pass the same version of the bill that the Senate had passed. His legislative leadership and commitment to the bill’s passage saved the day. In Seattle, Casa Latina worked with a legislator who had a reputation as conservative but thoughtful and deliberative. He organized hearings and brown-bag lunches to educate his colleagues and neutralize opponents. His leadership was critical to a bill’s passage. Get your facts ready You won’t win simply because of the rightness of your cause or the existence of facts, but they are very important to have in a campaign. Most campaigns

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have partnered with some academic allies and produced reports. These sorts of reports can be released publicly in the midst of a campaign. Some groups have used their members to survey other workers and issue a report. Arise Chicago culled its database of wage theft cases and plotted them on an aldermanic map to show aldermen that wage theft was a problem in each of their wards. Organize your membership by district Fe y Justicia ended up with neighborhood membership committees, in large part because it figured out where its members lived in relationship to the city council districts, so it could organize its members to meet with the appropriate city council members. Legislators are moved when they hear the stories of workers who live in their districts. Building district committees provides leadership roles for your members and allies. Somos en Pueblo Unido has built chapters in ten counties in New Mexico, at least in part in order to be able to work on statewide legislation. Create organizing resources Ask your members what they need to be able to reach out to others about the campaign. Do they need fact sheets, petitions, postcards, endorsement forms, or talking points? Whatever people think they need and would help further your strategy, do your best to create them. And make the resources look nice—this will give you more credibility. Find ethical business leaders who support you Almost all campaigns in the country have found it important to identify and recruit ethical business leaders who could speak on their behalf. Ideally, find employers who are being undercut by other employers in their sector who are stealing wages. These business leaders will help blunt the argument that your campaign is bad for business, and they could become strong allies for your organization. Exercise your creativity in highlighting the issue Several campaigns have organized wage theft tour buses that go from location to location as workers explain the wage theft that has occurred at each. These wage theft buses generate great media coverage. Use the media Wage theft is an issue that really works well in the media. Your members can tell personal interest stories. The issue is easy to understand: if you work you should get paid. Use the campaign to build ties with newspaper reporters, radio interviewers, progressive bloggers, and even television talk show hosts and producers. Not only will the coverage help your campaign, it will allow you to build relationships with the media that can benefit you in future work. Plan for an implementation campaign too Winning a policy change may be only half of the battle. Once a governing body passes a new law or ordinance, be prepared to continue to mobilize your coalition to make sure that the staff responsible for implementing the law do so effectively. When Workers Defense Project won passage of the Texas Wage Theft Act in 2011, which created criminal penalties for employers who don’t pay their workers, the organization then had to work with local government and law enforcement officials to put the law into effect and make sure it would be enforced. Workers Defense Project even developed training memos for local police departments. Don’t give up If you don’t succeed in a first legislative session, regroup, evaluate what needs to be changed, and try again. It took three years for advocates to pass a wage theft bill in Colorado, but it has subsequently had meaningful impact for workers.

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Focusing on a Sector

Figure 5 CTUL janitors lead strike. Photo Courtesy of CTUL (Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha /

The Center of Workers United in Struggle).

Many worker centers have a sector focus from the beginning. Most of the centers affi liated with the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) started by focusing on day laborers and continue that focus. The Restaurant Opportunities Center United only starts and affi liates groups that focus on restaurant workers. The Domestic Workers United only starts and affi liates groups that focus on domestic workers. Warehouse Workers for Justice (Chicago and Joliet), New Labor (New Jersey), and Warehouse 110

Focusing on a Sector

Workers United (Inland Empire, California) focus on warehouse workers, and all three coordinate efforts when possible. But many other worker centers, particularly those operating in rural communities and areas in which there are few unions and no other worker centers, begin by reaching out to any and all workers in low-wage jobs. As you are building a center, this makes sense. Over the long term, however, worker center organizers want to build power and make meaningful change. Many believe that as soon as worker centers have a sizeable base of workers, they should begin focusing on a sector. This does not mean that there aren’t wage theft clinics or other services available for any low-wage worker (or any member) but that the center’s organizing resources are focused on raising standards in a particular sector or two.

Why Focus on a Sector? By focusing on a particular sector or two you can: Build power There are many connections between low-wage, seemingly isolated workers and the large companies that control the regions where people live. Sometimes those connections are not clear, but they usually exist. For example, small retail janitor firms are hired by big corporate players. Small construction firms likewise are frequently subcontracted by big firms. Focusing on a sector creates the opportunity to draw lines from the most severely affected workers, who are falling through the cracks, to the wealthiest corporations that are driving the economy. Once the lines are drawn, workers can figure out how to challenge the forces determining their lives and reorder the relations of power. Have a greater impact If you can organize a significant part of a sector or focus exclusively on a particular sector, you can have a greater impact than you would if you were working scattershot across lots of sectors. As union leaders know well, you can’t significantly raise wages and benefits in a sector unless you have a large part of the sector organized. (This is called “union density.”) The same is true for raising wage and benefits for workers who come through worker centers. If you can’t raise standards for most workers in the sector, it will be tough to raise standards for a small portion of the sector. If you raise wages for workers at one car wash and all the rest are paying sub-minimum wages, the one paying decent wages is placed at a competitive disadvantage. Understand the sector Most sectors have unique features. Over time, with focus on one sector, the leaders of your organization will really understand the ins and outs of the sector. You will get to know the employers and what relationships they have in the community. You will understand how workers are cheated of wages and how to quickly ask workers the right questions to understand their situations. You can become a real expert in the sector, which will help you in speaking with the media, communicating with the public, and testifying before legislators. Build long-term leadership teams It is hard to keep workers active across campaigns over the long term if there is not something that unites them—such as a neighborhood or a workplace. Many worker centers complain that once a group of workers gets their current problems addressed, the workers disappear. Workers who are working to clean up a sector will likely stay involved as long as they continue working in the sector.

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Build your organization If you are winning victories, building leadership, and getting known in the community, you will have lots of opportunities to build your organization. Donors will want to support you. Ethical employers will want to connect with you. Media will cover your issues. Legislators will want to support you. Focusing on a sector helps you build your organization.

Which Sector to Choose Unfortunately, most communities have many sectors that routinely mistreat workers and that are not represented by unions. Thus, there are often many from which to choose. What you don’t want to do is take on the hardest sector just because the workers are the most exploited. Doing so might be the charitable thing to do but probably not the most strategic. Rather, consider using the following criteria for choosing what sector to focus on: Is the sector an important one in the region? Many organizers end up focusing on sectors that are particularly important for their regions. The Northwest Arkansas Worker Justice Center is focusing on poultry, given that it is located in one of the densest poultry industry regions in the nation. The Syracuse worker center began focusing on dairy farm workers when some workers visited the center and the leaders recognized that upstate New York was becoming a major center for Greek yogurt (hence dairy farms). Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha chose its cleaning campaign in part because it provided an opportunity to engage Target, one of the most dominant companies in the Twin Cities. Do you have some strong leaders? Any campaign will need strong leaders (and will develop more along the way). Many worker centers began focusing on a particular sector because its first leaders or first groups of workers came from that sector. The Western North Carolina worker center began out of a worker organizing campaign at a Case Farms poultry plant. Although the center focuses on other sectors, it has already had a focus and expertise around poultry workers. Is your constituency employed in the sector? Some worker centers, such as Damayan in Brooklyn and the Pilipino Worker Center in Los Angeles, were organized to help Filipino workers. Large numbers of Filipino women are employed in home care, and so both centers focus a great deal on that sector. Is it a sector you can impact? Although you can probably have an impact on almost any sector, some will be easier than others. Immobile sectors that operate with decent profit margins and serve the public or are easily accessed by the general public tend to be easier to affect than others. What power do you have or could you have in getting the attention of the sector? Could you disrupt part of its production? Could you disrupt its customer base? What are the leverage points you have in how the market functions in your community? Does the size of the sector make sense for you? Arise Chicago decided to focus on the car wash sector in Chicago. There were only about six hundred workers in the entire sector, although they worked in fi ft y-seven different workplaces. It seemed like a manageable number of workers to reach. CTUL’s decision to focus on retail cleaning workers was primarily based on the organization having many strong leaders in the sector, but it also was a sector of a manageable size, with only about a thousand workers in it.

Focusing on a Sector

Examples of Sector Impact There are many examples of worker centers having sector impact, but here are a few particularly impressive examples. Workers Defense Project and construction workers Since its founding in 2002, the Workers Defense Project has focused its organizing work on the construction industry. The Workers Defense Project works primarily with Latino immigrants, and huge numbers of them are employed in the booming construction sector in Austin. The organization’s clear focus has enabled it to: • Generate reports and research on the sector. The Workers Defense Project has prepared and released reports and surveys about the industry. Academic experts partner with the worker center in researching the sector, bringing additional credibility and expertise to the work. These reports garner extensive media coverage and position the organization as an expert in the field. • Win important victories for construction workers. The Workers Defense Project has an impressive string of workplace and policy victories focused on its priority sector. It has won: • Six landmark agreements with Austin developers to expand safety protections, hiring requirements, living wages, and monitoring of construction sites. • A monitoring agreement over three construction sites, ensuring fair working conditions for 2,650 workers. • Five thousand good construction jobs that pay living wages, include expanded safety protections, and provide job training to help workers advance in the workplace. • Texas’s first misclassification protection law that imposes fines on employers caught misclassifying employees on state contracts. Construction workers are often misclassified. • One of the nation’s most progressive economic development policies. To be eligible for tax incentives from the City of Austin and Travis County, companies must now agree to ensure higher standards on construction projects. • Changes in city contracts to require basic safety trainings for all construction workers on city-funded sites. • Rest breaks for Austin’s sixty thousand construction workers by holding a “thirst strike” with WDP construction worker members and leaders outside of City Hall during the summer. • A federal investigation into Texas’s deadly construction industry by OSHA, which conducted nearly nine hundred inspections resulting in close to fifteen hundred citations and almost $2 million in fines. • A 500 percent increase in tax fraud investigations of the construction industry by the Texas Workforce Commission. • Stronger OSHA enforcement standards for holding general contractors responsible for safety violations. • Creation of a nationwide safety program in construction being piloted by OSHA in eleven cities, including Austin. • Provide sector-focused training sessions that both benefit its existing members and draw new members into the organization. • Build relationships with positive actors in the field. When you focus on a sector, you get to know the good and the bad players. The good employers are often undercut

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by those who steal from workers. Workers Defense Project got to know the ethical contractors in town. Some of them even become financial supporters of the work. Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL). CTUL was formed in 2005. For several years it helped assist various low-wage workers with wage theft claims and small campaigns to recover wages from isolated employers. By 2008, the organization’s leadership had decided to focus more on building a membership base. This membership base then decided in 2010 that it needed to focus on the retail cleaning sector, in large part because many of the organization’s leaders worked in the sector, it was a sector that hired primarily Latino immigrants, the organization’s primary base at the time, and it seemed like a manageable sector, with only a thousand or so workers. And retail cleaning was not likely to face an employment slump. The details of CTUL’s major victory with Target and the decision by the workers to organize a union is explained in detail in chapter 28. The organization’s decision to focus on the retail cleaning sector (and now also on restaurant workers) enabled it to: • Build a strong core of leaders. CTUL developed an impressive leadership team that drove the campaign development and outreach. • Win impressive victories for workers. In a four-year period, CTUL members: • Recovered nearly half a million dollars in back wages, mostly in the retail cleaning sector. • Reinstated hundreds of unjustly fired workers, thus empowering workers in understanding that they can stand up for their rights. • Pressured fifteen companies into changing corporate policies affecting workers, gaining improvements for more than one thousand low-wage workers. • Persuaded Target to adopt a code of conduct developed by CTUL leaders (following marches, hunger strikes, and more). • Organized a union to better represent themselves in their workplaces. • Expand its budget dramatically. As CTUL focused on a sector, boldly challenging the sector to improve and began winning real improvements, foundations and institutions wanted to invest in their work. Funders like gutsy organizations that are winning. CTUL’s focused efforts drew many new donors. Chicago Workers’ Collaborative (CWC) Founded in 2000, the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative (CWC) worked for many years in a variety of sectors. Although it had always helped temporary staffing workers, the CWC really began focusing on the sector around 2005. That focus has enabled the organization to: • Build a strong multiracial core of leaders. The CWC has done impressive work in building a coalition of African American and Latino workers who are jointly taking on the sector. Details on this coalition-building work is outlined in chapter 17. • Win impressive victories for temporary staffing workers. In the last ten years, the CWC has: • Passed the Illinois Day Labor and Temporary Services Act that sets standards for the state’s three hundred thousand temp staffing workers. • Worked with the state’s Department of Labor and Attorney General’s office to enforce the new law and stop wage theft in temporary staffing agencies. • Helped workers recover $15 million in unpaid wages.

Focusing on a Sector

• Worked with legislators to introduce legislation in 2015 to end discrimination in the temporary staffing industry. • Brought local and national attention to the way the temp staffing agencies are used to shield client companies from responsibility and regulations, especially regarding worker health and safety. • Helped workers settle hundreds of workers’ compensation cases and reaching settlements totaling more than $500,000. • Develop a set of basic labor standards for reforming the industry. This code was developed by the members over several months of meetings. • Generate significant media coverage on the sector. The CWC became a resource for local and national media interested in covering the expansion of temporary staffing services. • Organize, with others, the National Staffing Workers Alliance. This alliance allows groups working with temporary staffing workers to share information and strategies for dealing with staffing agencies and improving temp staffing worker rights across the country.

Early Sector Approaches and Campaigns Once you decide to focus on a sector, there are several common approaches and campaigns that groups often use. You can: Survey workers in the sector and issue a report Surveying the workers in the sector gets you into conversation with lots of other workers. You can train your own leaders to conduct the survey or you can engage allies, such as a university class working under the direction of a friendly professor. The survey results can help you understand the sector, figure out what campaigns you might undertake, and position your organization as an expert in the field. The report itself can be used to generate media coverage and garner financial support from funders for whatever campaign you choose to undertake. Push OSHA or the Wage and Hour Division to focus on the sector OSHA has national emphasis programs as well as regional and local emphasis ones. Many worker centers have worked with their local OSHA offices to gain for their priority sectors OSHA regional or local emphasis programs. This means staff will be devoted to looking at the health and safety issues in the sector. The Wage and Hour Division of the federal Department of Labor has targeted enforcement efforts that focus on particular sectors. Some of these targeted enforcement efforts are national, but local regions can have their own priorities as well. Thus, your center may be able to get your region to make the sector a priority for enforcement, especially if you can demonstrate widespread noncompliance with wage and hour laws. Develop a code of conduct Engaging workers in discussing and creating a code of conduct for how they believe the sector should operate is a good project and creates a standard to work toward in your organizing. Sometimes the code is something centers demand on an individual employer to adopt. Other times it is a standard for the entire sector. Build a campaign theory Once you have begun to understand the sector and ways you might have an impact on it, try articulating a one- or two-sentence summary of how you think you will change the sector. This summary is important in getting everyone on the same page and focused on the core directions, but it can change as the situation

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changes. When Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha began its cleaning campaign, its campaign theory was that it could win fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace for retail janitors by getting Target and other large businesses that use janitorial firms to adopt a code of conduct. This theory changed in the midst of the campaign when the cleaning industry consolidated significantly and workers decided that they wanted to organize a union.

Stepping It Up Once you’ve done a few of the early, relatively easy approaches, then you must step it up. This almost always means developing an organizing campaign focused on one or more employers or working on public policy that in some way regulates or improves conditions throughout the sector. At this point, worker centers need to: Campaign to get companies to adopt a code of conduct Workers Dignity members developed a code of conduct for hotels in the Nashville area and are pushing employers to publicly adopt the code. The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, which focuses primarily on temp agencies, worked with its members to develop a code of conduct for temp agencies and is working to get some of them to adopt it. Organize public policy campaigns to clean up or regulate the sector One of the first things the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative did to clean up the temp agency sector was to draft and eventually help pass a bill requiring all temp agencies to register with the state. In 2015, the CWC worked with friendly legislators to introduce a bill to amend the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act to require each day and temporary service agency, as part of its record-keeping obligations, to collect demographic information from job seekers on a contact form that allows each laborer to self-identify his or her race and gender. The bill requires that this information to be maintained separately from any personnel files used to make job assignments. The CWC has found widespread discrimination against African American workers and clear gender stereotyping on work assignments within the sector and thus is attempting to address the discrimination by requiring better reporting. As mentioned early, the Workers Defense Project passed legislation in the City Council to require rest breaks for construction workers. Unions routinely advocate special legislative approaches for their sectors. Worker centers are beginning to do the same. Create alternative hiring opportunities Worker centers that focus on day laborers have routinely created hiring halls that set higher standards for hiring workers. Casa Latina in Seattle has a minimum wage of $16 for hiring workers through its hiring hall, and higher-skilled workers earn more. File legal cases or administrative complaints on illegal activities Worker centers that focus on a particular sector sometimes file lots of cases or administrative complaints or one or two large class action suits against employers in the sector. At some point, employers in the sector decide it is cheaper to clean up their ways that to continue fighting the barrage of suits and complaints. Focusing on one or a few sectors is a natural progression for most workers centers. If you know from the beginning that this is the direction most centers move, you can be watching for patterns among workers and track what sectors people work in. Then, when you are ready, you have good data for focusing on a sector.

Organizing around Health and Safety Issues

Figure 6 Western North Carolina Workers’ Center hosts health and safety training. Workers map the

hazards in their poultry plant. Photo courtesy of: Western North Carolina Workers’ Center. Photo by Hunter Ogletree.

The same low-wage workers who are cheated of wages are often not adequately protected against occupational diseases and injuries. When many low-wage workers are injured, they are illegally fired or discouraged from applying for workers’ compensation insurance. Although most worker centers first address wage theft problems in their early organizing efforts, many worker centers are demonstrating ways to build worker power 117

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through organizing around health and safety issues. A few worker centers, such as MassCOSH, did start with (and continue) a focus on health and safety issues. Some organizers argue that it is harder to get workers engaged in health and safety issues than in matters of wages, but workers care deeply about health and safety if it is framed as an issue of respect and protecting their futures. Employers abuse workers with impunity and feel entitled to play with workers lives because they don’t respect them. Workers face conditions in their workplaces that put them in the tough position of deciding between their safety and their wages. No one should have to make this choice. Worker center organizers and movement builders should make sure that there is a structure in place to keep workers from being put in this position. Most health and safety work falls into four main categories. First, worker centers that start with or develop a sector focus almost always end up providing education on health and safety and organizing to improve health and safety in those sectors. Second, worker centers integrate wage theft and health and safety work. Third, several worker centers have led impressive public policy advocacy campaigns on health and safety issues. Fourth, some worker centers are building health and safety committees that are powerful structures for workers. Often there is overlap between the four categories, because the sector-focused approaches and integration of wage theft and health and safety end up developing policy campaigns and building health and safety committees.

Sector Focus and Health and Safety In almost every sector of low-wage work, there are health and safety risks for workers. The more your organization gets to know the workers and the industries, the more likely you will want to organize on health and safety. For example: Workers’ Center of Central New York The Workers’ Center of Central New York is focusing on dairy farm workers, who suffer long hours, low pay, poor housing, extreme isolation, and dangerous working conditions. Central New York has seen a rapid expansion of dairies to support the growing Greek yogurt production in the region. When workers are injured, their injuries are often unreported, and sometimes they are not addressed at all. The Workers’ Center of Central New York, working with Interfaith Worker Justice, has developed a health and safety training curriculum for Spanish-speaking dairy farm workers. It persuaded the local OSHA regional office to make dairy farm workers and dairy farm inspections one of its regional priorities. A campaign was required to make this happen. Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center Because of its location, the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center has worked a great deal with poultry workers. The poultry industry is notorious for its widespread ergonomics problems. But hand and arm injuries are not the only problems. The center conducted a survey and found that one of the major complaints was about inadequate time for bathroom breaks. As a result, many workers wear diapers and are forced to void while working. New Labor New Labor (New Jersey) created a team of safety liaisons whose main goal was to change the culture of safety in the residential construction market. The members

Organizing around Health and Safety Issues

of the committee were trained to identify workplace hazards, document these hazards on a safety audit checklist accessible by their smartphones, and confront employers to correct the hazards. If the employer took no corrective action, the safety liaisons determined a course of action. Sometimes they would talk with coworkers about confronting employers. In instances of imminent danger, they would call OSHA directly and fi le a complaint. In other cases, the safety liaisons would call a special consejo (worker council) meeting to agree upon the next steps. The safety liaison also provided OSHA ten-hour awareness training for construction workers and mentored other member leaders of the worker center. Initially the liaisons were new members. Five years later, the safety liaisons were integral parts of other worker center campaigns, and two now serve on New Labor’s executive board. Half of the safety liaisons have been in their roles for more than five years. Among their accomplishments, these liaisons have: • Built a relationship with their OSHA area office that has allowed them to file OSHA complaints that end with citations. • Completed audits at more than three hundred construction sites. • Led direct actions that have resulted in getting employers to provide protective gear (at no cost to workers) and correct hazardous practices. Chicago Workers’ Collaborative The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, which focuses on temporary staffing workers, developed a partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health to train health and safety promoters. These promoters interviewed temporary staffing workers and educated them about health and safety issues that are common in the workplaces to which workers were assigned.

Integrating Wage Theft and Health and Safety In the early 2000s, Arise Chicago noticed that most workers came into the center to complain about wage theft problems, but, when asked, more than half of workers also reported having experienced health and safety problems. Thus, some worker centers intentionally integrate wage theft and health and safety concerns. Fe Y Justica Fé y Justicia started doing inspection of construction sites with the purpose of enforcing its wage theft ordinance and identifying workplace hazards. Staff and members pair up to go to the sites. The pairs talk with employers about likely wage theft violations and OSHA violations. In cases in which problems cannot be settled through conversations with the employer, formal complaints are generated. MassCOSH MassCOSH, based in Boston, approaches the improvement of working conditions by looking at workplaces as a whole. Its organizers believe that when an employer violates a standard, it is likely breaking many other rules. When a worker comes to the center with a problem, a MassCOSH organizer trained in asking other questions about the overall workplace seeks to find out about other potential violations. The organizer then asks if there are more workers going through the same situation and if the worker will bring them to the organization too. Once a group of workers from the same employer comes to MassCOSH, the workers and

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organizer meet and do short surveys about their working conditions, develop a hazard map of their job site, and draw a map of a human body to identify if there are parts of their bodies that are frequently injured as a result of their job duties. The workers then decide if they want to form a workplace committee. The members of the committee survey the rest of their coworkers. The survey is a great tool when doing media events. The organization then files administrative complaints with Wage and Hour, OSHA, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The members also engage in direct actions mobilizing workers and allies. Usually the committees hold media events to issue the results of the surveys.

Policy Campaigns on Health and Safety Workers Defense Project As described in the preceding chapter on sector focus, the Workers Defense Project has organized around and passed a variety of city and state legislation aimed at better protecting construction workers. Construction is one of the most dangerous industries in general, but it is especially dangerous for immigrant workers. The Workers Defense Project has organized policy campaigns to assure that workers get adequate water and breaks on the job and gained health and safety training for construction projects using city funds.

Building Health and Safety Committees Historically, unions have organized health and safety committees in workplaces to engage their members in protecting themselves. Increasingly, worker centers are recognizing the value of forming and building health and safety committees in workplaces that do not yet have unions. New Labor has routinely used health and safety committees to build its base of activities in a variety of sectors including construction and warehouse work. New Labor leaders believe that health and safety committees are great organizing tools. Often workers are perceived as vulnerable or voiceless in the workplace, especially when they are immigrants, people of color, or women. The law is clear—all workers are entitled to safe workplaces. A health and safety committee provides a united voice in making demands for healthy work places, fair treatment, and respect at work. Through a health and safety committee workers can achieve concrete wins empowering them to make broader demands. Training workers In order to build a health and safety committee, begin by finding and developing a curriculum that supports learning by doing in a group setting. Through the committees, workers must feel empowered to lead, develop goals, and act with confidence. Your curriculum should include: • Basic OSHA rights. Workers should be aware of what their basic rights are under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). • Hazard identification. Workers need to be able to identify and keep track of workplace hazards so they can do what is needed to correct them. • Specific health and safety training. If your health and safety committee is in a specific industry or workplace, workers should know the standards in that specific

Organizing around Health and Safety Issues

industry and for the specific types of tasks. This module of training should include practical suggestions about how to perform work safely and how to engage the employer in adopting safer work practices. • Communication training. Workers need to be able to talk with coworkers about existing hazards, to try to get their support when needed. Also, they need to be able to effectively communicate to coworkers with no health and safety training that they are being exposed to hazards. Members of the health and safety committee need to communicate to employers about health and safety problems found at the job site. Most importantly, they need to learn how to convince employers to change their illegal and abusive ways. • Leadership development. The health and safety committee is not only about health and safety. It is about power. Therefore, it is extremely important that you work consistently to develop your leaders. The leadership development curriculum should include such topics as understanding power, organizing, public speaking, how to run meetings, how to do one-on-ones, media training, how to provide training to adults, recruitment, and outreach skills. The worker center doesn’t need to do all these training sessions at the same time. It would be overwhelming for the organizers and the members to do this all at once. You should start with a conversation about power and basic OSHA training. Then as part of your planning process you can define and prioritize when you will do the rest of the training. Worker center organizers need not worry about having the resources to produce all of these materials. There are plenty of health and safety materials already developed by worker centers and academic institutions. Many worker centers have also produced materials on leadership development and will share them with you. If your worker center is affi liated with a national network like Interfaith Worker Justice, NDLON, ROC United, or National Domestic Workers Alliance, you should contact the network and ask for information and materials that they provide. See appendix B for contact information. Recruiting committee members Once you have made an initial plan for the curriculum and organizational goals for the committee, it is time for recruiting. This is the tricky part. Organizationally speaking, you want your most effective leaders to be part of the committee, but you should also recruit new workers who will work on the committee. For example, New Labor recruited the first tier of members (called safety liaisons) for its health and safety committee from the more active leaders in Newark. Surprisingly, workers who were newly recruited by original members of the health and safety committee often stayed in the organization and participated as members of the committee for a longer period of time than the original safety liaisons. The health and safety committee required safety liaisons to become members of New Labor in order to be part of the committee. The health and safety committee is a point of entry to the organization, and it offers a space for leadership development. It is always important to offer members opportunities to grow their leadership skills within the structure of the organization. Recruit some workers from specific job sites where you want to build a committee. Also, because this is an effort of the worker center, it makes sense to recruit members

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and leaders of the worker center other than ones who work at this site. Be careful, though, that the number of outside members never exceeds the number of workers from the site. The committee should also consider whether it would make sense to have representatives of the community on the health and safety committee. Sometimes the community is exposed to the company’s hazards as well as workers (due to toxic chemicals or air pollution) and community residents may have self-interest in making that workplace safer. The organizer or member leader should have a one-on-one conversation with each potential health and safety committee member. During the conversation, try to get to know the person and learn if he or she is concerned about health and safety. At the end of the conversation, take time to explain what the expectation is for the person as a member of the committee. The person has to make an informed decision about being part of it. Workers need to understand that they will likely have to engage in actions that may expose them to workplace retaliation. They also need to make a commitment of time to health and safety committee activities. It is better to deal with workers’ fears and the time and commitment issues up front rather than later when you are asking people to participate in a job action. Don’t make it scary. Just be honest about the goals of the committee and the kinds of actions that will be necessary to achieve those goals. The committee should be involved in setting goals and planning activities, which will give members the opportunity to take action at a pace with which they are comfortable. Leadership development The health and safety committee will take steps to make employers accountable. It will provide training and plan actions to change policies related to health and safety. You will be asking workers to act on behalf of other workers and members of the community. This requires that workers feel legitimized in this new role. For most of the workers, especially nonunion workers, this will not come naturally. The worker center needs to create a process by which workers gain the confidence to exercise their voice and power. Once a worker has made the decision to join the committee, schedule as soon as possible a one-on-one meeting devoted to building trust and relationships. The purpose of this meeting is also to get to know the worker’s interests, worries, and personal goals. But let the person get to know you as well. Based on this conversation, identify the next steps with each member and with the group. Make sure you identify both needs and motivations. For example, if a member tells you that he or she is shy, a leadership development strategy could include inviting the member to do things with you. The person may not be ready to run a meeting but could start by making phone calls. Then, little by little, provide tasks that will build skills that will get that person in front of the room. Regardless of how long anyone has been in the organization, the leadership development efforts never stop. Between meetings, organizers need to keep reaching out to conduct one-on-ones, holding basic conversations about how everything is going and asking members to be part of other events, programs, or campaigns of the worker center. The health and safety committee needs to become a place where workers connect and where they want to spend their time. Imagine that your health and safety committee meets once every week for three weeks. On the fourth week, at least a couple times per

Organizing around Health and Safety Issues

quarter, you should have a social event. Also, encourage the members of the committee to talk shop among themselves. As an organizer, you don’t have to be in on all the conversations. It is their committee, and they should have the opportunity to come up with ideas that are valuable in legitimizing their role. One of the best ways to keep people involved and develop leaders is to create multiple leadership roles. Every single member has strength in some area. Some are great trainers, others are great talking with employers, and others are very good record keepers. It is important that members feel that they have roles within the health and safety committee when they start. Engage members where they are comfortable and then create opportunities for members to gain more skills. Defining and doing the work Once you have recruited and trained the health and safety committee members, everyone will want to make change happen. The committee must meet to define its goals and main purpose, including defining the types of change committee members want to see take place. There are many ways to have this conversation. You can use the Midwest Academy strategy chart to structure the conversation (see chapter 11). This chart helps to identify goals, organizational considerations, targets, opponents, and tactics. MassCOSH starts by doing a human body map or a workplace hazard map to frame the conversation about what workers want and how to get it. New Labor calls a worker council meeting to have these types of conversations. Work with the health and safety committee to answer the following questions: • Is the committee’s focus to improve the conditions of work in a specific site? • Is the formation of the committee part of an organizing campaign, and is its purpose is to use the committee to escalate the campaign? • Is the purpose of the committee to police a local labor market? • Will the committee work to give credentials (e.g., OSHA ten-hour, OSHA thirtyhour, or four-hour supported scaffold certification) to workers who do not have access to training as part of its strategy for change? • Do you want to do outreach to responsible employers? • Do you want to build in a research or workplace intervention component to this work? • What is the overall role of the health and safety committee within the organizational structure? • What will be the role of the organizers, workers and supporters? You are ready to take action—the best part. The health and safety committee can get creative in developing a strategy, a plan of action to get employers to meet their demands. Remember that in the previous steps you have done training and defined your specific goals. Now you get to plan some tactics, as part of your overall strategy, which will allow the health and safety committee to get what it needs. Groups use a variety of tactics, including direct action, administrative actions (like making OSHA complaints or NLRB concerted activity claims), and legal remedies to get their demands met.

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Working with Faith Communities

Faith communities are natural partners and allies of worker centers. Historically, many of the early predecessors to worker centers, Catholic labor schools and Jewish labor lyceums, grew because immigrant workers were Catholics and Jews, and the faith communities sought to empower and support their members. Similarly in recent years, a good number of worker centers emerged directly from congregations or were formed by interfaith groups. Congregations Start Worker Centers The Southside Worker Center in Tucson was opened in 2006 by Southside Presbyterian Church as one of its social justice ministries. The congregation, which had a long history of immigrant rights work (it was an early participant in the sanctuary movement), was concerned when it learned that day laborers were being mistreated by employers and police as they sought employment. Without organization, workers were being pitted against one another and underbidding one another for jobs. The church had extra space and a parking lot that it offered to day laborers as a safe (and cool) place to wait for employment and negotiate a fair daily wage with potential employers. Along with offering a safe space, the center now focuses on empowering worker leaders through a variety of training sessions and shared decision-making, and by maintaining the center as a worker-run organization. Members of the congregation volunteer with the worker center in a variety of ways, including providing clerical support in the office, raising bond money for those in detention, writing letters to those in detention, mediating conflicts between workers, and leading prayer vigils at the businesses or homes of employers who steal wages. Southside Presbyterian Church leaders even developed their own guide for planning and leading a prayer vigil. Don Bosco Workers Inc. was started by members of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, a Catholic parish in Port Chester, New York, in 2006. Initially, the church welcomed workers to assemble on its property and conducted an informal hiring site. When the group decided to formalize, it took its name in recognition of the founding father of the Salesians and his legacy of providing education and opportunity for poor immigrant youths. The worker center continues to be housed in church-owned facilities. Casa de Maryland began operating out of Takoma Park Presbyterian Church in Takoma Park, Maryland, in 1983, before it officially incorporated in 1985. Like the 124

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Southside Worker Center the church was a sanctuary movement participant, with a history of supporting immigrant workers.

Interfaith Groups Start Worker Centers The Arise Chicago worker center emerged out of an interfaith group, originally called the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues and now called Arise Chicago, which was formed in the early 1990s to support workers organizing into unions and advancing public policies such as an increased minimum wage. Pastors began referring unpaid workers to the organization for assistance, and eventually it created a worker center, which is now an integral part of the organization. Workers Interfaith Network in Memphis also began as an interfaith group designed to support workers who were organizing and to advocate just public policies. It too soon discovered that many workers were victims of wage theft and were not in sectors where unions were active. The organization began a worker center, and like Arise Chicago it is a central part of the organization’s work. The Micah Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was a faith-based study and action organization concerned about poverty and injustice. After book groups read Wage Theft in America, the organization surveyed wage theft in Grand Rapids, finding that it was a significant problem. The organization then led a campaign to pass a citywide ordinance aimed at reducing wage theft. Finally it organized a worker center. Greater Birmingham Ministries, formed in Alabama in 1969 by an interracial group of religious leaders to challenge racial and social injustice, is an interfaith presence in the community with a broad set of social service and public advocacy programs. In 2012, the organization decided to extend its multiracial approach beyond primarily black and white to connect with Latinos who were a growing part of Birmingham’s landscape. The issue that rose to the top for the community was the abuse and wage theft many workers experienced on the job. The organization initially focused on building its own worker center, but then it decided to work on a wage theft campaign. In 2013, when the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) established a worker center, Greater Birmingham Ministries saw the possibility of working together. Greater Birmingham Ministries signed an MOU with the new Adelante Alabama Worker Center to work together on the Winning Our Wages Initiative.

Why the Faith Community Wants to Partner Many within the faith community want to help establish and partner with a worker center. Worker centers can: Serve and support their members Many congregations have workers who are experiencing serious problems in their workplaces and have too few places to turn for help. Many working-class congregations have members who could benefit from a worker center. Even traditionally middle-class and more-affluent congregations will almost always include some folks who are working in restaurants and retail services and thus are likely to be victims of wage theft. Most teenagers who work in restaurants and retail have at least heard about wage theft, and some have experienced it.

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Help faith communities live out their faith and values For all major faith traditions, loving your neighbor as yourself is a core principle. Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others believe that the two highest religious values are to love God and love your neighbor. Worker centers help put these values into practice. Almost every congregation is already involved in supporting a soup kitchen, a shelter, or sharing resources with poor people in their midst. Supporting a worker center is another form of ministry. When Rev. Alison Harrington of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson was asked about the benefits to her congregation in hosting and volunteering with their worker center, she said: There is a real sense that what it means to be a person of faith, someone who follows the gospels, is to stand with those who are poor and persecuted, and so it is a benefit to us to be able to live out our faith in this way. Furthermore, many of the men have become amazing national leaders in the migrant rights movement, and we have learned a great deal from them. We have been happy to follow their leadership as they work on various campaigns to make Tucson a more immigrant-friendly place.

Offer volunteer opportunities Some congregations are looking for meaningful volunteer opportunities for their members. Some want projects for their youth groups. Your worker center can provide meaningful volunteer opportunities. Provide social justice advocacy that makes a difference A good deal of religious social justice advocacy work is devoted to passing resolutions, making statements, or tilting at windmills in one form or fashion. Worker centers offer public advocacy work that is concrete, pragmatic, and effective. Their direct actions help workers get their wages back. The policy campaigns win real improvements for workers. This is refreshing and exciting for many faith-based social activists and helps them educate members of their congregations about worker issues and what it means to do effective social action. Assist congregations in serving multiethnic communities Many worker centers are experienced in serving people with different backgrounds and languages. Some congregations are struggling to minister well to diverse communities, and worker centers can help them. For example, the Chicago Workers Collaborative helped a nearby pastor translate her flyers into Spanish. Soon after, the center was invited to provide bilingual workers’ rights training with her congregation members.

Why Worker Centers Want to Partner Worker centers usually want to partner and work closely with faith communities for both practical and visionary reasons. Faith communities: Share core values All faith traditions believe in justice, and almost all have strong teachings about the rights of workers and the need for workers to be paid fairly and treated with respect and dignity on the job. Have access to workers Especially when worker centers are starting out, they are eager to reach out to workers. Many workers or their family members are connected with congregations. Latin American immigrants, Latinos, and African Americans are even more connected to congregations than the population at large. Although some people

Working with Faith Communities

may be faithful attendees and leaders in congregations, others may claim to be connected to a congregation even if they are not actively engaged. Train strong leaders Congregations are good sources for finding skilled leaders. The formal leaders—clergy, rabbis, and imams—are obviously likely to be skilled leaders whom you might want to involve in your work, but so too are many of the lay leaders of congregations. Many community leaders began their leadership training in congregations. Can provide resources Congregations have resources and tend to be generous in sharing with others. Congregations can and do provide lots of material resources to worker centers, including free or low-cost office space, free meeting space, direct cash donations, various in-kind donations such as photocopying or food for meetings, and use of congregation-owned vehicles. Recruit volunteers for ongoing work, advocacy, and direct action Congregations not only have access to workers who need the services and support of worker centers but others who might want to help through regular volunteer opportunities, advocating policies with local, state, or federal officials, and participating in direct actions. Offer moral support and credibility Congregations and the involvement of their leaders provide moral support and credibility for worker centers. Th is is important both when worker centers are getting launched and when they are in the midst of controversial campaigns. Provide opportunities to meet ethical employers Although worker centers initially focus their efforts on challenging unethical employers to pay people all their wages owed, many recognize quickly the importance of developing strong ties with ethical employers, especially those who are hurt by employers who steal wages from workers. Congregations are a great place to find and meet ethical employers. Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) in New York City not only introduced Domestic Workers United (DWU) to ethical employers, it also got ethical employers to support their organizing of domestic workers. From 2002 to 2010, JFREJ turned out in force to support Domestic Workers United, organizing domestic employers to fight side-by-side with domestic workers for basic worker rights. JFREJ and DWU successfully passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in the New York City Council, the first bill of its kind to pass in the country, and then went on to win the New York State Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in 2010—the first statewide legislation in the United States to provide labor protections for domestic workers.

Barriers to Partnership Every so often there are some barriers to partnerships between the faith community and worker centers. Usually these barriers are the result of not knowing one another, miscommunication, or different styles of operating. If you want to partner well with the religious community, you will want to be careful about: Language How you talk about the work and mission will matter to the religious community. Generally speaking, the religious community is more comfortable condemning

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the sin than attacking the sinner. Th is means that you can call out unjust deeds, but you must be careful about how you talk about employers. Faith communities call upon people to change and basically believe that even those who do wrong can be transformed. Congregations are places where people bring their families, so make sure your language is family-friendly. Dress. If you are making a presentation in a congregation, dress up a bit. Not all congregation members dress up, but many do, and most people expect those presenting to dress formally. Style and tone of tactics Thousands of members of congregations have been involved in protests, gotten arrested, and been on the front lines of social change, but the style and tone of tactics will matter to most congregations. All actions should be nonviolent, and people of faith will be more comfortable if there are prayers and singing rather than militant chants. Inadequate preparation Sometimes faith communities are inadequately prepared for meeting with employers. Any time there is a contentious situation and you are asking religious leaders to meet with employers, make sure they are adequately prepared, understand all the complexities of the situation, and don’t find themselves blind-sided by new information. Make sure they have heard from workers directly before meeting with employers.

Real-life Partnership Examples Office space Congregations have buildings and often have space that is not used to capacity. Many worker center offices are located in such free or affordable space. Fe y Justicia got donated office space from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Arise Chicago rented at below-market rates from Edgewater Presbyterian Church for many years. Whenever special events occurred, Arise Chicago could use the sanctuary or the parlor for no extra charge. Southside Worker Center continues to have free space from Southside Presbyterian Church, and the Don Bosco worker center continues to be housed at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. Board leadership Many worker centers have clergy or other faith leaders on their boards, and many worker center leaders honed their leadership skills in congregations. Some of the worker centers that have had strong religious leaders on their boards include Fe y Justicia, Worker Center of Eastern Maine, Arise Chicago, and Chicago Workers’ Collaborative. Faith communities at actions The faith community partners in actions with almost every worker center. Sometimes individual people of faith show up at events, and other times congregations participate. Worker outreach Congregations can help you reach workers who might need your center’s services. Congregations will often allow you to put a notice about your programs in their bulletins or newsletters, post or leave flyers for people, or give a workers’ rights workshop. Some might even let you present a “minute for missions” or speak

Working with Faith Communities

briefly to the entire congregation about your center. If people know you and trust you, some congregations might invite you to give a sermon or message at a special service, such as a Labor Day weekend service. Financial contributions Most congregations do some charitable giving to agencies in the community that serve the poor. Some giving programs are very organized, with an application process and deadlines. Others are much less formal and require strong connections with the congregation’s leadership. If you have people of faith involved in your work, you can anticipate that they will figure out whether their congregations can give financially. Giving is part of the religious tradition. In most communities, there are financially struggling congregations and there are very well endowed ones. The financially struggling ones may be terrific for reaching workers, and so you should tap them in these ways. But some of the wealthy and endowed congregations view part of their missions as investing in community services and programs. Ask around about which congregations might help your center financially. Some congregations set aside part of their budgets to support community work. For example, Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle (United Church of Christ) tithes a portion of its collections to give to anti-poverty programs. At first it funded lots of groups. Then the congregation decided to partner with one organization for a three-year period. Casa Latina was chosen to receive support during one of the three-year periods and worked closely with the church’s social justice committee to engage the full congregation in supporting immigrant workers and immigrants’ rights. Congregants marched with Casa Latino in immigration reform marches and participated in language-exchange activities (congregants practiced their Spanish and workers practiced their English) with day laborers and domestic workers. This church also provided a $200,000 no-interest loan to Casa Latina for its building. Most congregations are connected with larger denominational offices and bodies. Many of these regional or national denominational offices are potential sources of funding. Your local religious leaders will be the most effective in helping you find and apply for those funds. For more information, see chapters 5 and 19. Youth outreach projects Congregations often want their youth groups to do more than have bowling parties. They want them to be involved in social justice activities. Fe y Justicia tapped the energy and creativity of young people by asking them to deliver water bottles to construction workers in the summer—the water bottles came with information about the worker center. The young people saw the working conditions and heard from workers. The workers got needed water and information about the center. Some of the first workers who visited the center came as a result of this outreach.

Getting Started If you are building a new worker center, you should have conducted a survey of the community, as recommended in chapter 2. In the process, you probably heard about congregations that already help workers and perhaps learned of religious leaders who are champions for workers. Meet with these religious leaders and congregations. Build relationships and explore how you might work with them. If you didn’t survey religious leaders when you were beginning, do it now. Use the questions provided in chapter 2.

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Do not recruit one lone religious person to your board and expect him or her to represent the entire religious community. The religious community is diverse. Try to recruit a good cadre of religious leaders to participate in your work, and ask them to guide your outreach and work with the religious community. Try to get people from a variety of denominations and faith traditions.

Deepening and Expanding Faith Engagement Engaging the faith community in the work of a worker center is not usually hard, but it does require some dedicated time and attention. For a busy and often overwhelmed organizer, how does one carve out the time and space to make this happen? Consider the following approaches: Create an interfaith committee for your worker center If there is not already an interfaith group in town that actively supports your work, create a religious structure that can help mobilize the faith community to help you. This will take some time to get up and going, but it will quickly pay for itself in terms of extra resources and support. Ask a few religious friends if they would work with you on setting it up. Then recruit a diverse set of committed religious leaders to serve on your interfaith committee. Work with them on finding a time and schedule to meet, but the group should meet every month or two to ensure that people get to know one another and stay connected with the work. Set forth goals and real work that the group can do that would help you, and let the group design how the work can and should be accomplished. The kinds of things you could ask it to do include: • Arrange workers’ rights training sessions in congregations. • Arrange worker leaders to speak in congregations over Labor Day weekend. • Recruit one hundred people to be on an e-alert list to participate in wage theft direct actions. • Recruit respected religious leaders to speak or lead prayers for events in public settings. • Solicit cash and in-kind donations from congregations. • Get ten congregations to help sponsor an event. • Assist in finding and applying for denominational funding sources. Recruit a seminary student or retired clergyperson It is helpful to have a person dedicated or focused on religious outreach. See if you can find either a seminary student or a retired clergyperson who can help with this work. If your community has seminaries or rabbinical schools, it may be possible to get one of the students to intern with you. Many seminary students have to do field placements. Although most of the field placements are with congregations, many students are eager for nonprofit social justice experience and might enthusiastically help you with your work. Recently retired clergy like to stay connected and involved with the community, but you have to grab them quickly before others do.

Working with Faith Communities

Hire a faith-based volunteer There are many faith-based programs, such as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Lutheran Volunteer Corps, and Avodah, that place young workers for a year or two in a nonprofit setting. These programs draw highly dedicated young people. Another great volunteer program is the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, which places Catholic retirees with nonprofit organizations. The volunteers usually work at least half-time, and their cost to the organizations is very modest. Several IWJ affi liates have had great experiences with this program.

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Partnering with Unions

Labor unions are key supporters and allies of worker centers. In the early nineties, when many worker centers were forming, some unions didn’t know quite what to make of these “new” configurations. Some labor union officials were even suspicious about the motives of those organizing worker centers. But now international unions, state federations, and central labor councils recognize the valuable role worker centers play in reaching out to workers who are not in unions and finding unique ways to stop or reduce wage theft.

Getting Started with Unions Building relationships with unions is like all other relationship building: it begins personally. If you conducted a survey of your community, as recommended in chapter 2, you probably met with the president of a central labor council and a number of other key labor leaders. You may even have recruited some interested labor leaders or activists to serve on your planning committee. If you have not already connected with key labor leaders, figure out which are the most active labor unions and which ones represent the most people in your community, and meet with their leadership. Labor unions usually have clear protocols, so regardless of who you might know within a union, it is important to meet with and build a relationship with its elected leaders. Let’s say you do an assessment of your community and decide that there are four active and strong unions in your community. Set up meetings with each union president (or whatever the top elected position is called) and secretary-treasurer. Ask them questions like: • • • • • • •

How long have you been a leader with your union? How long have you been in the union? When did you first start organizing? What are some of the things your union has done about which you are proudest? What are the biggest challenges you and your union are facing right now? Are you familiar with worker centers? (If not, explain.) Do you see ways we might work together?

If it feels right, find out about the person’s family, history in the community, and connections with community institutions. Most people are very willing to talk about themselves. 132

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Union Interest in Worker Centers Most union leaders, once they understand what worker centers are and do, are eager to support and work with them. This makes sense give the priority concept of solidarity within the union movement. In general, unions want to be in solidarity with other parts of the labor movement, and worker centers are clearly an important part of the broadly defined emerging new labor movement in this country. Beyond the general concept of solidarity, unions want to work with worker centers because they are: Connected with the broader community Worker centers may have stronger ties with religious institutions and community based organizations than some unions do. Connected with workers Worker centers are connected with low-wage workers, some of whom unions might be seeking to organize either immediately or at some point in the future. In 2013, the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative created a “Justice for Bakery Workers” campaign to educate temporary workers in the large bakery and confectionary sector in the greater Chicago region. The CWC educated workers about their rights as temp workers and their right to organize. Bakers Local 1 worked with some of the same workers to organize for union representation. As a result, workers at two companies won union election victories within about nine months. Leading worker justice campaigns Worker centers often lead amazing wage theft campaigns, minimum wage fights, or other important campaigns that unions want to and will support. Led by young, diverse leadership Union activists sometimes joke that union leadership is stale and pale (old and predominately white). Worker centers are often led by young people and people of color in a way that is exciting and encouraging to union leaders. In fact, many worker center organizers have been hired by unions seeking younger organizers and more people of color. Creative and courageous Most worker centers are a bit edgy—their organizers are creative and courageous in taking on campaigns that they probably aren’t quite prepared for. Union organizers respect this, and many wish their own unions were a bit less hesitant.

Worker Center Interest in Unions Worker center organizers recognize that they are part of the labor movement. They too want to be in solidarity with the broader labor movement. Worker center leaders want (or should want) to work with unions because they are: Experienced in organizing workers There is a great deal of organizing experience in the union movement, and some of your center’s new staff members might benefit from this experience. Connected with elected officials Most unions are very active politically. They may well have deep connections with some elected officials that could help you in your work. They also may have connections with your state’s Department of Labor leaders.

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Knowledgeable on labor law Unions and their staff are often deeply knowledgeable on labor law issues and may be able to help you in this regard. Just be aware that some union activists and staff members may have only worked in a union setting and sometimes think union protections are also laws. Most unions have lawyers on staff or on retainer. These attorneys might be very helpful to you as advisors or volunteers. Great sources for volunteers and donors People active in unions are good people. They care about justice for workers. They are likely to be active volunteers and donors to the organization. If you have a big action needing lots of people, unions in relationship will have capacity to get people to support your events. Generous Most unions are generous in sharing their space (for office location or special events), making contributions, organizing workplace giving (via United Way or Community Shares), and helping underwrite special projects (like printing workers’ rights manuals). You should not approach unions simply as donors, but if you build relationships with them, they will be generous with you. The International Brotherhood of Carpenters has been a strong leader on wage theft , particularly the crisis of payroll fraud (employers calling workers “independent contractors” when they are actually employees). The construction industry is fraught with payroll fraud. When the Carpenters in Indianapolis heard about community interest in organizing a worker center to address wage theft and payroll fraud, the union offered an old union hall to be its home. The location was perfect—near low-income workers, on a bus line, and lots of space. The union asks for a modest donation of $100 per month, which probably doesn’t even cover the cost for utilities. This is an incredibly generous contribution provided simply because the Carpenters believe in the work and mission.

Challenges in Working with Unions In most communities worker centers have strong, positive working relationships with unions, but every so often problems arise. These are the most common such problems that worker centers have experienced: Control issues Some unions are not used to working in coalitions with nonunion groups and think they must control every decision. Given the strong democratic sense within worker centers, this can easily became a big problem if not addressed quickly. Have an honest conversation with the union leaders about the concern and find out if there are one or two things they are particularly concerned about, so you can be careful on those issues. Disagreement on pushing politicians Some unions are very close to particular politicians and may not want to push them much, particularly in an election season. Try to understand the union’s perspective and see if there is a way to address it. Mixed feelings on union employers In general, unions are reluctant to attack employers with whom they have large (and relatively good) contracts. Although the workers in your community may not be represented by a union contract, if a union represents a large number of that employer’s workers in other cities, it may not want to publicly push the

Partnering with Unions

company or do anything that it might perceive as undermining the good relationship. By and large, unions are much more comfortable challenging nonunion employers. Upset about criticism Many unions are quite defensive about the caliber of their union contracts and their servicing. Suggesting in a public setting that workers in a union plant have problems is likely to get members and officials of the relevant union upset, even if the description of the problems is accurate. Worker centers need to be particularly careful about media interviews because the interviewers are often trying to get you to say something negative about unions. If you do, it will be quoted, and the union leaders will be upset with you. Unfortunately, too often worker center leaders get misquoted in ways that pit them against union leaders. Be careful. One nonprofit advocacy group issued a report on a particular sector indicating that working conditions in nonunion plants weren’t much worse than those in union plants. Even though this may have been true, because the union didn’t dominate the sector, and thus had trouble raising standards as much as it would have liked, the union was furious and mistrusted the nonprofit for many years. Protective of members Every so often, workers from a union shop will show up at a worker center asking for help. This happens most often when the worker is an immigrant who speaks a language other than English and the union does not have staff who speak that language. When this happens, you should immediately call the union and offer to assist them, but you may find that the union is initially a bit defensive. Resentful of members volunteering Most workers who are employed in union shops know that their working conditions are so much better than those without unions. Consequently, union members and leaders often volunteer at worker centers to help workers who are not represented by unions. Every so often, a union resents the members volunteering for the worker center instead of for union activities. This can easily be resolved by getting the union more involved overall in supporting the center. Buying access Worker centers are deeply imbedded in the community. Sometimes unions who do not have strong community ties want to pay the worker center to give it access in the community. This is not a good idea. Invite the union to get more involved overall in the worker center, and assure the union that it will meet community leaders in the process. Concerned about hiring halls For centers that have hiring halls, mostly the centers that focus on day laborers, some construction unions may be concerned that the hiring hall will undercut their members. Generally day labor hiring halls send workers to jobs that would not be done by union contractors. Nonetheless, you will need to build a relationship with the building trades’ leadership.

AFL-CIO Support The AFL-CIO is the federation of most, but not all, of the nation’s unions. For many years, under the leadership of John Sweeney, the AFL-CIO sought to build ties with worker centers. In 2006, the AFL-CIO began formalizing its relationships. Those relationships deepened under the leadership of the next AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka. The AFL-CIO executive council authorized worker centers to formally affiliate with state labor federations, local labor councils, and Working America, the AFL-CIO’s political organizing arm.

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The AFL-CIO then entered into a historic partnership with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, in which the two groups pledged to work together on workers’ rights and immigration reform. Additional partnership agreements were later signed with Interfaith Worker Justice, Enlace, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the National Guestworker Alliance. If a local worker center is interested in affi liating with its local labor council, here’s what the process entails: • The worker center reviews the guide for affiliating, Building Stronger Local Labor Movements: A Guide for Worker Centers Affiliating with Central Labor Councils and/or State Federations. Request this guide from [email protected]. • The worker center completes the application form (at http://www.aflcio.org/About/ Worker-Center-Partnerships) and sends it to the local central labor body with which it wants to be affi liated. • The local or state labor body decides whether or not it wants to affi liate the group. The labor bodies are not required to affi liate the worker centers, but to date none has denied a request. • If approved by the local labor body, the application is sent to the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., which sends the request to all affi liate members of the AFL-CIO, asking if any union has any objections to the worker center affiliating. This is normally simply a formality. • The AFL-CIO informs the worker center and the local body that it has been approved or denied and issues a certificate of affi liation. Although most applications go through smoothly, one worker center that focuses on day laborers who do construction work had its application delayed for two years, when one of the national building trades unions thought the center was undermining its skilled workers. The worker center wrote a formal letter explaining that it did not send out workers claiming to do that trade. Then the president of the state labor council met with all the locals of that particular union in the state and talked with them about how the worker center was not undermining their workers. Eventually the national union leadership withdrew its objections to the affi liation, and affi liation proceeded. As of 2015, twenty-five worker centers are affi liated (and five have pending applications) with local or state labor federations. For detailed information about the value of affi liating, read the 2015 report, Building a Movement Together: Worker Centers and Labor Union Affiliations, prepared by the UCLA Labor Center. The report can be downloaded for free at www.labor.ucla.edu/building-a-movement-together.

Deepening Ties in Particular Sectors For worker centers that focus on particular sectors, it is critical to build deep relationships with the unions that organize in those sectors. Workers Defense Project, which focuses on workers in the construction sector, has formed a strong relationship with the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council. They are supporting one another in efforts to raise the bar for Texas construction workers. If labor and worker centers are not strongly united, their respective objectives can be used against each other.

Partnering with Unions

Sometimes worker centers are focusing on economic sectors of particular interest to unions, even if they are not yet organizing in those sectors. Unions may be interested in learning more about the sector in partnership with you and getting to know existing leaders within the sector. Most worker center organizers know that they can challenge wage-stealing employers and get government agencies to investigate particularly egregious sectors but that if workers really want to be protected and have standards raised for the long term, they need a union. Most worker centers are not structured to represent workers in bargaining, so they partner with unions that can serve the workers in these ways. Worker center organizers are perfectly free to educate workers about their rights to have a union, introduce workers to unions, push companies to allow workers to organize without fear and harassment, and even stand in solidarity with workers and unions as workers seek a contract. Given the attacks on unions, however, as will be described in chapter 18, worker center staff and volunteers must be careful about delineating their roles and the union’s roles. There may be times in which the worker center is operating as an agent of the union. This is not wrong or illegal, but it does limit certain kinds of work, and thus the worker center will need to get sound legal advice. Increasingly worker centers find workers who want to organize, and they introduce them to unions that organize in their sectors. Examples of how worker centers are organizing workers are provided in chapter 28.

Support for Developing Deep Partnerships The AFL-CIO in partnership with several foundations has created the LIFT fund that supports partnerships between worker centers and unions. The AFL-CIO website says, As the landscape of the American workforce changes, the union movement is continuously finding ways to evolve and meet the demands of working families in the 21st century. The Labor Innovation Fund for the Twenty-First Century (LIFT) seeks to create a space to do just that. A true product of the intersection of collaboration and innovation, LIFT brings philanthropic resources to building greater alignment and synergy between the union movement and community organizing.

For more information about this fund, contact Neidi Dominquez, director of worker center partnerships, at [email protected].

Suggestions for Working with Unions Sometimes worker centers have gotten off to a bad start with unions and particular union leaders. Following are a few suggestions for developing good relationships and working well over time with unions. Respect unions’ experience and commitments Sometimes worker centers imply to unions that worker centers are more important, more committed, or more creative in addressing workers’ problems. This attitude will not win you any friends. Unions have been in the community, slogging away for workers for many years. Many union leaders have made enormous personal sacrifices and taken great risks for the cause. Approach union leaders with respect and some humility on your part.

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Speak positively about unions in public Even if you don’t think every union or every union leader is doing everything he or she should, you should not join in public critiques of unions. There are plenty of union-bashing voices and institutions out there already. You need to become a trusted ally, and you will not be one if you publicly bash unions and their leadership. If you have particular concerns with a union or a union leader, talk with the people in private. Support unions in becoming more effective in servicing their members Every so often, a worker who is already a member of a union will come in and share problems he or she is experiencing in a workplace. Most often the complainant is an immigrant worker and the union doesn’t have adequate bilingual servicing staff. Ask the worker if you can contact the local. Ask the worker who he or she has sought help from. Was it a steward, business agent, representative, board member, or a local president? Instead of helping the workers and his or her colleagues directly, the worker center staff must reach out to the union and see if there are ways the center can assist it in supporting these workers. Sometimes, by offering translation or other assistance, you can deepen ties with the union and assist the workers. If you don’t follow this protocol, unions could accuse you of undermining their role in servicing members. Show solidarity Unions have a great respect for solidarity. If unions have a picket line, show up. If unions call you for help, do your best to assist. If you are regularly seen at their activities, especially in times of struggle, unions will love you back. Work with the leadership Unions are democratic organizations and thus there are often internal politics. For example, there may be competition for leadership positions. Stay out of union politics. Just work with the existing leaders elected by the union’s members. Avoid taking sides in internal debates Unions make many strategic and tactical decisions on issues, public policy advocacy, and electoral campaigns. You may have concerns about the direction a union is heading, but you do not want to get involved in its internal debates. It will almost always backfi re. If the issue under discussion is one that is central for your organization, take the position you need to take and perhaps give the union leaders a heads-up on why you are doing so, but do not try to influence its internal decision-making process.

Building Multiracial Organizations

Figure 7 Members of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative lead a press conference outside Elite Staffi ng.

Photo courtesy of Chicago Workers' Collaborative. Photograph by Tim Bell.

The vast majority of worker centers that have developed in the last twenty years have emerged out of immigrants’ rights organizations or communities or have formed with a particular focus on addressing the problems of immigrant workers. But the problems all low-wage (and even many middle-income) workers face in the workplace, such as wage theft, disregard of health and safety protections, discrimination (against African Americans, immigrants, and women), and lack of due process, are similar for workers across backgrounds. Consequently, some worker centers, particularly those that have decided to focus on a particular industry in order to improve conditions in that sector, have recognized that 139

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to do so they needed to organize and support all workers in that sector. Given that workers of different backgrounds have historically been pitted against one another in order to drive down wages and keep workers from organizing together, and given the historic racism in the United States, building multiracial organizations is difficult. But it is critical. Centro Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), which clearly named itself with a Latino membership in mind, quickly saw its membership shift from almost completely Latino in 2013 to only about 60 percent Latino in 2015 due to its work in organizing fast food workers. The New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, which formed immediately after Hurricane Katrina to address the concerns faced by immigrant workers who were drawn or recruited to New Orleans to help with the cleanup, recognized quickly that many African American workers in the city were equally vulnerable and organized African American workers to focus on the problems they identified. (Initially the center helped African Americans who had lost their hotel jobs deal with housing problems, given the lack of affordable housing in the area. Later, the work shifted to work around job creation, barriers to employment, and discrimination.) In addition, there are several long-standing organizations that have organized black workers. The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, founded in 1996, organizes and advocates for low-wage workers in Greenville, Mississippi. The center describes itself as a membership organization that “fights worker mistreatment through organizing, legal advocacy, community education and outreach and most importantly, through organizing and the development of indigenous worker leadership.” The center works on unfair labor practices, employment discrimination, hostile work environment and hate violence, retaliation, sexual harassment, wrongful dismissals, and workplace safety and health hazards. Black Workers for Justice was formed in 1982 out of a struggle led by black women workers at a Kmart store in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, against race and gender discrimination. After organizing a boycott of the local Kmart store and reaching out to workers at other workplaces and communities, black workers and community activists from ten counties met and formed Black Workers for Justice as a statewide organization. Although Black Workers for Justice has not generally been called a worker center, it operates like one. In 2010 Steven Pitts, associate chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley, convened a set of black community leaders who recognized that black workers had many of the same problems as immigrant workers, that there needed to be more worker centers that focused on the needs and concerns of black workers, and that those that existed needed to be supported. Several new worker centers were formed in Los Angeles and Chicago, and connections were made with the existing black worker centers. Efforts are underway to build additional ones.

Experiences from Black Worker Centers The experiences of black worker centers can help inform worker centers that want to build multiracial centers. Although all of the black worker centers do some work similar to that the immigrant-focused worker centers, such as leadership development and

Building Multiracial Organizations

fighting wage theft, they also tend to have some particular features and programs that have helped them build their membership bases. Black worker centers: Focus on discrimination Given the continuing legacies of slavery and racism in many workplaces, black worker centers focus on discrimination on the job and in hiring. The Los Angeles Black Worker Center is leading a campaign to get more African Americans hired on construction jobs using public dollars. According to the center, “Black workers are grossly underrepresented in the construction sector in Los Angeles. Although Blacks represent nine percent of Los Angeles County’s population, they make up just 4.9 percent of the construction workforce. Black representation on publicly funded projects in Los Angeles is even lower, hovering around three percent.” Consequently, the organization has advocated labor agreements that require hiring from African American communities, developed a set of recommendations for the City of Los Angeles on helping African Americans benefit from building trades jobs, and trained African American construction workers about their rights in the workplace and what to do if they are being discriminated against in construction jobs. The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights works on discrimination in housing and education as well as in the workplace, because, as Jaribu Hill, its founder and executive director says, “Low-wage workers tend to live in substandard housing, and their kids go to substandard schools. Black workers live in segregated housing, and the children attend segregated schools. Housing, education, and workplace discrimination go hand-in-hand.” The center combines advocacy and legal work to force changes in housing policies, education policies, and workplaces. DeAngelo Bester, director of the Workers Center for Racial Justice in Chicago, suggests that worker center leaders who wish to focus on African American workers need to either work on issues like transportation and affordable housing or provide referrals to agencies that work on these issues. Remove barriers to hiring Thanks in large part to Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, many Americans are better understanding how racism continues to operate through prison and sentencing policies. Black worker centers are looking at how having a prison record undermines workers’ ability to earn a living and rebuild their lives. The Workers Center for Racial Justice led a statewide initiative to “ban the box,” to remove from application forms a box indicating that someone has a criminal record so that workers, particularly black men who have been in prison, don’t have their applications tossed out before they even are considered for a job. Special clinics that help workers expunge their records or apply for waivers to various hiring restrictions based on prison records are extremely popular and will draw African American workers to your center. Decriminalize race Black worker centers (and most black organizations and churches) support policies that would decriminalize race and reduce harsh sentencing policies. As the website of the Workers Center for Racial Justice eloquently states, There have been two main themes that really define Black people’s history here in the United States: exploitation of our labor and criminalization. Obviously the institution of slavery defined our first two hundred years in this country. Almost immediately after our emancipation and continuing until this day, Black people

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have been subjected to a systematic process of criminalization. From the establishment of the Black Codes and Convict Leasing System in the late 1800s, to the War on Black People, also known as the War on Drugs from the 1980s on, the criminal justice system has been the primary vehicle for social control and state-sanctioned violence against the Black community. The criminalization of Blackness has had devastating impacts on the lives of Black people, and has served as a major barrier for us in reaching our full human potential. Criminalization has limited our opportunities to education, housing, employment, and even the very right to live.

The Workers Center for Racial Justice advocates Illinois public policies to: • Create an independent authority to oversee, monitor, and discipline local and state police departments. • Require all police departments to document and keep records for all interactions they have with citizens. • Decriminalize marijuana possession. Hire talented, experienced African American staff All black worker centers have hired talented, experienced African American staff who are able to reach out to and work with African American workers. All the centers support union organizing and have good ties with the labor movement, even if it is weak in their communities. They also have a deep appreciation for congregations and the role the black church has played in the struggle for justice. Black worker centers, even when fairly new, tend to have somewhat older, more-seasoned staff members than many of the start-up immigrant-focused centers. Integrate civic engagement Because African Americans are citizens, they are eligible to vote and participate in elections. Thus, most of the black worker centers have some sort of voter registration or voter education program. Among the immigrant worker centers, only the strongest ones tend to have civic engagement programs. Name themselves carefully Some worker centers have Spanish names or names that appear to focus primarily on one set of immigrant workers. African American worker center leaders suggest that if you want to reach African American and other workers, you should have a name that sounds inclusive. Focus on a sector that serves a diverse population Many worker centers are focusing on sectors as a means of being more effective. Some sectors, such as restaurants and health care, are known for employing both immigrants and African Americans. If you want to continue serving immigrants and build a base among African American workers, consider focusing on such a sector.

Chicago Workers’ Collaborative One of the worker centers that has done the most to organize a multiracial base of workers is the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, organized in 2000. Like many worker centers, it was organized to focus primarily on helping Latino immigrant workers. In 2009, the organization hired Leone Bicchieri as its new director, and the leadership decided to focus its organizing and advocacy on workers in the temporary staffing agencies. In the Chicagoland area, mostly African Americans and Latino immigrants seek work from the growing temp staffing industry.

Building Multiracial Organizations

As Leone and the other staff organizers became deeply acquainted with temp workers and the structure of the temp staffing sector, it became clear that both immigrants and African Americans were being exploited by the industry and that workers overall would be stronger if people could work together to tackle this notoriously bad industry. The organizers also heard deep mistrust and resentment expressed between African American and Latino immigrant workers. CWC leaders talked about why it needed to organize all workers in the temp sector if it really wanted to build power and address abusive practices. Although some were skeptical about whether it was possible, the majority decided that they should move forward on building an organization that could unite all workers in the temp sector. Making the decision to become a more inclusive organization was easier than doing it. The organization had a Latino culture and feel. Its meetings were held in Spanish. Its materials were designed for immigrants. Its issues were chosen to engage Latino members. The organization had to revisit all aspects of its work if it truly wanted to become inclusive and represent all Chicago area workers in the temp staffing sector. Although the CWC leaders claim it has a long way to go to be as inclusive as they want and need to be, here are some of the steps they took to expand CWC membership and work among African Americans. In order to become a more multiracial organization that could attract black temp staffing workers, the CWC: Listened to African American temp workers The organizing staff made a point of listening to African American workers and hearing the problems they experienced in the temp industry. The most common complaint was that African Americans were not sent on jobs (and Latinos were). Certain companies that used temp agencies appeared to only want immigrant workers and not African Americans. Many African Americans also complained about discrimination based on criminal and credit background checks. Acknowledged real barriers The organization recognized and acknowledged the real tensions between the African American and Latino communities. Then tensions were not swept under the rug but discussed in honest and sometimes difficult conversations. Moved its office The main Chicago office was located in a Latino neighborhood. The organization decided to move to a location that sat right on the border between an African American community (Englewood) and a Latino one (Back of the Yards). Renamed the campaign The organization decided that the decision to reorient its work and direction to build a more inclusive organization was so important that it needed a new name to help give it life and energy, “Bringing Down Barriers.” Not all members embraced the campaign. Some left the organization, but the majority stayed and grappled with the changes. Hired an African American organizer The organization hired a black organizer and made sure that this organizer had real decision-making power. It is hard to reach workers without organizers who look like them, and workers need to know that they are represented in the leadership of the organization. Reached out to black community leaders and organizations The organizers got to know churches and community organizations, particularly in the Englewood area. One nearby Lutheran church had a primarily African American congregation but a

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day-care program that served both African American and Latino families. This congregation and its pastor, Rev. Felicia Campbell, became an important bridge for the organization. Formed an African American steering committee African American community and labor leaders were invited to serve on an African American steering committee. Encouraged black leaders and groups to meet at its office This was a good way for members to see and get to know more African Americans in the community and a good way to introduce the organization to African Americans. Ran meetings bilingually If the organization wanted African Americans to participate, the meetings had to be conducted in English as well as Spanish. As anyone knows who has tried to run meetings bilingually, it is hard and makes meetings longer, even with decent interpretation equipment. Still, the CWC made the commitment to meet bilingually. Sent e-mails in English and Spanish For the same reason that CWC leaders decided to run bilingual meetings, they aspired to send e-mail communiqués in both English and Spanish. Supported advocacy for ex-offenders The job barriers those who have been in the prison face are staggering. Although this issue also affects Latinos (especially young Latino men), it is a huge issue for the African American community. The CWC became a strong public advocate for improving conditions for ex-offenders. It served as the fiscal agent for an ex-offender training program (another way to get more African Americans into the office), developed ties with legal clinics helping workers expunge their records, and worked on the “ban the box” legislation spearheaded by the Workers Center for Racial Justice. Revised its organizational mission statement and tagline The members and staff worked on developing a new mission statement and tagline that would reflect the priority of inclusiveness. The new mission statement says, “Chicago Workers’ Collaborative is an Illinois non-profit organization founded in 2000 that promotes full employment and equality for the lowest wage-earners, primarily temp staffing workers.” The tagline, which appears right below the name of the organization on the home page of its website, says, “Uniting low-wage and temporary workers to bring down barriers for full employment and equality.” Placed diverse pictures on its website The photos on the CWC website and used in publications reflect the diversity of the membership. Made discrimination against African Americans a central plank The CWC has made discrimination against African Americans in the Chicago temp sector a central part of its work. For example, its seven-point plan for basic work standards puts fairness in hiring at the top of the list. Here’s the whole list: • Fairness in Hiring—Hiring solely based upon willingness and ability to perform the work, and no other factor. No discrimination of any type in the application and hiring process.

Building Multiracial Organizations

• Reward Loyalty and Years of Service—Respect for the time a worker has dedicated to a particular staffing agency, for lay-offs and offering of more hours, or a better position. • No Arbitrary Firings or Unfair Discipline—Firing and discipline of any type should be based solely upon job performance. • A Process for Workers to Raise Concerns—A procedure is needed so that workers can raise concerns about workplace issues to management without fear of being fired. • Worker Participation regarding Workplace Issues—Workers at each staffing agency and each staffing office should designate their own representatives who can dialogue with management about workplace issues. • Outside Support and Monitoring—Representatives of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative should have access to talk with workers at staffing agencies and workplaces, provided that no interference occurs with work duties. • Safe and Fair Transportation—The money-making and often dangerous system of bus and van rides to and from client companies must become transparent, above-ground, and regulated, to provide safety to workers in a respectful environment. Supported African American members in filing lawsuits Collaborative members worked with partnering attorney Chris Williams in fi ling lawsuits against several large temp agencies, charging them with discriminating against African Americans. At the same time lawsuits were fi led charging many of the same companies with widespread wage theft—primarily against Latino workers. (For more information on these suits and how they were used in strategic coordination with the organizing campaigns, see chapter 29.) Drafted legislation requiring temp agencies to track placement of workers by race Temp agencies claim they don’t discriminate against African American workers and that they couldn’t possibly know if they do because there are no records kept about workers’ race. The CWC worked with Illinois legislators to draft legislation requiring temp agencies to keep track of race and gender in the placements of workers in jobs. Organized forums highlighting temp agency discrimination The CWC organized public forums that drew community leaders and the press to highlight the problems. Both African American and Latino workers shared their experiences and called for fairness in the hiring process as well as more workplace rights for both communities. The CWC goal of building a more racially diverse workers’ movement is beginning to bear fruit, but it has taken intensive work and careful focus. The CWC publicly states that it “seeks to unite African American and Latino workers so that together they can be build a stronger workers movement and make sure the temp industry doesn’t pit them against each other which will only lead to further abuses.” As Leone Bicchieri told Bill Moyers, “Someone’s laughing all the way to the bank, and it’s not us!” Jaribu Hill of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights says essentially the same thing: “African American and immigrant workers have the same enemies. There is no gradation of suffering.”

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Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa The Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa (CWJ) is a relatively new workers center, formed in November 2012 by an informal group of African and Latin American immigrant workers with the support of a coalition of labor, faith-based, and other community groups. The African workers are mostly from the Sudan, Cameroon, Morocco, Togo, Egypt, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Latin Americans are from Mexico and Central America. Thus, the CWJ has been a racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse center from day one, in part because of its amazing planning process that engaged dozens of leaders in learning about worker centers and creating the vision. Iowa City, a college town with surrounding manufacturing, drew many immigrants but had few community structures to support these diverse new residents. As the CWJ began working on minimum wage and wage theft issues, the center attracted more native-born workers, both white and black. As of the summer of 2015, the center estimates that its membership is about half Latino, a quarter African immigrants, and a quarter native-born, with equal numbers of Caucasians and African Americans. Consequently, the four major languages spoken by its membership are Spanish, English, French, and Arabic. When asked for recommendations about how to build such a diverse organization, Misty Rebik says, “We don’t really have a formula, we’re just trying things and seeing what works.” So far, here are her recommendations for building a multiracial organization: Focus on building solidarity Try to help people get to know one another, and learn what people have in common. Every meeting involves some kind of icebreaker. Sharing food is a big deal. During the monthly membership meetings, members bring food to share. (This can be awkward during Ramadan, and the group hasn’t figured out what to do with that yet.) Expect meetings to be long Because meetings are done in multiple languages, they are long. Although the organization uses formal translation equipment for its large public meetings, for the regular board meetings and membership meetings it does not. The organization’s board of directors includes Spanish, French, and Arabic speakers who can and do help with translation in meetings. Make the board diverse The CWJ has four native Spanish speakers, two native French speakers, and two native Arabic speakers on its board. These individuals drive the work and provide leadership in most of the meetings. Present diverse leadership and solicit all voices The CWJ tries to have diverse leaders in front in every meeting, believing that folks need to hear and see people who sound like them. Even though most of the French and Arabic speakers can speak and understand English fairly well, they are usually more comfortable speaking in their native languages, so they are encouraged to do so when in public leadership roles. If Spanishspeaking workers have been dominating a discussion, others voices are solicited. Don’t pretend everyone is the same Workers with different backgrounds may have very different experiences. You can’t pretend that their experiences are the same. You must create the space for people to hear and learn from one another. African immi-

Building Multiracial Organizations

grants and African Americans have very different experiences. Muslim and Christian immigrants have different experiences. Talk honestly about how employers treat people differently The CWJ doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations. It fosters honest conversations about how employers try to divide people. Why do employers tell Latinos that all black people are lazy? Why do employers tell African Americans that Latinos are trying to take their jobs? Communicate in multiple languages The CWJ only has one staff person, and she is only bilingual, but Google Translate has become her friend. Google Translate is not perfect, but she uses it for composing e-mail, making signs at the office, and simple communication. Although most of the native French and Arabic speakers also speak English, they appreciate the effort. Hardly any other organization in town even tries. Also, CWJ aspires to hire interns who speak these Spanish, French, or Arabic, and who can thus help to get important documents and flyers translated correctly and smoothly. When the center can add more staff, its leaders hope to add French and Arabic speakers. Work on issues that unite people Minimum wage and wage theft have been great issues for uniting folks. Immigrant workers and native-born workers across the board are victims of wage theft and need an increase in the minimum wage. Police discrimination has also been a uniting issue and helped CWJ members build trust with one another in its beginning years. The United States is increasingly diverse. In 2012 the Census Bureau reported, “Minorities, now 37 percent of the U.S. population, are projected to comprise 57 percent of the population in 2060.” Figuring out how to create and build multiracial and multiethnic worker centers is clearly necessary. Worker centers are recognizing and reaching out to today’s and tomorrow’s workers.

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BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

18

As much as worker centers are doing the work of justice, there are forces in society that would like to hurt or destroy them. Although it is a testament to the transformational potential of worker centers that they are engendering such attention, worker centers must be careful in how they operate and approach these antagonists with caution. When worker centers challenge the status quo, when they challenge the concentration of wealth and push for higher wages, when they insist that employers obey the law and pay workers all their wages, when they organize workers who begin exercising their power, sometimes they upset the “principalities and powers” (Ephesians 6:12). These forces that would protect the rich and mighty against working men and women have enormous financial resources to draw upon. Consequently, worker centers must continue to be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Worker center organizers must protect their organizations by making sure that opponents are not given ammunition. ACORN’s Experience The experience of ACORN offers important lessons. ACORN, founded in 1970, was a nonprofit organization that did amazing work organizing low-income people and won hundreds of campaigns that forced banks and communities to invest in low-income communities. It its heyday, ACORN had almost half a million members and six hundred local chapters. ACORN registered 1.6 million new voters (mostly low-income people) in the 2008 election cycle (between 2006 and 2008) and mobilized massive voter education and turnout campaigns. ACORN was one of the nation’s strongest organizations advocating issues and concerns of poor people. There is no doubt that ACORN helped poor families. ACORN, like many nonprofits and many worker centers, juggled many campaigns and issues. Its management systems were not perfect, but its leadership was focused on those campaigns and issues. In 2009, two right-wing zealots visited multiple ACORN offices asking for help setting up a prostitution business. No ACORN staff went along with this, but tapes were edited to make it appear that ACORN staff was helping. This “exposé” was run on national television, and Congress quickly cut ACORN’s funding. ACORN was perhaps the most important community organizing voice for low-income families, but when right-wing forces attacked it, few stood up for it. Congress and

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most foundations stopped funding ACORN, claiming its finances were not in good order. Anyone who has worked with small congregations or small businesses knows they often struggle with having good financial systems. Perhaps its finances were not in as good shape as they needed to be, but the organization was attacked because it was defending poor people, registering lots of new voters, and challenging banks and other institutions taking advantage of poor people. The lessons are clear. The stronger and more effective your work becomes, the more likely you will be attacked by those who do not want changes to the status quo. When you are attacked, you will need to have all your administrative and financial systems in place and be prepared to defend your work.

Current Attacks against Worker Centers The attacks have already begun. Those who don’t like worker centers challenging bad employer behavior have launched a website called Worker Center Watch in which they verbally attack worker centers: Worker Center Watch is dedicated to exposing Big Labor’s abuse of the worker center organizational model. Hiding behind these non-profits, unions mask their true motivations, circumvent operational requirements and skirt reporting and disclosure obligations. Facing decades of declining membership, unions recognize that drastic measures are necessary, and are leveraging worker centers to lead their corporate smear campaigns, lobby their agenda and conduct stealth unionization efforts on their behalf. Meanwhile, many of these organizations are enjoying tax-exempt status and are funded by taxpayer dollars. The industries fueling U.S. economic growth in recent years are overwhelmingly non-union, and as a result, are facing the most vicious attacks. The burgeoning union-funded worker center movement poses a serious threat to the engine of U.S. job growth, and by extension the health of the American economy. By educating the public on the true motivations and tactics of these groups, Worker Center Watch aims to ensure this movement does not succeed in destroying jobs and upward mobility opportunities for generations to come.

According to the Nation magazine, public affairs firms and their leaders who work with or used to work with Walmart, Darden Restaurants, and other anti-worker and antiunion fast food companies are behind Worker Center Watch.1 (Worker Center Watch vigorously attacks worker centers for not revealing all their funders. Meanwhile, no information about funders or leadership is available about Worker Center Watch on the website.) What Worker Center Watch and those who fund claim that they are concerned about “vicious attacks” against nonunion industries in the United States. In reality, the number one issue that worker centers focus on is wage theft—trying to get employers to obey the law. Indeed, most of the employers stealing wages are nonunion employers. Some of them are very large companies.

1. Lee Fang, “Former Walmart Exec Leads Shadowy Smear Campaign against Black Friday Activists,” Nation, November 26, 2013, www.thenation.com/.

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

The second most common issue that workers bring to worker centers is health and safety. When worker centers “attack” companies, it is usually just to get them to pay their workers legally, treat workers fairly, and protect them in the workplace. Worker centers advocate their workers’ concerns. Most workers want to be paid for all their work. They want to be safe in the workplace. They also would like to see wages and overall standards in the workplace improved. Thus worker centers often advocate increases in the minimum wage or enactment of paid sick days. Just because some of these policy positions are shared with large segments of the union movement does not mean that worker centers are lobbying unions’ agendas. Worker centers are representing their own members’ concerns. Worker Center Watch clearly intends to challenge worker centers’ 501c3 tax status as a means of undermining the ability of worker centers to raise support from foundations and large donors. The Worker Center Watch website posts numerous reports on worker centers. One— titled “Watch Out for UFOs—Worker Centers as ‘Union Front Organizers’”—simply says that many worker centers are fronts for unions. That assertion is untrue. Worker centers work with immigrants’ rights groups, religious organizations, unions, and employer groups concerned about wage theft. Worker centers are independent worker-led organizations. Another report, “Worker Centers: Charities or Labor Organizations Masquerading as Charities, and the Impact of an IRS Decision on the Question,” makes a case that worker centers do not deserve their 501c3 status. This article was published in Engage: The Journal of the Federalist Society Practice Groups in 2012. Despite what this article claims, worker center do charitable work, well within the definitions of the IRS code and have continued to receive and keep their 501c3 designations. “U.S. Chamber Report Shows Union Front Groups Receiving Millions from Activist Foundations” is designed to challenge worker center funding by creating discord among foundation boards. Given the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s lackluster stand on workers’ rights, foundation supporters of worker centers have held firm. Another report posted by Worker Center Watch—“What You Should Know about Job Killing ‘Worker Centers’”—should come as no surprise. Anytime the right wing doesn’t like something, it is called a “job killer.” Raising the minimum wage is a job killer. The Affordable Care Act is a job killer. Now worker centers are job killers. Really? Insisting that workers get paid legally owed wages kills jobs? Every protection for workers has been called a job killer—OSHA, the Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage and overtime), the Family Medical Leave Act, prevailing wage, right-to-know laws, and on and on. In fact, stopping those who commit wage theft helps level the playing field for ethical employers and generates additional revenues for public treasuries by ensuring that all employers pay their fair share of taxes. On April 15, 2015, Senator Orrin Hatch and Representative Paul Ryan, the chairs of the tax-writing committees in Congress, sent a letter to the IRS commissioner asking the agency to investigate worker centers. Their letter appears to reiterate the arguments made by the Federalist Society article posted on Worker Center Watch: Dear Commissioner Koskinen, As the Chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, we are writing regarding the tax status of organizations known as “worker centers.” Worker centers are typically small organizations that provide services to their

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members such as job training, education, and legal assistance. Most file as § 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, and, in many cases, this designation may be appropriate. Some worker centers, however, engage in activities that may call into question their § 501(c)(3) status. For example, some worker centers engage in protests and pickets against targeted businesses and attempt to negotiate with individual employers on behalf of specific employees—sometimes even without those employees’ consent. This conduct may disqualify those worker centers for one of two reasons—first, the worker centers’ activities accrue to the benefit of private individuals, rather than the general public; and, second the activities closely resemble those traditionally conducted by labor organizations. The IRS has found that organizations with the purpose of advocating on behalf of employees for better working conditions and increased wages do not qualify for tax-exemption under § 501(c)(3) because their benefits accrue to specific employees instead of the general public. As discussed above, some worker centers engage in similar conduct, such as advocating for discrete groups of workers. This activity seems directed at pursuing a private benefit rather than providing a public service, and, thus, does not satisfy the requirements for § 501(c)(3) status. Second, if the Department of Labor determines that specific worker centers should be treated as labor organizations, the IRS should consider whether those worker centers’ tax exempt status would more appropriately fall under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(5) instead of § 501(c)(3). The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has written the Department of Labor to ask it to review worker centers’ filing requirements and the status of certain worker centers that engage in traditional union activities such as conducting labor disputes and negotiating with employers on behalf of employees. We request that the IRS undertake a similar review to determine whether: (1) a worker center should be ineligible for § 501(c)(3) status if its activities are primarily intended to benefit a private party; and (2) a group should lose its § 501(c)(3) designation if it is determined to be a “labor organization” by the Department of Labor. Thank you for your attention to this matter. In reviewing all these documents, it becomes clear that forces want to undermine the ability of worker centers to function and grow. This smear campaign is designed to make people believe worker centers are fronts for unions, don’t deserve their 501c3 status, don’t deserve foundation funding, and are job killers. And while those leading the worker centers around the country recognize these attacks as specious, the forces are well-funded and do not want workers and allies challenging unethical corporate behavior. Thus, these attacks must be taken seriously.

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Attacked Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), one of the most effective worker center networks, has been under attack by a group of right-wing forces, led in part Richard Berman of Berman and Company, a public relations firm known for its anti-union animus. A vicious website, ROC Exposed, attempts to make the same arguments as

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

Worker Center Watch, charging ROC with being a front for unions and challenging its 501c3 tax designation. Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) called for an investigation into connections between ROC and the Department of Labor and went on a fishing expedition, looking for e-mail or other communication between ROC and the Department of Labor. Eventually the investigation stopped, although ROC was never told it had officially ended. Previously, in 2006, a restaurant owner had fi led a complaint with the IRS, asking it to investigate ROC’s status, although nothing came of that complaint either. Operations of this same Richard Berman targeted ACORN as early as 2005, creating a website called Rotten ACORN. Berman’s group then showed up with a mobile billboard at ACORN’s national convention in 2006 in Columbus, Ohio. Those attacking ROC are the same players who attacked ACORN. Restaurant employers and House Republicans have also asked the Department of Labor to investigate whether ROC was a labor organization. The Department of Labor concluded in 2004 and again in 2008 that it was not.

Interfaith Worker Justice Attacked Because Interfaith Worker Justice affi liates work closely with the religious community, many of its affi liates get support from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the social-justice-funding arm of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. The CCHD itself has been under attack by right-wing forces for a while. The biggest attacker is the American Life League, which produces amateurish reports against various CCHD-funded entities. The American Life League prepared an 85-page report, complete with lots of red arrows, basically calling Interfaith Worker Justice a communist front organization. The report was sent to local CCHD directors around the country urging them not to support affiliated worker centers.

Specious Attacks The attacks against worker centers have no validity, but they waste the time and attention of worker center leaders and raise concerns among those who are just becoming acquainted with worker centers. Clearly these forces don’t want to see more worker centers formed, as proposed in this book. The most common charge fi led against worker centers is that they are really just unions or fronts for unions and that therefore they should not have a 501c3 tax exemption. Thus, the following sections will review the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor definitions and requirements.

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows for many different kinds of organizations to be exempt from paying some federal taxes. The different kinds of organizations are grouped under the IRS code referred to as 501c. Here are several different kinds of 501c organizations: A 501c3 organization is a charitable or religious organization. It is not only tax-exempt (doesn’t pay some federal taxes), but people can get tax deductions for contributing to it.

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Foundations can easily provide support for 501c3 organizations. It is more complicated for foundations to give to groups that do not have the 501c3 tax designation. The IRS website says, The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.

A 501c3 organization may not be involved in supporting candidates in elections, and it has financial limits on how much lobbying it can do to influence legislation. There are no limits on lobbying to change policies, procedures, or practices of government, such as rules and regulations. The limits only apply to lobbying on the making or amending of laws. Worker centers are clearly providing relief for poor and underprivileged workers, eliminating prejudice and discrimination, and defending human and civil rights. Many worker centers do a little bit of policy advocacy, but well within the 501c3 limits. A 501c3 organization is required to file an annual 990 tax return with the IRS. This financial report allows the IRS to make sure that the organization remains true to its charitable mission. This return requires an organization to provide various narratives. Worker centers should not delegate these narrative reports to their accountants but rather should write the narratives themselves to assure accuracy and adherence to 501c3 policies. A 501c4 organization is either a social welfare organization or a local association of employees. Many lobbying organizations qualify as social welfare organizations that can do full-time lobbying on public policy issues related to their exempt missions and can engage their members in electoral politics as long as the electoral work doesn’t become their primary purpose. A 501c4 is tax exempt (doesn’t pay some federal taxes), but its donors cannot get tax deductions for contributions. Bread for the World, which lobbies on hunger, is a 501c4. So is the Sierra Club, which lobbies on environmental issues. Many 501c4 organizations have related 501c3 organizations that allow large donors to support the charitable or educational parts of their work. So Bread for the World has the Bread for the World Institute, a 501c3. Likewise the Sierra Club has the 501c3 Sierra Club Foundation. Thus, it is possible for related nonprofits to structure themselves with both a 501c3 and a 501c4, although the organizations must carefully follow IRS rules. A 501c4 organization must also fi le an annual 990 tax form with the IRS. Casa de Maryland, a 501c3, set up a related c4 membership organization in 2009 called Casa Action. This organization currently has fift y thousand members. Make the Road, a 501c3, has also organized a related 501c4. Most worker centers, however, do not come anywhere near their 501c3 IRS lobbying limits and do strictly nonpartisan civic engagement work and thus have no need to set up a 501c4 organization anytime soon. Setting up a 501c4 is costly and time consuming and probably not needed except by large, well-staffed organizations that plan a lot of legislative or electoral work. The Alliance

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

for Justice’s Bolder Advocacy project has the best resources on this matter (www.bolderadvocacy.org). If you decide you need both a 501c3 and a related 501c4 organization, you will need written agreements that carefully define their financial and operational relationships. You will also need somewhat sophisticated accounting. The 501c3 cannot in any way subsidize the 501c4 organization. Although a 501c3 organization does not need a 501c4 organization for legislative work unless it plans to do a very great deal of such work, it will need an affi liated 501c4 (or some other type of entity) in order to do any electoral work in support of (or in opposition to) any candidate or party on any level of government. A 501c5 organization is a labor, agricultural, or horticultural organization. According to the IRS website: A labor organization is an association of workers who have combined to protect or promote their interests by bargaining collectively with their employers to secure better working conditions, wages, and similar benefits. Similar benefits include benefits traditionally provided by labor organizations such as strike, lockout, death, sickness, accident, and other benefits. Labor organizations need not be recognized labor unions. An organization does not qualify for exemption if its net earnings inure to the benefit of any member.

A 501c5 organization does not pay taxes, but donors cannot get tax deductions (similar to a 501c4). A 505c5 organization is required to file a 990 annually, like the 501c3 and 501c4. There are lots of other 501c categories that are unrelated to worker centers. A 501c6 is a trade association, such as a Chamber of Commerce, a bar association, or real estate board. A 501c7 is a social or recreational club. A 501c8 is a fraternal beneficiary society, and there are others.

Department of Labor In 1959, Congress passed the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), and it has since amended the act every so often. The Office of LaborManagement Standards (OLMS) in the Department of Labor administers and enforces most of the LMRDA provisions. The Department of Labor website says, “The law was enacted by Congress primarily to ensure basic standards of democracy and financial integrity in labor organizations representing employees in private industry.” When a group of workers forms a labor organization (a 501c5), it must fi le a LM-1 form, which outlines its basic by-laws, officers, and so forth. Then every year thereafter it must file either an LM-2, LM-3, or an LM-4, depending on its amount of revenue. Over the years, the reporting requirements on unions have become increasingly burdensome, as some in Congress have sought to undermine them.

Is a Worker Center a 501c3 or a 501c5? The heart of the question appears to be whether or not worker centers are 501c3 or 501c5 organizations. A worker center could set up a 501c3 and assist workers in setting up their own 501c5 if it wished.

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If a worker center regularly and over an extended period of time represents a particular group of workers in bargaining with an employer over wages, benefits, and working conditions, it should assist the workers in forming their own 501c5 organization. If, on the other hand, it works with lots of workers to address problems in a variety of workplaces and in the community at large, as indeed almost every worker center does, it is clearly a charitable or educational organization working for public benefit. Being a bargaining representative for a particular group of workers with a particular employer over an extended period of time makes one a labor organization. Working with hundreds of workers from dozens of workplaces to address a wide variety of problems or to create a totally better community environment for workers makes it a public benefit charitable or educational organization, even if the worker center is focusing on particular sectors of workers, such as poultry workers or construction workers or janitorial workers. The worker center is still not operating as a bargaining agent. Clearly, it is possible that laborers with whom your center has been working with might want to form their own union and might want you to assist them in that process. Worker centers have to be careful if workers want to set up a labor union (a 501c5 organization). A 501c3 cannot have, fi le for, or operate a 501c5. It can help workers set up their own 501c5, but the 501c3 cannot subsidize that 501c5 either directly or indirectly. This 501c5, a labor union, must have leadership that is elected by and accountable to its own members. Unions, 501c5 organizations, have to fi le annual reports with the Department of Labor, meet standards and requirements in the LMDRA, and file with the Internal Revenue Service. If a 501c3 nonprofit has as one of its purposes or functions to aid and support a 501c5, it risks losing its 501c3 status. If workers are interested in forming their own union, they will need legal assistance. Your local central labor council leaders can refer you to labor attorneys who can help. The attack on worker centers, suggesting they are really 501c5 and not 501c3 organizations, is not something about which to be terribly concerned. If a group of workers decide they want a union, they can form one. Nonetheless, worker centers must be careful in how they operate, and they must protect their 501c3 IRS designations. Brian Glick has written a helpful guide to help worker centers maintain their 501c3 tax-exempt status, which can be found in appendix D.

National Labor Relations Act Considerations The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is an important law for worker center organizers to understand because it protects the rights of two or more workers to join together and be protected when they are working to improve wages, benefits, or working conditions. This act protects workers’ right to engage in “concerted activities” (that is, to work together as a group) for “mutual aid and protection” at the workplace, whether or not workers have a union. Workers cannot be fired or retaliated against for exercising this right to engage in concerted action. The National Relations Board enforces this act and responds quite quickly to complaints (at least compared to most government agencies). A charge can be fi led with local National Labor Relations Board offices by anyone if workers’ rights to discuss working conditions or unionizing are diminished by employers.

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

The NLRA also regulates what is considered fair activity between companies and labor organizations. The NLRA defines a labor organization as “any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.” At first reading, one might think that worker centers would then actually be labor organizations under the NLRA, but the NLRA defines “dealing with” as regular interaction in the way one might have in collective bargaining. In fact, an NLRB “advice memorandum” in response to an employer complaint against the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROCNY) concluded that ROCNY was not a labor organization under the NLRA just because it negotiated with the company over a long period of time in an effort to settle a lawsuit. It was not a labor organization because it was not dealing with the employer in the sense of collective bargaining. The memo says, Granted, the parties’ discussions stretched over a period of time. But the settlement of lawsuits is not generally something that can be accomplished in a single meeting. Although stretching over a period of time, the parties’ dealings were limited to a single context or a single issue—resolving ROCNY’s attempts to enforce employment laws.

Thus, worker centers are not labor organizations as defined by the National Labor Relations Act either.

SLAPP Over the years, many workers centers have faced strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) designed to scare organizations and their leaders into stopping their campaigns. Sometimes the suits do scare groups, but they seldom stop worker center organizers from doing the work they are called to do. For example, Fashion 21 (better known now as Forever 21), and one of its owners, Do Won Chang, brought an action for libel and other torts against two nonprofit organizations, the Garment Worker Center (GWC) in Los Angeles and Sweatshop Watch, and two GWC employees, Joann Lo and Kimi Lee. In 2001, the GWC and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) sought to recover unpaid wages and improve sweatshop-style working conditions for nineteen garment workers. The manufacturers who hired these workers produced garments for Fashion 21. After fairly typical worker center actions, including demonstrations in front of Fashion 21, press releases about the terrible working conditions, and articles posted on social media, Fashion 21 tried to intimidate the workers and organizations with lawsuits. The cases hung on for several years, but eventually the California court ruled that these were indeed SLAPP—suits intended to harass. In 2013, approximately twenty workers at Izakaya Fu-ga, a Japanese fusion restaurant in Los Angeles, sought to recover unpaid wages and address other labor problems. The workers fi led claims with the state labor commissioner. In 2014, the owner fi led suits against the worker leaders, claiming they had defamed him and that they, not he, had stolen wages from workers. Then a Fu-ga manager tried to get civil harassment

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restraining orders against five ROC Los Angeles staff and leaders. The courts saw these suits for the harassment they were. In 2015, the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative was attacked by Most Valuable Personnel, a large and influential member of the Staffing Services Association of Illinois, in a lawsuit alleging “business interference.” The SLAPP tactic is likely to continue, and worker centers must be prepared to fight against them. This is another good reason to develop strong friendships in the legal community with people who can help you fight these suits.

Other Areas of Concern Even if the 501c5 and 501c3 issue is not such a big concern, there are several other areas where worker centers may be vulnerable and should shore up their operations. Negligent filing and reporting Over the years, several worker centers have neglected filing their 990s with the IRS on a regular and timely basis. Doing so could jeopardize an organization’s 501c3 status, which would scare away donors. Be careful to review the narratives to make sure your work is accurately described because these documents become available to the public. In addition, in most states, organizations that solicit money within the state must fi le an annual charitable solicitation form. Failing to do so could also get the organization in trouble. Other state laws may affect nonprofits including worker centers. Some centers as they have begun have paid their first employees as independent contractors. This is another big no-no. Nonprofits must obey labor laws like everyone else, including paying payroll taxes, social security, and workers’ compensation (in most states). Review the legal chapter (chapter 9), and make sure your organization complies with state and federal laws. Failing to file proper forms and reports makes worker centers vulnerable to attacks from forces that don’t like their core missions. Practicing law without a license Worker centers can educate workers about labor laws, but non-lawyer worker center staff cannot give legal advice to workers. The laws related to practicing law vary by state, but it is important that worker centers that do not have attorneys on staff be careful not to represent themselves as attorneys. Worker advocates without law degrees cannot provide legal advice. If you have workers who come into a workers’ rights training session and ask questions about their situations, they must be told that the worker center organizers are not attorneys and thus are forbidden from providing legal advice. There are two primary ways to protect your worker center. First, make sure that there are adequate statements in printed materials and in training sessions that clarify for workers that you are not attorneys and cannot provide legal advice. Ask workers to sign a form that indicates that they know that you are not attorneys and cannot hand out legal advice. (Make sure the form has been vetted by an attorney who specializes in assisting worker centers.) Place a sign on the wall of your worker center that says the same thing. Urge all leaders who are providing workers’ rights training to say repeatedly that they are not attorneys and cannot provide legal advice. It is tempting for experienced advocates

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

to want to offer legal advice on simple matters such as minimum wage, but you may not legally do so without a license. The second way to protect your center is to get an attorney on staff or as a regular volunteer who can oversee the work and make sure that workers are given proper information and advice. See chapter 29 for more information about this. Slander Be careful and accurate about what you say about employers. Do not make claims you can’t substantiate. Make sure you have adequate documentation or common statements from many workers that substantiate negative comments you or your center might make. Even if you are careful about what you say, you may still have a suit fi led against you for libel or slander, but you will be able to defend yourself. The truth is the best defense against a suit, so stick to provable facts. Don’t claim that someone has committed a crime. Instead say, if true, that an employer failed to pay wages that were earned and owed as required by law. Engaging in unfair labor activities Even though worker centers are not labor organizations under the National Labor Relations Act (see above), they do need to be careful about acting as an agent of a union. Although there is nothing illegal about acting as an agent of a union, it does restrict one to different rules than nonprofits are used to abiding by, and if you are not careful you could be charged with (and even guilty of) engaging in unfair labor practices as defined by the National Labor Relations Board. Unions or labor organizations as defined under the NLRA or organizations acting as agents of unions may not engage in secondary boycott activity or “recognitional picketing.” There are complicated rulings and discussions about what comprise boycott activities and recognitional picketing (for example, you can hold a stationary banner outside a secondary target, but you may not be able to walk around with the banner). Suffice it to say that if your worker center is working jointly with a union to put economic pressure on a particular employer, you might be accused of being an agent of the union and then could be subject to restrictions on boycotts and picketing. Again, there is nothing illegal about operating as an agent of the union, but you do then have to follow the rules governing labor organizations in that particular set of activities. And operating routinely as an agent of a union could put your 501c3 status in jeopardy if the center is found to benefit primarily the union or the union’s members rather than a broad group of workers. All that said, most of the direct picketing by worker centers of an employer demanding payment of unpaid wages or fi xing dangerous conditions does not have to follow these rules, because it is not done as part of a labor or union organization as defi ned under the NLRA.

Attacks against Wage Theft Bills In many states and communities, the main opposition to bills strengthening enforcement against wage theft has come from the chambers of commerce and from others generally just arguing against any provisions that add extra requirements for employers. Ethical business leaders who are undercut by employers who steal wages have made powerful arguments for such bills to help level the playing field between themselves— employers who pay workers fairly—and those who steal wages.

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The Florida Chamber of Commerce opposed the passage of wage theft bills, and the Florida Retail Federation led the aggressive statewide campaigns attempting to preempt wage theft bills. A little back history is worth noting here. In 2006, the state legislature voted to close the Florida Department of Labor. Thus, no one was responsible for enforcing the state’s relatively minimum set of labor standards on the books. In 2010, Dade County (Miami), thanks to the advocacy of the Florida Wage Theft Task Force, set up an office to enforce wage laws and help workers recover unpaid wages. With very modest staffing levels, the office has been a smashing success. Other communities followed suit. In 2011, the Florida Retail Federation proposed a law to disallow local communities passing such wage theft bills (referred to as a “preemption” bill) under the logic that enforcing labor law is really a state function (this in the state that had dismantled its Department of Labor). The Florida Retail Federation fight against wage theft ordinances by lobbying for preemption bills has demanded a huge amount of resources to counter, but worker advocates fought back successfully in the state legislature in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Each time the issue was raised and publicized in the state, more communities became interested in passing their own wage theft bills. Local wage theft bills have now passed in Dade, Broward, Alachua, and Pinellas Counties, and Palm Beach County did not pass a bill but set up a special legal aid program to address wage theft.

Train Staff and Volunteers Staff and volunteers need to be trained in these issues. They need to understand the laws and areas of concern. Ask people to read this chapter as part of their orientation. Encourage all of your staff and volunteers to watch for people who might be trying to set up your organization as was done to ACORN. If someone seems to be asking inappropriate questions or pushing your leadership to give legal advice (from someone who is not an attorney), stop the conversation. Be careful of people posing as reporters or interns who are not sent to you from a reliable source. In 2008, when the Coalition of Immokalee Workers was in a public battle with Burger King, the company hired Cara Schaffer, the owner of Diplomatic Tactical Services, to gather information on the coalition’s activities. The woman posed as a college student and attended two planning sessions on organizing students to support the workers and their campaign.2 When Voces de la Frontera ran its first voter registration program, two Latino men, hired by an anti-immigrant organization, pressured one of its voter registrars to allow them to register even though they were not eligible. The registrar did not allow them to register, but accusations about voter registration fraud were lodged anyway, although the charges were found to be false. Most leaders of social justice organizations are outgoing, trusting people who are used to working with anyone. Given that there are powerful forces that seek to harm worker centers, you must be cautious and judicious in welcoming people you don’t know.

2. Eric Schlosser, “Burger with a Side of Spies,” New York Times, May 7, 2008.

Being Mindful of Opposing Forces

Social justice consultant RoadMap has created a great resource, Weathering the Storms: Building Social Justice Resilience Against Opposition (available from www.road mapconsulting.org), designed to help your organization assess its risk, address its vulnerabilities, and manage attacks that occur. While the report is free, help with the assessment and access to the tool kit and customized help is not. Many social justice funders, however, are providing small discretionary grants for this sort of assistance. The more effective worker centers become, the more likely there will be some who want to attack and undermine them. Be careful to make sure that you are carefully following all federal and state laws that relate to worker centers, and be prepared to respond to attacks in a straightforward and honest manner.

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Taking Fund-raising Seriously

Figure 8 Casa Latina members and friends enjoy gala that raised more than $245,000. Photo courtesy of Marv Heston and Casa Latina. Photo by Marv Heston.

Raising start-up funds is one thing. Establishing fund-raising systems and structures to be able to take the work to scale is another. The tasks are related, but the focus needs to be different. Many new directors believe that if they do good work, somehow the money will automatically follow. Few have that experience. Raising money to grow and take the work to scale requires work and effective systems planning. One of the most thought-provoking articles on taking fund-raising to scale was written by the Bridgespan Group. Titled “From Small to Scale: Th ree Trade-offs for Smaller Nonprofits Trying to Get Big,” it used research from nonprofits that have grown their 164

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

budgets significantly to reflect on how they did it. Bridgespan found that, contrary to common wisdom, organizations that grew dramatically did not have a wide diversity of sources of funds but rather concentrated on a few sources. They may have developed diversity within those sources (e.g., federal, state, and local government sources), but each usually had one main source that provided 70 to 85 percent of its total revenues and one or two substantial secondary sources. Read the entire article at Nonprofitquarterly.org. The three main sources of funds that worker centers have tapped are government entities, foundations, and individuals. Worker centers whose budgets have grown significantly have learned how to raise large amounts of money from at least two of these sources. Fund-raising from each of these sources requires staff, expertise, systems, and resources. Large and sustainable worker centers may do all three, but most just do one or two well. Th is chapter outlines a wide variety of ways to raise funds, but, again, research suggests that you should focus on raising money from just a few sources.

Program In order to do good fund-raising, you need a clear program that you can explain relatively quickly. You should be able to say, “Our center is building power for low wage workers by—” and then you should have no more than three aspects of your work to explain in simple terms. There may be many components to this work, but the description of it must be structured so that all staff and board members can remember it. Practice being able to explain your work and ask for a contribution in less than two minutes. You may need to write down the words and edit them in order to be concise. Work with your staff and board to make sure that everyone can describe the organization in two minutes. This is referred to as your basic elevator pitch. Consider the absolute core work that the organization wants to do and needs to do, regardless of whether or not you can find dedicated funding for it. This work may require general support funds, which are challenging to raise initially but the types of funds you want to grow over time. Every worker center that has seriously grown its membership and fund-raising base has had a rich mixture of social service programs and organizing. Strong worker centers use their social services and programs to reach people, get them connected to the center, and build membership. The social service programs are easier to raise funds for than most organizing and open up a range of new fund-raising possibilities, including more traditional foundations, government sources, and United Way. Worker centers are using social service programs to build their overall work and reputation in the community. The kinds of programs that are fundable and attract workers include: • English as a Second Language classes • Citizenship classes • Job training programs—particularly for the sectors of workers with whom you routinely work • Computer classes.

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Developing a legal services component of your workers’ rights work may also open up new funding avenues. In election years, developing a civic participation program could lead to funding possibilities. Consequently, to raise more money, you need to be able to talk clearly about your vision and program, and you may need to consider programs and services that can draw people into the center and that are easier to fund-raise around than your organizing work is.

Dedicated Staff Organizations that begin growing their budgets in a serious way have figured out how to dedicate staff time to fund-raising. Usually with small organizations, an executive director focuses at least half of his or her time on fund-raising. This is hard for directors who have started or are running worker centers. They got into the work because of a passion for workers, not a passion for fund-raising. Nonetheless, directors must recognize that if they are serious about the work, they must become serious about fund-raising. At some point, instead of hiring another organizer or program person, the organization budgets to hire a staff person to help with fund-raising. Sometimes the first person works part time, but eventually the organization gets a full-time person working on fund-raising. The largest worker centers have a whole team of people working on fund-raising. But even with fund-raising staff, the director must be involved and spend a lot of time on fund-raising and related relationship-building tasks. If you have figured out the main sources of funds you want to pursue, you can hire someone with that particular experience.

Committed and Working Board Fund-raising must be a collective effort. The staff members can do a lot, but board members are critical. The board must understand the importance of the director and other staff members as the organization grows, focusing time on fund-raising. Sometimes boards can push executive directors to remove themselves from day-to-day program work in order to focus more on fund-raising, but the board itself must help in fund-raising, and there are many forms this help can take. Every board member should make a personally significant gift. For a low-income worker, this might be ten dollars per month. For others it could be hundreds or thousands of dollars. The total dollar figure is less important than the faithfulness of giving, because it shows a commitment to the organization and a personal involvement in fund-raising. No one can be a good ambassador of fund-raising if he or she hasn’t given personally first. Every board member should invite friends and family members to give. Everyone knows others who can and would give if asked. Even though low-income workers often know primarily other low-income workers, low-income people have supported congregations and community organizations for decades. In fact, low-income people give a higher percentage of their incomes to charity than high-income people do. Get everyone asking and reaching out to his or her own networks.

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

Many worker centers raise serious money from annual events. Board members can be the primary organizers of these events. Board members can make presentations about the organization and the work to potential supporters, whether foundations, unions, congregations, or individuals. Board members can participate in call-a-thons, especially campaigns to get lapsed donors to begin giving again. Finally, they should thank donors either by calling or writing thank-you notes by hand.

Systems Good fund-raising requires very strong systems that enable you to keep track of deadlines (both for applying and reporting), prepare funding requests quickly, and track relationships and conversations. Following are some of the systems you will need in place to make your fund-raising more effective and less burdensome. Regularly requested materials in one place There is a standard set of materials that foundations and government granting agencies want. Make sure you have them all prepared and available in one place so they are easy to print out or attach to a proposal. Among the common materials to have readily available are: • Staff list and description of jobs • Bio or resume of the executive director and other program leaders • Board list with information on each board member (name, title, organizational affi liation, contact data) • Current budget • Last year’s actual income and expenses • Most recent audit (which you will need if you are growing your budget) • Most recent 990 • 501c3 letter from the IRS (or your fiscal agent’s) • One-page organizational description (mission, vision, short history) • Accomplishments—and outline what you’ve won or achieved • Volunteer hours and numbers of volunteers • Annual report. Deadline-tracking systems Foundations, government granting agencies, and some individuals have deadlines that you must meet if you are going to be considered for a grant. Staying on top of grant application and reporting deadlines is essential. You can do it through a simple Excel spreadsheet, organized by dates, or a more sophisticated program set up specifically for tracking fund-raising. However you decide to do it, make sure it is kept up to date and utilized. You don’t want to miss out on fund-raising simply because you missed a deadline, and repeatedly asking for deadline extensions demonstrates a lack of planning. Every two months, recheck the upcoming deadlines. Foundations often move their funding deadlines and revise the due dates on their websites. You won’t know unless you check and recheck. Sign up for notifications on government grant requests Most government grant programs send out an RFP (request for proposal) that is then due a few months from then. Thus, you have to make sure that you get the notifications, because there is not that

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much turnaround time. At the federal level you can sign up at Grants.gov for notifications about grant programs. Most states have similar notification systems to keep nonprofits informed about grant programs. Systems for program staff to know grant requirements Many organizations have a disconnect between their program staff and their fund-raising staff. The fund-raising staff will raise money and promise certain outcomes, but the program staff will have never seen the grant or did not understand that they were responsible for the outcomes listed in the grants. Sometimes program staff are working on projects that are fundable, but the fund-raising staff don’t even know about the projects. Every organization’s leaders have to figure out how the program and fund-raising staff can work together to agree upon goals and objectives for grants that can both be funded and accomplished. They also must regularly remind program staff members about the expectations, lest they forget about them in their day-to-day business. You would hate to come to the end of a grant period and not have accomplished most of the goals you proposed in your request. You would hate to miss funding opportunities for new projects because your program staff hadn’t communicated about new projects. If you need to track how many people showed up at each meeting, those tracking systems need to be put in place at the beginning of the grant period. Notes on meetings and conversations No matter how good your memory is, you will not be able to remember the history and details of all your meetings and conversations with program officers and individual donors. Thus it is critical that you have systems for keeping track of what was said and what the next steps are. Although this can be done via hard files (notes on each call or meeting), it is far better to keep this information electronically, particularly if it needs to be shared. Most of the database systems referred to in the forthcoming chapter on managing data (chapter 21) allow you to keep track of meetings and conversations. Once you have a database in place, you must train your staff to enter their notes of calls and meetings into the database. It is challenging to get organizers and directors to have the discipline to do this, but a clear record will allow you to do better follow-up and keep moving relationships forward. Financial reporting Work with your bookkeeper to be able to pull financial reports in the formats needed for fund-raising reports. A few minutes thinking about this ahead of time can save many hours of work tracking down information. For some grants, you may need to set up separate accounts. Lists of folks to meet while traveling Although most of your donors will come from your local area, some may not, so you should keep a running list of potential supporters to meet when you or your board members travel. Regularly scheduled meetings and calls Good fund-raising requires constant tracking of who is doing what to make sure work is getting done. Schedule regular calls or meetings of your internal staff working groups and your board fund-raising committees. This helps keep everyone doing what is agreed upon. Clear system for thanking donors Every organization, no matter how small, needs a clear system for thanking donors. Who generates a thank-you letter? Who signs it? Who gets a thank-you call?

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

Regular communication schedule Donors and supporters should receive regular communications from your organization. Figure out a regular schedule for newsletters and e-mails and communiqués.

Relationship Building Most fund-raising is at least partly about relationships. While the donor or foundation must fundamentally agree with your work, both individuals and institutions will be much more inclined to support your work if they have a relationship with your organization, which means having a relationship with someone in leadership. There’s an old saying: “Funders give to people, not organizations.” Funders give to the leaders of organizations because they trust that those leaders will do what they say they are going to do. The funders may like the mission and program of the organization, but they trust it because of the leader and the relationship they have with the leader. Good fund-raising is long-term relationship building. Thus, there is little that is more important for the executive director, senior staff leaders, and board members to do than building relationships with existing and potential supporters. You build a relationship first by getting to know the donor or potential donor. What does he or she care about? What is his or her background? How did the person get interested in the issue of worker rights? Ask the person how long he or she has been at the foundation and what drew him or her to the foundation? Share your story about how you got engaged in the work. Yes, you should talk about the work (remember your twominute overview of the organization) and go into more depth about the particular work the individual or program officer is interested in, but you must also share your passion and excitement. Most individual donors say they gave to an organization because the person asking had passion about the work and because they were actually asked. If you can avoid it, don’t simply ask for money via a letter or an unsolicited proposal. You are not likely to be successful. Fund-raising is about relationships. Get out there and meet people and build relationships with them.

Membership For worker centers with only a few hundred members, membership dues may cost more to collect than you actually receive, but worker centers continue to focus on getting people to join because of the symbolic importance of people paying into and owning the organization. If you are going to concentrate on growing your membership, it can become a sizable source of revenue, but most worker center organizers will have to think somewhat more broadly about membership than they have if they hope to get to scale (see chapter 27 on building a large membership). Groups that have developed large memberships tend to have several membership features in common: • Membership is open to many folks. Workers and allies can both join. • Membership can be done online, through credit card and bank debit. (It would be inefficient to have your staff running around collecting membership dues.) • Members get services that they can’t get without being a member, or they get them more cheaply.

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Individuals Building an individual donor base is one of the most important tasks for worker center organizers. People who volunteer will donate. People who attend actions will donate. People your board and staff members know and who have heard about your work will donate, and some will donate significantly. The way to build a large donor program is to build an individual donor program and then focus special attention on those who have the capacity to give much more. Many leaders of worker centers wrongly assume they don’t know people with the capacity to give. There are lots of ways to jump-start and build your individual donor program. Try some of the following ideas: Add names to your list and ask for support If you want to build an individual donor program and you have very few donors, you need to start building a database of people connected to your work and to your staff and board members. Ask each staff or board person to add twenty names to the database. Begin communicating with these people via e-mail and occasional mailings. Ask them to give, and do this a couple times a year, including a paper mailing at the end of the year. (Be sure to read chapter 21 on using data well.) Organize house parties with the goal of getting donors and names If ten board members each held a house party and got twenty people to attend, you could probably get at least half of them to give at the event. Within a few months’ time you could have two hundred new names in your database and one hundred donors. That’s a decent start. Review donor lists of other agencies in your area Ask your board members, staff, and key volunteers to review the large-donor lists of other social justice organizations in the community. See who knows whom on the list. If someone is a $10,000 donor to another organization, the person won’t initially give that much to you, but perhaps you could ask for a $500 gift and begin building a relationship. Send thank-you letters soon after you receive a contribution Every donor should get a thank-you note acknowledging the gift. If you can’t figure out how to thank the donor in a timely fashion, why should the person trust you with more money? One donor made a $10,000 contribution to a worker advocacy organization. It took eight months and six phone calls for the donor to get a thank-you letter. She pledged to never again give to that organization. Thank donors personally Figure out a system for personally thanking donors. Perhaps the board president calls and thanks anyone who gives more than $250, the director calls those who give $100 to $250, and another volunteer calls those who give under $100. When you thank donors, ask why they support the organization so you can learn more about the person and his or her interests. These calls are in addition to the letters. Meet with donors and potential donors One nonprofit director who raised a lot from individual donors for social justice work had three words of advice: “Never lunch alone.” Directors and development directors (if your center is large enough to have one) should be meeting regularly with donors and prospective donors. You don’t even need

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

to ask for money. Focus initially on building relationships. If people feel connected with you and your work, they will likely give more money. The more people you meet with, the faster you’ll grow your individual donor program. Develop a monthly donor program Many donors can’t give $100 at once but can give $10 a month, which ends up being $120 in a year. This approach is important for helping small donors become larger ones. Analyze your donors It is important to analyze your donors, and there are formal and informal ways to do this. Costly services such as Wealth Engine, Donor Search, and Donor Scape can analyze the capacity of your donors. If your worker center cannot afford this, see if a network you are affiliated with might do it for you or if there is an agency in town where you could get the information for free. For example, members of the Donors Forum in Chicago can get up to twenty-five names checked per week for free. These services have information about how and where people give to charities and election campaigns, home ownership information and other data that kind give you a sense of donors capacity to give. Honestly, these services are a bit creepy, but they are helpful for analyzing your donors’ ability to give. You can also do some analysis on your own. Who has given to you three or more times in the course of the year? Who has given consistently over the last five years? Who has cumulatively given more than a certain amount? If you keep good contribution records, you should be able to analyze the data. Then schedule meetings with those who have been consistent and large donors. Draw donors close The best way to increase a donor’s contribution is to draw him or her more closely into the inner circle of the organization. Get to know the person. Find out about priority concerns. Ask the person to help build the organization in ways that are appropriate for him or her. If there are people who are modest donors and seem to really like your work, and you know they have the capacity to make a significant gift to the organization, you must chart out how to draw that person close to the organization. Encourage peer-to-peer fund-raising Nonprofits are increasingly engaging their donors in helping raise money from their friends. There are lots of different kinds of peer-to-peer fund-raising efforts, including campaigns around raising a certain amount of money, celebrations of birthdays or anniversaries (many years ago Monsignor John Egan raised $46,000 for Interfaith Worker Justice on his eightieth birthday), fun runs, or other activities that your members organize for you. Ask for bequests Individuals who are regular givers to your organization and all your board members who have wills should be encouraged to put your organization in their wills. More than half of Americans (55 percent) do not have wills, even though everyone will die eventually and families are better served when clear wills are in place. You hope your board members will not die anytime soon, but people do die and often quite unexpectedly. Ask people you meet, regardless of age and health, to consider including your organization in their wills. Simply adding a line on appeal letters asking people to do so can sometimes result in a bequest. Some nonprofit organizations invite attorneys who set up wills to donate services to their board members. The attorneys assist the board members in creating wills,

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and each person is invited (not required) to include the nonprofit organization in his or her will. Ask existing donors about corporate employer matching funds Some companies match their employees’ gifts to nonprofits. If you can build relationships with some of these companies’ employees, they can help you reach others in their companies. This can double or sometimes triple the value of an individual gift.

Events Events are a great way to generate general support funds (money you can use for whatever you want), engage your board in fund-raising, and get to know new individual donors. Instead of doing lots of little events that take lots of volunteer energy and may not raise that much money, organize an event that makes sense for your organization and have it become an annual event that can grow over time. Some individuals, law firms, businesses, and unions that might not otherwise give to you will contribute to an event. Several organizations have grown such events significantly over time. • Fe y Justicia Worker Center hosts an annual breakfast that raised $8,000 in 2010 and $25,000 in 2014. • Arise Chicago focuses one large fund-raising breakfast each fall that raises almost 25 percent of its budget. • Casa Latina has an annual gala, which in 2015 raised more than $245,000. Events require a lot of time and effort from planning to completion and also may require some initial cash. You need to earn money from the event—take in more than you spend—so pick one that you can do over and over again, raising increasingly larger amounts of money with perhaps less work as you streamline and learn from your mistakes and successes. Also, make sure that you make your mission central to the event. You don’t want an event in which people have fun but leave not understanding your work. Events work well as part of an overall plan to increase individual donors because they introduce new people to your work. Few groups raise large amounts from events in the first year or two, but organizations can build events over time, learning how to maximize the income and gain new donors.

Government Funds Some nonprofits and many worker centers are ideologically opposed to getting government funds, but it is clear that the largest worker centers in the country get significant amounts of public funds—not for their organizing work, but rather for the array of social service type programs that they provide their membership. Half of Workers Defense Project budget in 2013 was from government sources. More than $400,000 of Casa Latina’s 2015 budget was from government sources. Casa de Maryland and Make the Road New York each get about $2.5 million a year in government contracts and fees. These government services: • Help workers and their families. Some workers want to organize, but they also want to learn English, learn computer skills, develop their job skills, and file for

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

citizenship. They want and need the services that worker centers can provide thanks to government funds. • Draw people into the centers. If workers learn about your worker center from an English class, they may want to join a workers’ rights class, or they will know where to turn when they have a wage payment problem. • Support the infrastructure. There are some infrastructure costs of running any worker center that can be at least partially underwritten by these funds. Sometimes worker centers get funded by cities. For example, the Madison Workers’ Rights Center received funding ($10,000 per year) through the city’s Community Development Department under its Emerging Opportunities Program to provide education and advocacy support to workers victimized by wage theft . As part of the grant, the organization trained community monitors who helped spread the word about wage theft and how to combat it. The city’s rationale for the grant was that wage theft was having a negative fi nancial impact on the community by depriving residents of income and thus burdening social services. The San Francisco– based Chinese Progressive Association coordinates a large city grant (and subgrants to five other worker centers) to educate hard-to-reach workers about the city’s labor laws. Unfortunately, most government funds are not easy to get or manage. Applying for most requires serious proposal-writing skills, because such funds have very particular requirements for addressing goals and objectives, narrative budgets, and evaluation procedures. Once you are approved for a government grant, you will have significant reporting requirements and sometimes audits from the granting agencies. Thus you may need to increase your financial record-keeping staff and systems.

Workplace-Giving Funds Worker centers are community-based organizations. As they grow and develop, their leaders should get to know more people throughout the community. Thus, they are the perfect organizations for getting workplace-giving funds. There are several workplace-giving funds to explore: United Way United Way is by far the largest and most renowned workplace-giving program. It raises funds for community charities, primarily social services. Two-thirds of United Way contributions come from workplace-giving deductions. The AFL-CIO has partnered with United Way since 1946. Many local union presidents send letters to their memberships endorsing United Way campaigns and urging union members to volunteer and give money to the campaigns. The United Way supports 160 full-time AFL-CIO community services liaisons who help union members access community services and link state federations and central labor councils with United Way offices in 165 communities. There are two main ways to get financial support from United Way. You can become a United Way agency, which means you apply for and get funds through United Way. It is often difficult to get approved as a new agency, but a lot of money is at stake and so it deserves consideration. ROC Chicago was approved for United Way funding to provide job-training programs for restaurant workers. Just Economics in Asheville has gotten

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support for its Living Wage Certification Program. Fe y Justicia received United Way funds early in its history, and Casa Latina also gets United Way support. The Madison Workers’ Rights Center has received United Way funds for more than ten years. Initially the center received these funds for its work doing intake on workplace problems. Then there was a dispute when the center organized a prayer vigil in support of subcontracted janitors outside an employer that was a major United Way participant. After that, the funding was changed to support interpretation and translation services for ESL parents in the school district. United Way nationally has three priorities, and one is income. Local United Way programs can figure out how exactly to address the priority of income, but the recommended national strategies include working on family-sustaining employment, affordable housing, income supports, manageable expenses, and savings and assets. There are many job training and financial literacy and training programs that might be eligible for United Way funding. Contact the person at your local United Way who is responsible for the income category and explore possibilities for direct grants from United Way. Also, talk with the community liaison for United Way who works with your central labor council, in order to understand more about the United Way and how to solicit support for your work. You can also get designated gifts. Someone who signs up at the workplace to have ten dollars a week deducted from his or her paycheck can designate that the money be given to your organization, as long as you are a registered 501c3. Check with your local United Way to see if you must be on the “approved charities” list to get designated gifts. Community Shares USA Community Shares workplace-giving programs tend to be much smaller than United Way programs, but they are much more focused on social justice work and less on social services. Many worker centers get Community Shares funds, although they are available in far fewer communities than United Way. Find a list of local or state Community Shares programs at www.communitysharesusa.org. Voces de la Frontera receives Community Shares funds in Milwaukee. Interfaith Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin gets support for from Wisconsin Community Shares. Workers Interfaith Network gets support from Community Shares of Tennessee. Because the Community Shares programs are not as well known or well financed as United Way, member organizations, like your worker center, can end up having to do a fair amount of work to promote the program if you are actually going to receive funds. Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) The Combined Federal Campaign is the workplace-giving campaign organized in federal government workplaces. Federal employees can contribute to nonprofit organizations listed in the CFC Charity List or by designating a particular organization. There are two hundred local CFC campaigns. You can apply to your local CFC to be included if you have a 501c3 and operate in the designated area. Find your local CFC information at http://www.opm.gov/cfc/Search/ Locator.asp. Each local CFC sets its own deadlines, but they are usually early in the year. Given the positive relationships that worker centers often build with Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board staff, it makes sense to invite them to contribute through their local Combined Federal Campaign.

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

State employee campaigns Many states also have workplace-giving funds for their state employees. For these, you need to get your worker center listed on your state’s charity list, which will generally require you to have a 501c3 and an audit. Check to see if your state has such a fund, and get on the list if you can. Casa Latino gets money through a state employee giving fund.

Legal Sources If you are working with attorneys or decide to hire your own attorney on staff, you will have access to various sources related to the legal community. Cy pres awards In class action lawsuits, there are often leftover monies because not all the class members can be found or the amount per person is too small to be worth delivering (although the total could still be significant). These leftover monies are supposed to go to organizations that do work that is similar to the purposes of the suit. Thus, class action lawsuits on wage or discrimination issues are clearly cases that are similar to the work of your center. Consequently, your worker center could receive leftover monies from class action suits brought on behalf of workers. You could also be designated for residual funds from securities fraud cases and other consumer cases affecting low-income people. Most cy pres awards are simply general support grants that can be used for all your work. Sometimes groups are asked to propose a particular project for which the funds would be used. Cy pres awards are usually written into the fi nal settlement deals of cases. The attorneys for both sides and the judge must agree. Sometimes opposing attorneys will oppose cy pres awards going to worker advocacy groups, but it is always worth trying. There are not clear processes for being included in settlement agreements in most states, although some states have lists of groups that are eligible for cy pres awards. The Arizona Worker Rights Center in Phoenix got itself included in a state list of charities approved for cy pres awards. In most situations, you need attorney friends who will remember you and write you in for these awards. Talk with employment attorneys and ask who does cases that might have cy pres award possibilities. Meet with those who do class action cases, explain the wonderful work you do, and ask them to consider you for cy pres awards. Make the Road New York and Casa de Maryland have received quite a few such awards. Bar foundations Most large cities and most states have bar foundations that support work that expands legal access to low-income people. In addition, there are many foundations that provide support to groups offering legal services. Legal fees or referral fees Worker centers that have attorneys on staff may be able to generate legal fees or referral fees for cases on which the attorneys work or co-counsel. Although these fees usually don’t cover all the attorney’s costs or expenses, over time they can cover a substantial portion. In Illinois, since 2010, attorneys can give referral fees to 501c3 organizations. If your state bar association’s ethics rules do not currently allow this, perhaps you could help change the rules.

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Worker contributions from settlements Many worker centers ask workers to contribute 10 percent or some other percentage from back wage settlements that occur because of the work of the centers. Somos un Pueblo Unido has an attorney on staff with its worker center. The attorney only works with group cases. Workers are asked at the beginning of a case to collectively decide a percentage that they will give back to the organization if there is a judgment or a settlement and the attorney is unable to get legal fees as part of the settlement. Usually the workers agree to contribute between 5 and 10 percent to the organization. Workers are not required to make these contributions in order to get services but most want to do so and actually do once they have received money.

Earned Income Many nonprofits are trying to figure out how to generate earned income, so they can be less dependent on foundations or government sources. Worker centers generate earned income from a couple sources. Rents If you purchase property that is more than you need, you can consider renting out parts of it on a regular or temporary basis. Casa Latina rents its meeting spaces to groups and has two regular tenants and generates approximately $15,000 a year in extra income. It anticipates generating more rental income in future years once one additional commercial space is rented. Co-op administration Some worker centers serve as administrators for worker-owned co-ops and receive administration fees for these services. The Madison Workers’ Rights Center formed the Interpreters’ Cooperative of Madison in 2005. The center continues to act as the administrator for this business, which brings in about $700 in annual fees to support the center. The center believes it benefits from such a close relationship with the co-op because it has easy access to interpreters and translators, some of its staff supplement their incomes by working for the co-op, and the co-op provides document translation services to people who visit the center.

Foundations Most worker centers get support from a very small number of progressive public foundations. To grow your funding base, you must explore ways to break into more traditional foundations, private family foundations, and donor-advised funds. More traditional public foundations do not support organizing, but they do support a range of social service and educational programs for low-income families and workers. Figuring out how to expand the services you offer and use them to bring new people into the center can allow you to develop programs that would appeal to more traditional foundations. Private family foundations are another place for additional funds. Most private foundations do not have websites, formal guidelines, or much else publicly available. You can learn about private foundations by talking with leaders in the community and asking them about people they know who have family foundations. Then, of course, you must ask them to introduce you.

Taking Fund-raising Seriously

Law firms, bar associations, and corporations often have their own foundations, so use your relationships to find and introduce you to these. The fastest-growing part of the giving world is donor-advised funds. Donors contribute funds into a fund that is managed by someone else but the donors decide on annual contributions to groups via their funds. Most community foundations have growing donor-advised programs. Ask to meet with one of the staff people who work with the donors in setting up and managing their funds. This person will not give you information about the funds but may share information about you to the donors. You may also learn about general interests of various donors. For example, you may learn that there are several donors interested in voter registration programs for low-income people or helping nonprofits purchase buildings. Then, if you develop such projects, you can ask the staff person to connect you with possible donors. Or if you know them already, you can deal directly with the donors.

Hard Work Generates Money Although worker centers would like funds to just magically appear because of their stellar work, this just doesn’t happen. Groups must develop core messages, build a mixture of programs, develop relationships, dedicate staff, and develop good systems to assure that fund-raising is successful. Mostly fund-raising is hard work. The harder you work, the more money you can raise. Getting out and doing the work to raise money will be far more effective than complaining about how hard it is for progressive groups to raise money. Others have raised significant money. You can too!

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Managing Money Well

Worker centers and all nonprofits must be careful stewards of monies contributed to the organization. If you’ve worked in the religious world or elsewhere in the nonprofit world for very long, you realize that despite organizations’ worthy missions and goals, they are staffed by human beings—all of whom are flawed. Some staff and volunteers won’t understand the importance of using money for the purposes intended by the foundation or donor. This can get the organization into significant trouble. Some people will be sloppy with their time sheets, reimbursement expense receipts, receipts showing how their credit cards were used, or accounting for funds. Not setting up proper systems for paying payroll taxes will also get you into big trouble. And then there may be some who will steal money from your organization. It happens to many nonprofits, in large part because leaders assume good intentions on the part of all staff and volunteers and fail to put in place adequate safeguards against stealing and misusing money. Don’t think it can’t happen to you. In 2014, one Chicago-based social justice organization learned its lesson the hard way when a new executive director joined the staff and began reviewing credit card receipts. The human resources director, who’d never had a conviction before, was found to have stolen more than $82,000 from the organization over a five-year period. She bilked the organization for plastic surgery, overseas trips, and clothing from Victoria’s Secret. According to court documents, she both charged things on an organizational credit card and falsely submitted for reimbursements from her flexible medical spending account. This organization struggled to rebuild trust with foundations and donors and to keep staff and board members after this was revealed. It is not just small organizations that have suffered this way. In 1996, Ellen Cooke, the former treasurer of the Episcopal Church nationally, admitted to having embezzled more than $1.5 million from the denomination. She had served as the national treasurer for the church from 1986 to 1995. She wrote checks on church accounts and deposited them into her own bank account, and she abused a credit card for more than five years before she was caught. One worker center executive director was a wonderful organizer but not much of an administrator. He organized workers, developed awesome campaigns, and did wonderful work. Unfortunately he didn’t pay payroll taxes or file his organization’s IRS 990 forms. He did not steal money, but he did not ensure that money was handled properly. The next director spent several years cleaning up the mess. 178

Managing Money Well

As soon as you raise money (or even seek to raise money), you must figure out how to manage and safeguard it. This chapter is not a substitute for hiring someone or recruiting a volunteer with strong bookkeeping or accounting skills. Rather, it is designed to provide guidance for volunteers and staff who have little experience in handling organizational funds and want to make sure they have adequate systems in place to protect these funds (and themselves).

Create a Bookkeeping System As soon as you start trying to raise foundation support, you will have to have a budget. As soon as you actually receive money, you should have a bookkeeping system, no matter how rudimentary. Although you can simply keep track of income and expenses via Excel or another basic spreadsheet, there is no reason to do this. Buy a simple bookkeeping program. The most basic and inexpensive one is Quicken (it costs about $40), which is designed for individuals but can be used for small organizations initially. A better option that allows people to work online and backs up information using cloud computing is QuickBooks Online ($20–$40 per month, depending on the features and number of users). The program most commonly used by larger nonprofits is QuickBooks Premier, which offers features tailored to nonprofits. Whatever system you choose, establish password protection for all accounting software and online banking, bookkeeping, or payroll programs. When you enter your budget in the bookkeeping system, make sure your categories are similar to the categories used on the 990 form or can be easily integrated into them. Th is will make it easier for you to produce the information needed when completing your tax returns. On page one of the 990 it asks for summaries of your income and expenses, and then a few breakouts on those summaries appear in sections VIII and IX. You will have to be able to break out your expenses into program, administrative, and fund-raising expenses. The bulleted list below specifies the information you will need to gather for the form. Although many of these categories may not apply, some will, so you might as well set up your bookkeeping system to make it easy to retrieve this information. Organize information about your income from: • Contributions and grants (most worker centers have most of their income in this category) • Federated campaigns (like United Way) • Membership dues • Fund-raising events • Related organizations’ contributions or grants • Government grants • Other grants and contributions (this will be most of your money early on) • Program services (most new worker centers have no program revenue, but if you grow and provide services for which you charge, you may) • Investments (like interest on accounts) • Other revenue.

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Organize your expense information: • Grants and similar monies • Benefits paid to members or for members • Salaries, other compensation, and employee benefits • Salaries of top staff • Salaries of others • Pension, 401k, or 403b contributions • Other benefits (e.g., health care) • Payroll taxes • Professional fund-raising fees • Other expenses • Fees for services (management, legal, accounting, lobbying) • Investment management fees • Advertising and promotion • Office expenses • Information technology • Royalties • Occupancy (rent and utilities) • Travel • Payments of travel or entertainment expenses for public officials (don’t do this!) • Conferences, conventions, and meetings. • Interest. • Payments to affi liates. • Depreciation, depletion, and amortization. • Insurance (other than health insurance, which goes under employee benefits). • Other expenses. Order checks with stubs that can be printed from your soft ware accounting program. Make sure the checks are numbered (to help keep track of them). Your bank can arrange for checks, but you can also get a deal on checks, deposit slips, and a deposit stamp from Costco (an ethical employer). Checks must be stored in a locked or secured location. Initially most of your funding will be general support, which means you can use it to support your overall work. As you grow, you will likely receive restricted grants that will need to be tracked separately in your accounting system. An experienced bookkeeper or accountant can help you set this up.

Set Up Bookkeeping Files and Records No matter how small your budget is, if you receive income and spend money, you need to have records and fi les. The fi ling system doesn’t need to be complicated, especially at first, but there needs to be a system that can be used and checked. If you have no staff, rent, or ongoing expenses, perhaps you can keep all your expense record documentation in one fi le, but once you begin having regular expenses, you should create vendor files—one file for each organization to which you regularly pay out money and then a miscellaneous fi le for all the checks that are unique or ones not

Managing Money Well

issued regularly. So, for example, you would have vendor files for the companies to which you pay your rent, your utilities, postage expenses, and telephone expenses. Also create a fi le for each staff person, in which you keep track of any reimbursements made to him or her. Make sure there is backup data justifying all reimbursements. For most income, the easiest system is to keep copies of all checks and detailed backup information related to each bank deposit. Bank deposit information is entered into your bookkeeping system (QuickBooks or whatever program you use). You can keep separate deposit files or attach the deposit backup information to your bank reconciliations, which should be done monthly. This information should be kept by fiscal year. You need to keep most financial records for quite a while. You can get a list of what needs to be kept and for how long (Guide to Small Business Recordkeeping) from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants at www.aicpa.org/career/marketing/ downloadabledocs/smallbusiness/sbtoolkit_recordkeepingguide_spreads.pdf.

Be Careful with Payroll As soon as you hire someone to staff your worker center, you will need to calculate state and federal payroll taxes. A good bookkeeper with payroll tax knowledge can do this. QuickBooks has fairly simple payroll features. Handling payroll internally is fairly straightforward if all your staff members are on salaries. Most small organizations, however, find it helpful to use a payroll service. Using such a service costs money, but it assures that your payroll and payroll taxes get handled correctly. If you mess up payroll taxes, your organization will charged penalties. The IRS and most state taxing bodies are not forgiving of errors. (Would that wage enforcement agencies were equally aggressive in collecting owed wages and punishing non-payers.) Don’t even think about hiring your primary staff person as an independent contractor to avoid dealing with payroll taxes. Although there are legitimate independent contractors that you might hire for particular discrete tasks, your staff people are all employees and should be paid as such. Payroll services can also provide things like direct deposit of checks into staff members’ bank accounts (a nice feature for most people) and tracking of work hours, sick time and vacation time, and holidays. Most offer various reporting options for staff members. Payroll services will fi le your quarterly and year-end tax reports and will issue W2s for staff members. A short summary of payroll services to consider is provided in an article titled “A Few Good Tools for Nonprofit Payroll,” which can be read or downloaded at www.idealware.org. If you have paid staff, you must create and keep personnel records. These records should also be kept in a locked or secure location. Keep the following information in the basic personnel fi le: • • • • •

Resume or job application (or both) Job description Hiring letter Information about pay and benefits Termination letter that explains final payments and benefits.

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Supervisors will also need to keep job-performance-related personnel files that include things like annual goals and objectives and annual evaluations.

Provide and Review Financial Reports Regularly One solid way to reduce the chance of financial problems is to produce and review financial reports regularly. A volunteer or staff person charged with handling the books needs to enter information on a monthly basis into the bookkeeping program and then reconcile the books with bank statements regularly. If you let this process get very far behind, it is hard to figure out where you stand financially. Staff leaders and the board of directors should get and review financial reports regularly. If the leaders are told for months that the bookkeeper can’t get financial reports, they should take action. When reports are not provided and reviewed, irregularities and thievery occur. You should regularly review: • Income and expense (sometimes called profit and loss) for the year to date (this can be shown in relationship to your budget if you wish) • Balance sheet (this provides an overview of your accounts). If questions arrive, you can also review the general ledger (this gives details on all the income and expense transactions).

Be Careful with Credit and Debit Cards For staff members who regularly have to purchase things for an organization, it is really helpful to have a debit card (from the organization’s bank) or an organizational credit card, instead of having to personally pay for items and then get reimbursed or trying to pay for small supplies with checks. Despite their ease of use, organizational debit and credit cards are often problematic. Typical problems include: • Not keeping good backup records on items charged on the card • Spending more freely than one might if one had to pay personally and then get reimbursed (e.g., taking others out to lunch on the organization’s credit card) • Not providing credit or debit card backup records on a timely basis to the bookkeeper • Putting personal expenses on the card and forgetting to reimburse the organization • Putting unauthorized charges on the account. One worker center had an executive director with a bank debit card. The director did all the bookkeeping herself with no review by the board. When the director was out sick for an extended period of time, other staff members reviewed the bank statements and uncovered many suspicious charges, including charges for pet services and clothes. If you decide to provide debit or credit cards to staff members, you must have clear policies regarding how the cards can be used, and you must make sure there are safeguards in place to assure there is not abuse. Insist on backup documentation for almost every expense charged on the card (except perhaps parking costs or something else

Managing Money Well

minimal). Create a simple form for explaining the organizational purpose of each expense. Have clear procedures for who reviews the credit or debit card expenses. So, for example, with a small staff, the executive director could review and approve other staff members’ credit or debit card reports and backup records, and the board president could review and approve the executive director’s. Even when there is adequate backup documentation on expenses, someone needs to make sure that the expenses are reasonable and in line with the budget and spending priorities of the organization. Many, many nonprofit organizations have experienced problems and thievery via credit and debit cards. Don’t think it can’t happen to you.

Avoid Cash Use Try to handle cash as seldom as possible. Cash transactions create opportunities for money to go missing. Places that handle lots of cash, like congregations, establish elaborate systems to prevent stealing. Most congregations have at least two and often three unrelated people count money in order to make sure that individuals don’t steal cash. Most worker centers only handle cash at special events. Create a simple form to record donations or payments. Make sure there are several folks watching and counting cash. If there are more situations in which you must handle cash, think carefully about how to make it hard for someone to steal. Years ago, most organizations had a “petty cash” box where small amounts of cash were kept for small expenses. It is always hard to keep track of petty cash. It’s best to avoid this, but if you believe you must have cash around, keep it locked up, have forms that explain every penny of cash in and cash out, and have the account reconciled monthly with the rest of your financial records.

Set Up Reasonable Internal Controls The term “internal controls” is one that is used frequently in the accounting world. It basically means that you have systems internally to reduce the likelihood of fraud or inappropriate uses of money and catch it quickly if problems occur. As your organization grows and handles more money, it should expand the kinds and amounts of internal controls. Initial internal controls should include the following. • The person who signs the checks should be different from the one who writes the check. The check signer should review the backup documentation. • The board of directors should regularly look at financial reports, including an income and expense statement and balance sheet. • Someone other than the bookkeeper (or person who writes checks) should look at all the monthly bank statements before they are reconciled. (Giving the board treasurer access to view the bank accounts online is helpful as well.) • All bank accounts should be reconciled on a regular basis. • If you have a credit or debit card, there need to be clear policies about how the card can be used and about keeping backup documentation.

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• Someone in leadership should review all credit or debit card reports and documentation. The director’s financial information must be reviewed by someone other than the director. • At least two people should handle cash transactions. • Use only pre-numbered checks, and try to print most checks from your accounting soft ware. • Lock unused checks in a cabinet. (Do not let everyone know where the key is.) • Only have a couple of check signers, and set a dollar amount for checks requiring two signatures. As the organization grows, your auditor will help you add more internal controls. You will want to have a written accounting and finance policy manual that outlines divisions of responsibilities, whistle-blower protections, and policies for stock donation, document retention, use of credit cards, handling of cash, and so forth.

Train All Staff Understanding your money management systems, especially the importance of keeping careful track of all time and expenses, needs to be part of your staff orientation program. As your organization grows and you develop additional systems for keeping track of money, you may need to retrain your staff. Many organizations require all new staff to sign a form that says they’ve received and understand the organization’s policies regarding keeping track of money and time.

Financial Review or Audit As your budget grows, those who give you funds will want to make sure that you have good internal controls, safeguards in place to protect money. The most common way this is done is by asking you to have an audit. An audit—a formal review of your finances and your systems for controlling money—is conducted by an outside certified public accountant (CPA). The audit becomes a seal of approval for donors that you are handling money correctly. As was mentioned in chapter 9, the IRS does not require you to get an audit until you bring in $750,000 in annual revenue, but many foundations won’t fund you if you don’t get an annual audit. When you actually should get an audit is not completely clear. You may be required to have one by particular foundations or donors. Nonprofit leaders typically avoid getting audits for two reasons: it costs money and it creates work for your staff to “prove” everything. Indeed, having an audit does cost money and time. If you are convinced you need one, check around with other nonprofits to get recommendations on people or fi rms that do audits for small nonprofits. Perhaps there are alternatives. In an audit, an auditor carefully reviews your systems, working with your financial records to make sure that everything is recorded properly according to the GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and then personally attests that your records have “no material weaknesses” (meaning they are basically accurate).

Managing Money Well

Instead of an audit, you could get a “review” at about one-third the cost of an audit. The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector recommended that organizations with annual revenues of more than $500,000 but less than $2 million consider getting reviews rather than audits. Again, you may need an audit for the IRS or a funder, but a review could be a less expensive alternative. You can also consider getting an AUP (agreed upon procedure) from an accountant. This might be useful if one funder wanted to make sure that its funds were used properly. You could hire the accountant just to look at this one matter. Some nonprofits have been able to satisfy grant requirements for audits by getting permission to have the audits done on a cash basis instead of on an accrual basis as is required under GAAP. This can help save money. Audits are useful in assuring funders that you are using their monies wisely and for helping your organization create internal systems for handling money, but audits are expensive and time-consuming. Thus, you may want to consider getting a review or figuring out how the accountant can provide the information you need and keep costs down. But regardless of the costs, it is good to have outside professionals look at your systems and help you safeguard your resources. These professionals can help you catch problems and avert others.

Put Your Information Online Donors and potential donors want you to be transparent around funds, and many want to be assured that you are handling your funds correctly. Thus, you should make audits and 990s easy for people to access. Try to get your information on: Your own website Make it easy for donors to find your financial information, names of your board members, and how to send you money. Guidestar Guidestar has become the go-to website for donors seeking information on nonprofit organizations. You must have your own 501c3 to be on Guidestar. If you file a 990 with the IRS, it will eventually show up on Guidestar without you doing anything, but it gets there faster if you put it up. Also, you can put up your audit, other financial materials, and background information on the organization that would be of interest to potential donors. Charity Navigator Charity Navigator ranks nonprofits based on how they spend donors’ money and how transparent organizations are about this spending. You must have a 501c3, have been around for seven or more years, and have $1 million in revenues with at least $500,000 coming from public sources to be rated. Getting a four-star ranking on Charity Navigator is a good thing, and you can put it on your website. Even if your organization is not large enough to be rated, consider reviewing its categories financial health and transparency, so that you can work toward creating respected financial systems.

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Using Data for Growth

When you see an organization with data tracked in ten different Excel spreadsheets and each staff person keeping his or her lists of own names and addresses, you are looking at an organization that is not prepared to grow. Data may not seem the most thrilling thing to think about, but strong organizations know the importance of good data and invest people, money, and time into creating effective data systems. The longer you delay figuring out a good organizational system, the harder it will be to implement one and transfer all your data into it. If you can start off with even a modest system within your first year of operating, you will be well served. You can always upgrade to more sophisticated systems if you start with a simple one. If, however, you have the budget for something a bit more sophisticated from the start, consider getting a fully integrated system that incorporates online functions, such as connecting your website to your database and accepting online donations. Getting all your data in one place from the get-go will enable you to build your communications, fund-raising, and program work much faster and more effectively than would fumbling around with multiple spreadsheets. Regardless of your budget, begin collecting data at every opportunity. Worker centers should always collect people’s names, postal addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. Collect information at all your training events, demonstrations, presentations, and public forums. You never know who might become more involved, become a leader, or donate money. Collect people’s information and then figure out as quickly as possible how to manage it. Data can help you build power.

Kinds of Data to Manage Worker centers need to manage more data than you might imagine. Worker centers need data on: Worker cases Workers who come into the center may have wage theft problems. If you can figure out how to track the amounts owed, the names of employers, and the amounts recovered or the other types of problems they have, you will have good data for reporting to donors and foundations on your work and successes. You will also be able to see patterns among workers in a sector and employers who are repeat offenders. This information can help you develop worker organizing campaigns.

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Jobs and job assignments The worker centers that have hiring halls need to keep track of the job requests that come in, the skills various workers have, and who gets assigned to which jobs. Members However you decide to have members, you will need to track their contributions, membership expiration dates, levels of participation, and interests. Volunteers You need to keep a list of people who can volunteer in your center and where they come from, as well as who can help turn out people for events or actions. Individual donors From the beginning, you should build in a culture of individual giving. Every board member, every staff person, every member, and everyone with whom you come in contact should give or be encouraged to give. As you grow, you will need to track who is giving, how much they are giving, and what interactions you have had with the donors. Given staff turnover, it is important for people to track conversations they have with donors in such a way that the next staff person in the same position can understand the history. Appeals If you want to send regular fund-raising appeals, you need a good database with up-to-date addresses. Foundation and government grants You must keep careful records on money that comes in from foundations and government agencies and make sure you can account for how the funds were used. E-alert lists Who are all the people who will respond to requests for action? Do their names get kept in a separate e-advocacy database? Press lists To whom do you send press releases and news alerts? Board of directors list You regularly need to contact your board of directors, and your funders need you to print a board list regularly for proposal submissions. Fund-raising event participants and sponsors For fund-raising events, you will need a way to track participation and sponsorship. Conference and workshop participation For conferences and workshops, you need to keep track of registrants, and you may need to print nametags or placards. Given all the different needs for data, it is easy to understand how groups end up with dozens of different Excel spreadsheets, but having your data in so many places will slow down the growth and effectiveness of the organization. The more you can consolidate and integrate your data, the better off you will be.

Common Data Programs Simple e-mail programs Beginning worker centers sometimes start with a simple e-mail program. The two most popular are Constant Contact and Mail Chimp. Constant Contact is very inexpensive if your e-mail lists are small, and it is simple to learn how to use. Mail Chimp is free for the first two thousand subscribers (e-mail addresses), and you can send up to twelve thousand e-mail messages per month. If you have more

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names (and thus e-mail addresses) and need to send more e-mail, the price goes up, but it is a modest increase. Very basic database programs Some groups begin with Microsoft Access, which is like a slightly expanded version of Excel. This is better than nothing but won’t help you much in the long run. Google spreadsheets are another option that at least allow multiple users to access and update the information from various locations. Good online databases It is nice to have an online database that your staff can use from home or when they are traveling. The following are reasonably affordable programs: • Neon, by Z2 Systems (www.z2systems.com). This database is designed exclusively for nonprofits. It can do quite a few sophisticated things. Prices begin at $600 per year for one thousand records and limited services, or $2,000 for up to five thousand records with a full package of services. The price increases are modest as the database size increases. • eTapestry (www.etapestry.com). This online database used to offer a free service for very small nonprofits. Since it was bought by Blackbaud (maker of an expensive fund-raising database system), the rates are $1,200 per year for up to one thousand records and $2,400 for up to five thousand records. • DonorPerfect (www.donorperfect.com). This is a great fund-raising database, but it is not as strong in the advocacy functions. DonorPerfect has partnered with Constant Contact to allow you to connect a database with e-mailing functions. Rates are $700 per year for under one thousand records and $1,800 per year for up to five thousand records. • DonorSnap (www.donorsnap.com). This inexpensive program, only $500 annually for up to one thousand records and $720 annually for up to twenty-five hundred records, has basic data-management features and integrates with both Constant Contact for e-mail communication and QuickBooks for accounting information. More sophisticated options Some database management systems offer more sophisticated options and are widely used by nonprofit advocacy groups: • The Databank (www.thedatabank.com). This program integrates both fund-raising and advocacy. The scaled back version, $1,200 per year plus $250 in set-up costs, is for up to one thousand records. The costs go up significantly for the fund-raising and advocacy packages, but the programs are quite robust. This company offers a free, very useful buyer’s guide (for assessing soft ware options) that you can download simply by giving your name and contact information. • Salesforce (www.salesforce.com). This program was originally built for sales, as the name suggests, but many nonprofit advocacy groups are beginning to use it and seem happy with it. It has a complicated pricing system. Casa de Maryland and Make the Road use this program, although organizers suggest it is better for fund-raising and services than for organizing. • Salsa/DIA (www.salsalabs.com). This is a very powerful online database system, although its fund-raising tools are not as strong as some others and it is not the most user-friendly. The basic program at $1,200 per year will allow you to have up

Using Data for Growth

to ten thousand records. Salsa integrates well with PayPal for credit card donations. Interfaith Worker Justice has used this for the last five years. • PowerBase (www.progressivetech.org). This is a fairly new database (first made available in 2009) designed by Progressive Technology Projects with the goal of integrating organizing and fund-raising more effective. As of early 2015, ninety community and labor organizing groups were using it, including Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) and the Workers Center for Racial Justice. Machete Casa Latina, an NDLON member, developed an amazing program for use by worker centers with hiring halls. The system allows a worker center to: • • • • •

Keep track of membership dues. Create a membership card for members (with a photo ID). Keep track of job requests. Track when members are participating in events or training (via a swiping system). Produce detailed records for funders and reports on the number of jobs that have been filled by the center, the number of members, and so forth.

This is wonderful soft ware for worker centers with hiring halls. NDLON members have access to this resource and assistance in getting the equipment and training necessary to use it. For more information, contact Marco Loera at NDLON at 213-380-2201 or [email protected]. Create your own database system In 2014, Workers Defense Project reviewed the many database options on the market and determined that nothing quite met all its organizing and fund-raising needs. It worked with developers to design a CiviCRM database that is based on a Drupal platform. The database allows the organization to track custom information about worker members, including their participation in leadership development activities and events. The database also tracks donor contributions, links to the worker center’s website for signing up new members and accepting donations, and tracks relationships. Workers Defense Project uses separate case management soft ware known as Abacus for its legal cases. Most nonprofit organizations avoid customized programs because they end up being costly to develop and difficult to maintain, but Workers Defense Project may be the exception.

Manage Data Now If you want to build an organization, you have to manage data. The sooner you figure out how to do this, the faster your organization can grow and the sooner you’ll relieve the headache of names and information scattered everywhere. A good data management system will allow you to: Communicate regularly with members and supporters In past days, most communication was via paper mailing lists, which entailed the likes of printing and affi xing mailing labels every month. But now most regular is via e-mail. (Don’t forget snail mail, it still generates the highest return on fund-raising appeals.) Thus, you want a database that can keep everyone’s email addresses organized and from which you can easily contact

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everyone. All the databases listed above allow you to communicate via email with your supporters. Update people’s information in one place If a staff person learns a supporter’s new address and puts it in his or her list but forgets to tell others so they can update their lists, many of your scattered lists will become out of date. Having one database that everyone on your staff uses makes sure that all the data is as up-to-date and accurate as possible. You’d hate to be mailing your year-end appeal to the wrong addresses. Capture and enter more detailed information on people If you are using multiple Excel spreadsheets, you are unlikely to have particularly sophisticated information on people. A good database will allow you to include notes on meetings with people, names of family members, birth dates, and other information. Keeping track of this information allows you to personalize your communications and build relationships with people. Tracking more information enables new staff to understand the contacts and relationships that previous staff have had with members, donors, or volunteers. Code people for specialized communication Any decent database will allow you to code people so you can find them easily and communicate with just a subgroup of people. You would have a code for members, another for board members, another for regular volunteers, and so forth. Synchronize information from website Many of the programs described above integrate websites and databases, so information updated in one place will be simultaneously updated in the other. Run reports A database will allow you to run reports that can help with your work. For example, who are the donors who have given $250 with whom we should build a relationship? What donors gave the previous two years but not this year? You might be able to find this info in an Excel spreadsheet, but it will generally be easier with a more sophisticated database program.

Cleaning and Updating Data Data must be constantly cleaned and updated. Approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population moves every year, so you can assume that if you do nothing about updating your data, 12 percent will become out of date within a year and about half your data will be out of date within four years. You must be vigilant in cleaning and updating your data, but this is hard for small nonprofits without dedicated database staff. Here are a few recommendations: Train staff Make sure all your staff members and key office volunteers know how to use and update the database. Instill in people the importance of checking information when they use the database. Assign someone to oversee changes Try to find someone who will manage keeping the data updated. Is there a volunteer or work-study person who can come to the office weekly and update records? Make it easy for staff members to share the updates, perhaps by having an update box into which staff can drop updates scribbled on paper.

Using Data for Growth

Track down people whose mail is returned To get their up-to-date addresses, ask volunteers to call people whose mail is returned to you. You can also search for people’s addresses and phone numbers online using WhitePages.com. Get help from your mailing service If you work with a mailing house for large mailings, make sure it offers the NCOALink service. NCOALink is a product of the U.S. Postal Service and is used to provide up-to-date and accurate addresses for individuals, families, and businesses. Pay to have your records cleaned and zip codes appended There are lots of professional services that will clean your data for you. Usually these services will: • Standardize and normalize your data. This makes your mailings appear more professional. • Append and correct zip codes. Mail is delivered faster if you use a nine-digit zip code. If you are using bulk mail, the post office wants your zip codes to be accurate. • De-duplicate. Duplicate records will be identified and either flagged for you or deleted. • Change addresses. Some of the changes of addresses will be found. • Remove records of deceased people. Pay to have returned mail sent to you Normally if you do bulk mailing, which saves a lot on postage, you do not automatically get returned mail sent back to you. You can pay a small extra charge and get the returned items sent back to you, and often these will have forwarding addresses on them. This is worth doing at least once a year.

Additional Resources If you are part of a national worker center network, you might explore whether the organization has a national shared database program. This might be a simpler and faster way to get access to a good database quickly. One fabulous website, Idealware (www.idealware.org), is full of free resources to help nonprofits make good soft ware decisions. Any of its following articles can help you: • • • • •

“Back Away from That Spreadsheet: Why Excel Isn’t a Donor Database” “10 Things to Consider in a CRM” “10 Common Mistakes in Selecting Donor Databases (and How to Avoid Them)” “Types of Databases for Managing Constituents” “A Consumer Guide to Donor Management Systems.”

Most organizers of new worker centers find it hard to devote the time and energy necessary to develop a good database. Unfortunately, the longer you delay working on this and the more you create multiple lists that are not in a centralized place, the harder it will be to manage your data. Taking a few days at the outset to figure out how to manage your data will save you many days of work in coming years.

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Nurturing an Awesome Board

My name is Brian Tyson. I’m on the board of the Indianapolis Worker Justice Center. I’m a licensed taxi driver who began in the taxi business . . . as a means of witnessing from a close perspective the tremendous undertaking of Indianapolis hosting its first Super Bowl in February 2012. I wasn’t sure initially whether I would stay with being a taxi operator in Indianapolis, but I’ve always been a people person and therefore soon discovered that I enjoyed providing a needed service to others. So I continued driving a taxi in Indianapolis, even after the Super Bowl, and made it a full-time occupation. Another taxi driver began organizing a taxi drivers’ association but then left the business and dropped it in my lap. We reorganized and call ourselves the Indianapolis Taxi Operators Council (ITOC). Drivers in Indianapolis have unsuccessfully attempted organizing several times before in recent years. At the outset of taking responsibility for ITOC, I asked the other drivers involved about the previous attempts: “Has anyone ever sought help from outside of the taxi operators and taxi companies in Indiana, such as a union or community outreach organization?” After research, I found that taxi drivers in Chicago had success establishing an organization that works to protect their rights. The UTCC [United Taxidrivers Community Council] directed me to those who assisted them in organizing [American Friends Service Committee], and they directed us to the Indianapolis Worker Justice Center. The journey ITOC has shared with the Indianapolis Worker Justice Center has been a great one! ITOC has membership with the IWJC, and it has been a greatly beneficial relationship, as those responsible for the IWJC not only understand the needs of the taxi operators in Indianapolis, but they are a treasure trove of experience and wisdom in the arenas of organizing and campaigning for positive change. What I like best about the worker center is that it is open to anyone who has a need, not just for workers’ rights . . . they even direct, through their diverse organization, to other resources for community improvement. As taxi drivers, we are among the most diverse of worker groups. Our demographic makeup includes men and women, those who have retired from other jobs and those who have never had a job before, U.S. natives and immigrants from every corner of the world, some with no college education and some . . . who have earned PhDs. What unites us is the need for licensed taxi drivers to be treated justly and be able to earn living wages. As licensed taxi operators in Indianapolis, we have to organize and combine our efforts with those who support justice in workers’ rights if we are going to protect and maintain our means of livelihood. For the Indianapolis Taxi Operators Council, the Indianapolis Worker Justice Center is that needed support, helping us stand up for our rights. I like being able to give back to the center by serving on its board.

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Nurturing an Awesome Board

When you are organizing a worker center, you usually start with an informal planning committee or visioning group. At the point that you need to become more formal, usually when you want to apply for your 501c3 tax status, you will need to form a board of directors. Purpose of a Board Any nonprofit board of directors has a number of important purposes. You need and want a board in order to: Meet legal requirements You must have a board that will be responsible for making sure you follow the laws set forth for nonprofit corporations. Manage effectively A board of directors is responsible for making sure an organization is managed effectively and honestly. Fulfill and enhance the mission and programs Your board should help you figure out your mission, stick to your mission, and grow your programs to meet your mission.

Board Responsibilities A board of directors has the following broad categories of responsibilities, although how worker center boards meet and exercise and those responsibilities usually changes over time as an organization grows and matures. The board of directors is responsible to: Set program directions and priorities Your board should: • Establish the mission and review it every year or two. At the beginning, your leadership team probably developed a mission statement. The board should review this every year or two to make sure it is still accurate. • Set and approve annual goals and objectives. Initially the board of directors may have created the goals and objectives and helped personally implement many of them. Over time, the staff leadership will probably propose annual goals and objectives, and the board members will review them and decide if they think the they are the best way to meet the mission. • Review work plans. In small organizations, the board may review the work plans of its staff. As the organizations grow, usually the board will only work with the director on his or her plans for the year and then delegate the rest of the review to the director. • Set and review the budget. It is the board’s job to review and pass an annual budget. This is the map for how an organization will raise and spend money. The budget and discussions around it are usually the highest priority for the organization. How an organization spends its money shows its values and priorities. • Set policies for the board. Only the board can set policies and establish expectations for itself, such as expectations on raising money or what happens if a board member routinely misses meetings.

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Provide personnel leadership Your board should: • Hire and fire the executive director. The board is responsible for hiring, and if necessary firing, the executive director. Sometimes, when organizations are small, the board may hire all the staff. This won’t work as the organization grows. One problem with the board hiring all the staff is that then the board needs to supervise all the staff. Boards do not do a great job of supervising staff members on a regular basis. • Conduct an annual review of the executive director. Unless there are major problems, this should primarily be a dedicated time for the executive director to meet with a subset of the board (usually the executive committee or personnel committee) and talk about what is going well and what the director would like to work on in the coming year. Directors of worker centers (and most nonprofits) have challenging jobs, so it is important that the board of directors express appropriate thanks and appreciation for the dedicated work of its director. If the board has hired all the staff directly, it will need to conduct all the annual staff evaluations. If you need a board review process, see the suggested process in Walking the Walk by Aina Gutierrez. • Set personnel policy. If you have paid staff members, you should have a personnel policy, even if it is a simple one. A personnel policy outlines the rules, expectations, and benefits for staff. Boards need to be clear on the rules, expectations, and benefits so there are not unnecessary communication problems. Again, see Walking the Walk for suggestions on what to include in the policy. • Serve as a grievance committee. If there are disagreements between staff members, or between the executive director and someone he or she supervisors, the board (or more likely a subset of the board) serves as the grievance committee to look into situations. When you are dealing with people there will be some differences of opinions, and some of them will lead to serious conflicts that rise to the board. • Set parameters for staff, particularly around money. It is the board’s decision how much discretion your staff members can have in deciding various matters without getting board approval. Can the director sign statements on behalf of the organization, or do they need to go to the board for review? How much money can the director spend without getting direct approval from the board? As an organization grows and develops, generally the board learns to trust the director’s judgment, and the director gains a stronger sense of what things need board approval and what things he or she can decide on her or his own. Ensure financial integrity Your board should: • Review financial statements. Board members should regularly review financial statements. Some boards review them monthly, some quarterly. Make sure your financial statements are reviewed at least four times a year. If for some reason your board is not getting regular updates and statements, it should be concerned and take action to fi x this. If your board members do not understand what they are looking at in your financial statements, get some training for the board or recruit someone to the board who is strong in these matters and who can train the rest of the board. Every board member should have a basic understanding of the finances of the organization.

Nurturing an Awesome Board

• Ensure financial controls. Financial controls are systems put in place to prevent fraud and theft or catch these quickly. Just because most people involved in building and leading worker centers are highly committed people doesn’t mean there can’t be problems. If you have an audit, the auditors will help you figure out where your internal systems are weak and how they should be bolstered. • Many nonprofit organizations have had employees or board members steal from them. As mentioned in chapter 20, one worker center gave its executive director a credit card but had no one who reviewed credit card expenses other than the director. The director charged pet supplies, personal clothes, and many other inappropriate items on the credit card, and this was not caught for almost a year because there were no internal controls set up for reviewing credit card expenses. Don’t think this can’t happen to your organization. It can, so your board must make sure there are adequate internal controls in place. • Review audits and 990s. As your budget grows, you will need to get an audit. An audit enables a set of experienced and disinterested eyes to review your books and financial systems. The board must review the audit and should review the IRS 990 forms. If you are not large enough to require an audit, and your board decides not to hire an outside auditor, consider hiring someone to do a review, just so there is someone from outside the organization giving you feedback on its fi nancial health. • Plan for long-term financial well-being. The board of directors is considered the group that looks out for the long-term financial health of the organization. Thus, often it is the board of that is asked to sign long-term contracts, such as rental leases. The size and scope of the financial matters the board reviews varies greatly based on the size of the organization. The board of an organization with an annual budget of $100,000 may review all financial decisions involving $5,000 or more, whereas the board of an organization with an annual budget of $5 million may only look at expenses involving more than $100,000. • The board of directors must help an organization build up some cash reserves. The Interfaith Worker Justice board established a goal of setting aside 5 percent each year for reserves. Although the organization didn’t always meet the goal, it did in many. When the organization was hit hard in 2008 with unexpected donation cutbacks, the organization survived. Without its reserve, it would not have survived. At the minimum, the organization should seek to have cash on hand to cover thirty days of operating. Most financial advisors recommend trying to have ninety days’ worth of cash reserves to cover operating shortfalls and cash flow issues. Assure legal compliance Your board should: • Pay payroll taxes. The meanest agency to deal with is the IRS. It does not care what your mission is. If you do not pay payroll taxes as required by the law, the IRS will come after board members individually to collect the back taxes. Do not mess around with this. If you are juggling bills to pay, always pay your payroll taxes first. If you hire staff, you must pay payroll taxes. Do not hire your staff person as an independent contractor. The staff person or people hired for worker centers are almost always employees, not independent contractors. Most state payroll taxes

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•

• •

•

cover unemployment insurance. When the board reviews the financial statements, it should be able to tell that payroll taxes were paid. File your 990s and other annual tax forms. The 990 is the organizational equivalent of an individual tax form. You must do it every year. There is an easy version for organizations with annual revenues less than $50,000 and a fairly simple version for organizations with annual revenue under $200,000. Several worker centers have gotten behind on filing their 990s, and it has taken an enormous amount of work to complete these retroactively. Getting behind on these filings can place your 501c3 status in jeopardy. Most states require several other annual filings. Review chapter 9 and check with experts in your own state. Get workers’ compensation insurance for your employees. Almost all states require this. Comply with lobbying and electoral restrictions. If you are a 501c3, there are limits on how much lobbying you can do (and very precise definitions of what lobbying is and is not). In addition, you can do no partisan electoral work, but you can do nonpartisan voter registration and education. The best resources on lobbying and election issues are provided by the Alliance for Justice in its website Bolder Advocacy (www.bolderadvocacy.org). The Alliance for Justice has simple fact sheet, in various languages, which can be used to educate your board and staff on complying with laws. It is the board’s responsibility to make sure the organization complies. Make sure the organization obeys workplace laws. As a worker center focused on worker rights, you must be particularly careful around compliance with labor laws, such as minimum wage and overtime pay. Some workers’ rights organizations have not been the best employers themselves.

Represent the public to the organization and the organization to the public Board members should: • Represent community needs to the organization. Board members should be connected to various parts of the community and are expected to represent those concerns and priorities to the organization. • Represent the organization to the community. Board members serve as ambassadors for the organization to the community. They represent and engage the broader public in supporting the organization. They speak for the organization, recruit volunteers, recruit supporters, and do media interviews. Raise money Board members should: • Make a personal contribution. Every board member should make a personally significant gift. • Participate in fund-raising events. Most worker centers hold fund-raisers. All board members should participate and help in these events. • Identify and meet with potential donors. Board members can serve as ambassadors for money, helping identify, and meet with potential donors. • Review the annual fund-raising plan and partner with the staff. Sometimes worker center directors feel like they are completely responsible for raising the budget. In

Nurturing an Awesome Board

reality, raising significant amounts of money must be a team effort between the staff and the board, but usually boards could and should do more about achieving the annual fund-raising goal.

Board Membership Who is on the board is a very important question, because it requires you to think about the kind of organization you want to build. Most worker centers want low-wage workers, people directly affected by the problems the center is addressing, on the board and in leadership positions. Some important funders for worker centers, in particular the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, require you to have poor or low-income people serving in half of the leadership slots. The board members should reflect not only the constituency you currently have, but the constituency you desire as well. If you want your organization to be multiracial, the board should be multiracial. It will be challenging to reach people of different racial or ethnic groups if there is no one on your board who looks like them. Although some worker center boards only have low-income workers on them, most have a mix of low-income worker leaders and community allies. The allies on the board usually include a mix of religious leaders, union leaders, attorneys, academics, and community activists. Some worker center boards also have a few ethical employers on them. Worker center boards vary from about ten to thirty people, with most in the range of twelve to fifteen. The two largest worker centers in the country, Casa de Maryland and Make the Road New York, have fairly large boards. Casa de Maryland has sixteen on its board and Make the Road has twenty-five (including co-directors). BoardSource (www.boardsource.org) has a good matrix to help a group better understand the makeup of its current board and what they need to improve it. Look for the free material under the Learning Center’s Community Resources section. It is critical for leaders of worker centers to be clear about who they want on the board and what it expects from board members. These expectations should be written in a simple document. Ideally, have the document prepared before you officially begin recruiting board members, but otherwise work with the board members on creating it. Following are some examples of the kind of expectations you might set for board members. The fabulous worker center board of directors is composed of community leaders who: • Represent the community of workers organized by the center and the allies that partner with the center. • Are committed to a vision of justice in the workplace that includes fair wages, fair benefits, and workers having a voice. • Have the time and ability to participate actively in board meetings, center activities, and building the work. • Are willing to work collaboratively with the board and staff to build the organization. • Make a personally significant fi nancial contribution to the organization and recruit others to do so.

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These expectations reflect what is important for a good board. You want real leaders who represent the community, not just random workers or random allies. You want board members who share your core vision and mission. You want board members who actually have the time or will make the time for the center. You do not want just names on your letterhead. You want board members who can work cooperatively with others. One or two ornery people can poison an entire board and make others want to leave. Finally, you want to be clear with everyone from day one that every board member is expected to make a personal financial contribution and to help raise other money. You may have other expectations that should be spelled out, but the ones just described are pretty much basic for all organizations.

Language Do you anticipate your board operating in one language or more than one? If you are going to have people on the board who do not speak the same languages, you should consider investing in interpretation equipment and be prepared to have someone (volunteer or paid) interpret simultaneously throughout meetings. Some centers, like the Center for Racial Justice of Eastern Iowa, manage to run board meetings in multiple languages without interpretation equipment, but it is hard—and meetings are long. It is possible to interpret without equipment, but consecutive backand-forth interpretation will make your meetings take twice as long as they would otherwise be. People must have a lot of commitment to stay focused during long meetings with back-and-forth interpretation. If you expect to operate in multiple languages regularly, you should invest in interpretation equipment. You may be able to borrow equipment from another nonprofit or a library for the short term. Ask a donor to assist you in buying good interpretation equipment with headsets for ten to twenty people, which will cost roughly $2000 to $3000. This is a good request to make of a foundation, congregation, union, or individual, because it is specific request. The Workers’ Rights Center of Madison has an interpreters co-op and thus can advise you on the latest in equipment. Because good interpretation is hard work and requires great skill, it is best to recruit volunteers or staff to conduct the interpretation and not ask board members who are having to think about the topics to interpret as well as participate in meetings. Provide agendas and materials to the interpreters in advance of the meeting.

Details of Board Membership Information about how people get on the board, how long their terms are, and other such details should be laid out in your organization’s by-laws. You need to have details about: How people get on the board Who decides who gets on the board? Some worker center boards are completely elected by the members. Others have the members elect some of the members and have a subset of the board figure out who else should balance out the board to have it reflect constituents and allies, and to provide skills that you otherwise see missing from the board. For example, Casa de Maryland’s membership elects three

Nurturing an Awesome Board

of its board members. The Workers Defense Project board is at least 50 percent lowwage members, and the remainder are community allies. The low-wage worker members are elected by the membership during the general assembly meetings when board positions are available. Worker members must have achieved the level of leader (a tier of leadership based on participation), must have graduated from the Workers Defense Project’s leadership course, and must attend a board candidate overview session with the executive director to be considered as candidates for the board. Potential community ally board members submit a written application to be considered. Length of term People should be invited to serve on a board for a certain term. Most terms are two or three years, but they could be shorter or longer. A one-year term is a bit short because it takes almost a year from most new board members to feel comfortable and get active. If the term is too long, it is hard to recruit volunteers to serve. Most groups end up with terms that are two or three years. Term limits It is good for a board to have a smooth way to transition people out of leadership, otherwise some can become board members for life in ways that do not allow for growth and diversity. Consider allowing board members to serve for two or three terms consecutively before having to rotate off for at least a year. Removing someone from the board Sometimes board members disappear or stop functioning, often because of changes in their family or work lives. You need to have a way to remove people from the board so it can continue to function actively in cases such as this. Board officer selection The by-laws should explain how board officers are selected and what the various officer positions are. How board members can vote Can board members only vote in person or can they participate in a meeting via phone? Can they send a written proxy on a key vote or not? These should questions be answered in the by-laws. Quorum How many people have to be present in order to officially have a meeting? Most boards have a quorum of 50 percent or so, although some particular votes may require higher quorums. Your state law for nonprofits may have minimum standards on quorums.

Shared Roles between Board and Staff Building an awesome board, and building a powerful organization, should always be a collaborative effort between the board (volunteers) and staff (paid people). Both have important roles to play, and both roles should be respected. The shape of those roles will change over time as the organization grows and as trust grows between the board and staff. In the beginning years of an organization, the board often does tasks to build the organization that get delegated to the staff as the organization grows. Following are some of the shared roles: Program and priorities Figuring out and implementing the organization’s programs and priorities is a shared role. Generally, the board of directors will make the major

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decisions about programs and priorities, especially new ones, and will set the overall budget to fulfi ll these. Staff members will usually propose programs and priorities to the board, oversee the implementation of programs, draft a budget for the board’s review, and manage the budget within the guidelines set by the board. Personnel and staffing Usually the board of directors hires, fires, puts together the compensation package, and conducts the annual evaluation of the executive director. The board sets the personnel policy and serves as a grievance committee if there is a staff problem with the executive director. Usually the executive director is charged with hiring, evaluating, and firing all other staff people, and making sure the personnel policy is followed. Although this is the most common shared approach on personnel and staffing matters, it is not the only approach. Some worker centers have co-directors in order to share the leadership roles. This can work well when the directors have worked together and there are good accountability structures in place. Having a completely flat staffing structure (no one in charge) seldom works and usually means that there is little staff accountability to the board. Boards of directors have a hard time supervising one director, let alone multiple staff members. See chapter 8 for more on this. Financial health Making sure the organization is financially sound is another shared role. The board of directors is responsible for reviewing reports on a regular basis, making sure the executive director is instituting adequate financial controls, hiring an audit firm (or someone to conduct a review), reviewing the audit and 990s, and establishing conflict of interest policies. The executive director (or staff ) is charged with making sure financial information is being recorded on a regular basis, providing the board with regular financial updates, implementing financial controls, providing information to the auditor (or reviewer), making sure the 990 is completed on time, and implementing all board policies around financial management. Usually the executive director keeps a watch on how all other staff people handle or spend the organization’s money, but the board must keep an eye on the director. An auditor can help you put in place reasonable financial controls appropriate for the size of your organization. See chapter 20 for more information. Legal compliance Making sure the organization follows all the various laws that regulate it is challenging and demands the shared work of the board and staff. Usually board members do not know all the details of legal compliance, but they need to make sure that the organization is fi ling payroll taxes, all government required forms (such as its 990) and has workers’ compensation (required in most states). The board needs to gain a basic understanding about lobbying and election restrictions for nonprofits so they can ensure that the organization is in compliance. You may need to provide basic education for your board on some of these matters. Several worker centers have had problems with paying payroll taxes or fi ling 990s, and so clearly their boards of directors weren’t minding the stores adequately. See chapter 9 for more information. Raising money Even though many executive directors would like their board to do all the fund-raising and many boards act as if that is just the director’s job, in reality it is a

Nurturing an Awesome Board

shared function. Board members and staff must both be involved in fund-raising. Every board member and every staff member should personally make a financial contribution and should invite friends and family members to give. Regardless of the total amount given by board members or staff, asking everyone to give builds a culture of giving and fund-raising that is important. The board of directors should help identify community sources that might contribute to the organization and should help introduce the organization to those sources. Your board members should be able to help you meet foundation program officers, congregation leaders, union leaders, lawyers, and others who might provide funds for the organization. Most worker centers have a number of key allies on the board for many reasons, including helping with fund-raising. Staff members are usually the ones who actually write the fund-raising appeals or proposals and the reports. Board members usually do a lot of the planning and outreach for events, but staff members support and provide administrative backup for them. No matter how large an organization grows and how sophisticated its internal staff fund-raising operation may become, the board of directors will always be important for fund-raising. Raising money is a core function of any board—new or old, and every director focuses on money. Representing the organization in public Like most functions, representing the organization in public is a shared role of board and staff. Some worker centers have very traditional organizer-leader roles in which only the board members speak in public settings. Most worker centers have more flexible divisions of labor when it comes to representing the organization. All board members should be encouraged to talk, write, and post on social media about the organization. Staff members should do the same and should make sure that board members are prepared and equipped to represent the organization. Directors should make sure that they encourage board members to play as many public-speaking roles as possible. Such roles are some of the perks of volunteer leadership, and staff members shouldn’t hog the perks.

Typical Worker Center Board Problems Creating an awesome board of directors will enable the organization to grow and flourish. But when one is working with human beings, there are bound to be challenges. Below are typical worker center board problems and some suggestions are addressing them. The board is not meeting Sometimes due to board president turnover, the loss of an executive director, or seemingly too much else going on, a board will not meet for a long period of time. This is always a bad thing and is often a time when there is thievery or an organization does not comply with various laws. Your board must meet regularly. Set a regular day of the month and time of day so you don’t have to waste time checking calendars. The director and the board president (or vice president if the president is gone) must ensure that regular meetings are scheduled and held.

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Board meeting attendance is low Low attendance is usually a sign that the meetings are not well planned or board members are not invested in the work—or both. You should: • Make sure that the dates work for most people and are provided far enough in advance for people to schedule around them. • Remind people regularly about meeting dates. Most people aren’t very organized and need regular reminders. • Make the meetings fun, efficient, and productive. See the section below on planning and running good board meetings. • Review with board members who wants to remain on the board and is able to commit to coming to meetings on a regular basis. If you need to recruit some new board members, do so. • Engage every board member in doing something to help build the organization. The more invested board members are the more interested they will be to attend meetings. One person dominates the meetings and is very negative The board president needs to be encouraged to run the meetings in such a way that one person is not allowed to dominate. Give the chair some pointers on meeting facilitation or urge him or her to attend training on running a meeting. At some point, the board president may need to have a meeting with the negative or dominating person. One such person can demoralize a whole group. If the person’s negative behavior continues, the board may need to consider not renewing the person’s board appointment once his or her term ends. One language group dominates the meeting It is difficult to get people who speak different languages to listen to one another, because it takes extra work. Simultaneous interpretation can help this a lot. For example, if meetings are held in English and a group of the board members are more comfortable in Spanish (even if they are bilingual), the native Spanish speakers may hold back in meetings and not participate as much as you would like. This will be a serious detriment to the organization and to the cohesiveness of the group. There are two solutions to this. You can: • Ensure that you have simultaneous interpretation at every meeting. • Invite the Spanish speakers (or whatever language group) to give their opinions on every topic, so you are sure their voices are heard. Board meetings are boring and go on forever This problem comes from poor planning and poor meeting facilitation. Meetings should be planned so that the important matters can be covered in a reasonable time, which usually means some preparation before an item is put on the agenda. The agenda should give time frames for each topic. The board president should follow this and keep moving the group forward according to the allotted time frame. Board members are focused on too many details and micromanaging staff Sometimes it takes time to find the right balance between board work and staff work. Board

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members should focus on the big-picture work and allow staff members to handle details. If there are tensions in this area, the board president and director should meet and try to come to some agreement about appropriate roles. Then the board president should help the rest of the board members focus on their roles and not micromanage staff. Board members, especially when they come from the membership base or have some direct involvement with the programmatic work of the organization, may not initially understand their roles on the board. They may mistakenly believe that they are supposed to help with the day-to-day details. The board orientation should address this concern, and the board president should regularly remind board members that they should set big-picture directions and leave the implementation, including staff management, to the executive director. Board president and executive director are at loggerheads Nothing will undermine an organization’s growth faster than its board president and executive director not getting along. Sometimes one is inexperienced, not clear on his or her role, and feels threatened by the other. Sometimes both are inexperienced. And sometimes the two simply have personality clashes. If the executive director is new and inexperienced, the board president can help the new person get some training and perhaps connect him or her with a good coach. The board president can schedule to meet regularly with the new director and help plan meetings together. If the board president is inexperienced, it will be more complicated. Generally speaking, you don’t want people in presidency roles who have not served on boards before and don’t clearly understand their roles and how to work cooperatively with staff leaders. But if you do have such a person, see if there is a board training workshop the president might attend, perhaps jointly with the executive director so they can talk about the training recommendations together. If there are ongoing tensions, both the board president and the director must commit to trying to resolve them for the good of the organization. Sometimes other board members have to step in and urge both parties to meet and figure out how to work with one another. If tensions can’t be resolved, either the board president or the director will need to leave. Board members undermine their executive director, particularly in personnel matters Executive directors are not perfect, nor is their judgment infallible. Nonetheless, board members have to listen to and respect the director’s judgment and advice. If the board does not, it either needs to get a new director or make sure the director gets more training. The board should never routinely ignore the director. Delving into internal personnel matters is one area that is a common problem. Especially in small nonprofit organizations in which board members know many of the staff members personally, it is tempting for board members to intervene on personnel matters when the director believes there are some concerns about performance. Unless the board believes the director has operated unethically, illegally, or has not followed the personnel policy, the board needs to support the director in personnel decisions. If the board does not, it undermines the leadership of the director, and he or she will probably resign (or should resign). Executive directors cannot lead their staffs if the board

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intervenes on personnel matters. If the board hears ongoing personnel complaints, it may need to help the executive director get more training or adjust how he or she operates. Directors disparage their boards Many executive directors are frustrated with their boards and wish they would do more to build the organization and raise money, not recognizing that if their boards are not functioning well it is probably at least half their own fault. It is an executive director’s job to organize and support his or her board. When the board isn’t functioning well, the director is probably not giving it the attention and help it needs. Executive directors should practice only saying positive things about their boards. Boards of directors almost always want to help and are willing to do more but have to be organized. And boards don’t organize themselves: directors are key in this. Like in most relationships, you can’t chastise boards into correct behavior. You must affirm them into goodness.

Planning and Running Good Board Meetings Meetings are when board members come together and do their work. Thus it is important that board meetings be planned carefully and run well. Although it is impossible to make any meeting perfect, you can have consistently good meetings if you prepare well. Participation You have to make sure people are actually present. Set a regular schedule for board meetings and try to stick to it—the third Thursday of the month or whatever. Regularly remind board members about upcoming meetings, because people forget, even if a meeting is regularly scheduled. Ask everyone to confirm their participation for a meeting ahead of time or let you know if they cannot come. No board member should be missing without a legitimate excuse. Carefully prepare the meeting agendas Every meeting needs an agenda, and ideally every meeting is fun, efficient, and productive. Meetings should be pleasurable. People should be encouraged to treat others kindly and respectfully. Perhaps allow for a short social time before or after each meeting, and allow a few minutes for personal updates and other sharing within the meeting. Meetings should be productive. Board members should be asked to make meaningful decisions that affect the organization, but they need to be provided with adequate information so they can make good decisions. It is the executive director, along with the board president, who should make sure the board is focusing on decisions that need to be made and that will help the organization move forward. If a director does not actively engage the board on the important decisions, the director may find that the board will begin making decisions on things that are not helpful. Keep the board’s energy focused. Board members want to help, and the director must help the board focus that help in useful ways. Usually in a board meeting there are several topics discussed but only one really major decision area. Whatever that major topic is, the staff members or board committee

Nurturing an Awesome Board

involved should prepare recommendations and background information prior to the meeting. Because there are many people who will need to read information a few days ahead before they can give their opinions, mail or e-mail background materials to people ahead of time. If you insist on immediate responses to proposals without adequate time to reflect, some board members will respond poorly when they might have responded more positively with more lead time. Most boards and board presidents like to have time slots on the agenda so they can make sure they stay on track. Many boards find it helpful to clarify on the agenda the purpose of the item under consideration. This helps focus conversation. Good meeting facilitation The board president is usually the person who runs the meetings, which is quite a skill and takes practice. The person must make sure the group is focused on accomplishing the agenda items and must do so in a way that builds cohesion. The president must encourage quiet and shy people to speak up and nicely encourage those who talk too much to hold back. If the board president is struggling to run meetings, perhaps the executive director and president could meet after each meeting and talk about what went well and what didn’t and how the president might have handled a situation better. Sometimes when board members have trouble listening to one another, the group develops its own set of meeting guidelines for how to listen to one another, not dominate, and disagree respectfully. Prepare the environment An environment that is pleasant and welcoming can improve the atmosphere and the outcomes. Little things can add up and make a difference. You can: • Offer child care in another room. Having kids making noise in the corner can disrupt meetings, yet many parents need to bring kids with them if they are going to participate. Sometimes allies can be asked to provide child care for board meetings. • Provide snacks. Snacks demonstrate hospitality and create a nice atmosphere. Sometimes board members will rotate snack responsibilities. • Decorate the room. Simple decorations, like pictures from a recent event, or flowers on the table, can foster a pleasant atmosphere that helps create a good spirit for the meeting. • Set up the room ahead of time. Make sure you get to the meeting space in time to arrange the tables and chairs how you want them and clean up any random stuff lying around. Do timely follow-up Try to get meeting notes out to board members soon after a meeting. Sometimes a board member prepares them. Sometimes a staff member does. Either way, try to get the minutes out quickly, and then follow up with board members on the things they expressed interest in helping work on or the items that were promised to them.

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Create a Board Orientation Process and Training Creating a board orientation process is easy and a sure way to impress new board members. First create a board orientation handbook, simply a nicely organized set of your existing materials. Here’s a sample outline for a board orientation handbook: Board information • • • • • • •

Current board list, with committee assignments and terms Board expectations (or whatever the board has created for itself) Board meeting rules (if you have such) Board covenant or statement regarding commitment By-laws Last three board meeting minutes (or more if you want) Individual action plans

Staff information • • • •

Organizational chart Staff list with descriptions about what each person does Personnel policy Evaluation process or performance management system (if you have one)

Current programs and campaigns • Background on programs and campaigns (usually you don’t need to produce anything new, just compile what you have already prepared) Financial information • • • • • • •

Current budget Current income and expenses Current balance sheet Last year’s actual income and expenses Last year’s 990 Last year’s audit (if you have one) Conflict of interest form (ask the person to sign this and turn in immediately).

Schedule a time before your next board meeting for the new board member to get together with an experienced board member and a senior staff person. Sometimes this is a good job for the board president and the executive director to do together. The orientation can be done with more than one new board member. You may just ask the new people to come an hour and a half early to their first board meeting in order to make the orientation time convenient for all. The basic agenda for the orientation meeting is: • Welcome • Review the handbook—focusing especially on the board expectations and board covenant or statement of commitment (if you have such) • Questions.

Nurturing an Awesome Board

Your board president should be able to handle most of the orientation, but it is good to have the director or another senior staff person involved in case questions arise that the staff should follow up on. Many worker centers find that a quick orientation is not sufficient for helping lowincome workers who have never served on a board before participate fully. Worker centers can do a lot to ensure that low-income worker members are able to exercise leadership and feel confident in their skills by providing training before they begin their board terms. This is especially important on boards that also include allies, who might have years of board experience under their belts. Mujeres Unidas y Activas in San Francisco and Oakland provides training for worker leaders who are elected to their board of directors, including preparation on personnel, budgetary, and financial issues. The training allows board members to participate on equal footing, regardless of their levels of previous experience. Many organization leaders ask their board members to complete an annual commitment form outlining how they would like to help the organization in the coming year. The form can list categories for which the organization would like the board’s help. Interfaith Worker Justice has used an annual board covenant for a while and found it very helpful for tapping the gifts of board members. Create your own or adapt Interfaith Worker Justice’s form (contact via [email protected]).

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Fostering a Strong Staff Team

One long-time worker center leader engaged with centers across the nation shared his perspective that centers take off in scale and impact when “a star becomes a constellation.” By this he meant that worker centers that grow and flourish are led by talented directors with vision and passion, who are viewed as stars in their communities. Organizations can’t really grow dramatically without a group of highly talented, smart, and passionate stars, a constellation. Leaders of for-profit companies spend a huge amount of their time building their staff leadership teams. The same has not been true for most nonprofit leaders and certainly not for most worker center leaders. Organizations that grow—nonprofit or forprofit—must have depth of leadership to collectively move the organization forward. No matter how visionary, hardworking, and passionate an executive director may be, organizations need a lot of strong leaders in order to grow. This chapter reviews best practices on building a strong staff team. It assumes that the board of directors has already hired an executive director and that the director is charged with hiring and building the rest of the staff team.

Hire Talent In the same way that the board of directors must be intentional in hiring a talented director, because he or she can make or break the organization, so too must the leaders seek to hire talented staff for other positions. Never make a quick hire because you are desperate to fill a position. Rather, take your time to find the right person. Making the wrong hire is much worse than delaying to get the right person. As was described in chapter 8, the key to making the right hire is to: Develop a good job description Think through what you really need and want. What are the characteristics and skills you need? What skills can be taught? Decide what you can offer Many worker centers struggle to get talented staff because they can’t pay enough. No one works at a worker center because they want to get rich. Nonetheless, people have bills to pay, school debts, and family obligations. If your salary package is too low, you will limit who can or will apply. If funds are tight, consider hiring a part-time more-experienced person for the same amount as a full-time person without experience. A talented, hardworking, and experienced 208

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person can accomplish more in twenty hours than a mediocre and inexperienced person can in twice that time. Consider the total package Ideally your board has approved a personnel package that outlines the benefits available to staff members. If not, develop a personnel package and outline benefits, such as flextime and generous vacation time, that might be attractive to candidates. (See Walking the Walk by Aina Gutierrez for suggestions on developing your personnel package.) Publicize widely You will only have a good pool of candidates if you publicize the position widely. Post in trusted places, e-mail the job description widely to supporters and board members, and call colleagues who might suggest who would be good for the job. Check lots of references Reference checking is super important. Folks can make a great impression in an interview but not really be a good hire. Check the official references (the one’s listed by candidates), but put more credence in the ones you call who are not listed but you know and trust. The best indicator of how someone will do in your job is how the person has performed in past jobs. Give real-life tests In addition to asking candidates to tell you what they can do, ask them to show skills you need in the job. If the person is expected to make workers’ rights presentations, ask the candidate to prepare and give a fi fteen-minute presentation. If the job requires writing, ask the person to write a press release at the end of the interview.

Orient All New Staff How someone is welcomed to an organization will set the tone for how well they work with the organization. Take a couple of hours to develop an orientation schedule and plan for the new person. Compile key materials and books that the person should read. Emily Timm, research and policy director at Workers Defense Project, says, “Do not underestimate the importance of establishing a formal orientation and training program.” The Workers Defense Project’s orientation for new staff covers the organization’s history and programs, training in time management, technology and how to use the database, and background on the organization’s organizing model and how it is lived out in campaigns. New staff members are also assigned theoretical background readings on the work. Develop goals and expectations for the new person for thirty, sixty, and ninety days. Review how the person is doing at each of those benchmarks. Schedule meetings with lots of key people, or ask the new person to schedule them. Depending on the position, the person might meet with other staff, board members, donors, worker leaders, or others. Relationships with key people in your network are important for any staff person. “Onboarding” has been a central concept for human resources professionals for the last two decades. Just do a web search for “onboarding,” and you’ll find lots of books on the subject. Essentially onboarding is a process that lasts for 90 to 180 days, during which the new person gets to know people, becomes acquainted with the work and

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workplace culture, and is welcomed into the organization and supported in his or her learning about the organization and the work. Usually the time frame for onboarding is similar to the trial period for most new staff. It is a time in which the organization and the new hire make sure they are a good match. The following are appropriate onboarding tasks. The new staff person can: • Meet with and interview key people in the work and field (worker leaders, board members, donors, or others most appropriate for the work). • Shadow the supervisor or another experienced staff member. • Read and discuss key literature in the field. • Participate in key events that showcase the organization. • Talk with colleagues about organizational values and culture.

Jointly Develop Annual Goals and Objectives No matter how large or small your staff team, staff members should be involved in developing annual goals and objectives. You will need the goals and objectives for fund-raising purposes, and it is helpful for the staff to collectively struggle with the priorities for the organization. Then each individual’s goals and objectives (or work plan) can flow from the organizational goals and objectives. There are several challenges in developing annual goals and objectives. Try to make them: Both realistic and aspirational On the one hand, goals should be realistic. You should have a sense that if you work hard you can actually accomplish them. On the other hand, each person needs to have goals requiring more of a stretch, something new you want to try but don’t know how it will go. Flexible Things will occur that will require flexibility. Make sure you build in time to review the goals and objectives several times during the course of the year in order revise them, if necessary, based on emerging situations in your community. Measurable “Good” and “better” are not very measurable. Find concrete ways to measure your goals and objectives so you can know whether you have met them or not. Focused It is terribly hard for most nonprofit leaders to focus. They care about so many things and want to help in many areas. You will be most effective if you can help the organization and your staff focus on doing a few things well rather than dozens of things poorly. Address both program and infrastructure Organizations that grow build both the program work and the internal organizational infrastructure. Consequently, your goals and objectives should address both. Collaborate Working together to figure out goals can be a healthy collaborative process for the staff team. Include some organization-wide goals that foster collaboration by engaging everyone in helping meet them.

Fostering a Strong Staff Team

Seek a Culture of Honesty, Creativity, and Growth Cultures can determine how effective an organization is. The organizational culture and its values are set by the leaders. Honesty, creativity, and personal growth are three key values. Building an internal culture of honesty is tough, but it is critical for staff members to learn to honestly assess what worked and what didn’t. Each person must be able to reflect honestly on what he or she did well and what he or she really screwed up on. Leaders can model this kind of honesty when they talk about their own work. There is no need for false modesty. Claim the things you do well, but share honestly when you mess up, and address what you intend to do differently in the future. If organizations are to grow and develop, they must exercise creativity and take some risks. People must think out of the box and act out of the box but know that creative new programs are not guaranteed success. You don’t want to undertake new endeavors that seriously risk relationships, reputation, or fund-raising, but do encourage and support calculated risks that try new ideas and programs to build the work. Make sure that staff members know that it is okay to fail if they are trying something new. Every staff member should be growing all the time. Many organizations ask staff members to outline their professional development goals as part of the annual goalsetting process. Ask each person to think about what they want to be doing five or ten years down the line. Help staff members think about the skills they will need to get there. Build in some professional development opportunities that will help each person grow each year. One inexpensive way to help staff grow is to encourage mentorship opportunities. Ask the person if there is a person in his or her field that he or she would like to have as a mentor. Offer to have the organization pay for lunch every month or two with that person. Many nonprofit leaders are willing to do a regular lunch to mentor a younger colleague in the work.

Honor Diversity in Backgrounds, not Values Organizations need people with diverse backgrounds and skills. If you want to reach a diverse set of workers, your staff leadership must reflect that diversity. With a tiny staff, it is hard to have much diversity, but as your staff grows you should seek staff members of different races and ethnicities, people who speak languages spoken by your members, men and women in roughly equal proportion, some age diversity, and people with connections to various parts of the community. In general, building a diverse staff is helpful for building the organization. Do not extend diversity to values, however. All staff members need to recognize, own, and treasure the organization’s core values. If they don’t, they will not be a good fit for the organization, no matter how talented they may be. The interview and reference-checking process is a time to try to figure out whether someone will be a good fit with your organization’s values. The onboarding process can reinforce core values and help make sure that the new person and the organization share them.

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Most worker centers place a value on hiring some staff positions, particularly organizers, from workers who have been involved in the center, such as José Pérez, an organizer for Fe y Justicia, who says: I came to the center because I was working as a day laborer in the corner, and I was given a flyer, and I had two problems: I was owed wages by a contractor, and I’d had an accident at my workplace. The way that we were treated was really awful. Nobody feels the pain more than the one that is sick [nadie siente mas el dolor que quien esta enfermo]. I have been fighting my accident case for four years. The employer prefers to pay attorney fees than to pay me what is owed. I have been involved with the center for two and a half years. I was a member of the organization first, and then I became an organizer. I attended the health and safety trainings. I went through a leadership development training. I have been in a staff position for one and a half years. Among my responsibilities is visiting the day laborer corners. There are more than forty-four corners in our city, and we try to go to all of them. I handle wage theft cases. I also go to construction sites and find out if people are getting paid the right way or if there are health and safety violations, because the contractors and temp agencies sometimes don’t pay the workers what they promised. Day laborers carry a lot of pessimism because the situations that they have to face day by day are so difficult. When you help them win their cases, they see that there is hope. Also, when there is an organized corner, and the corner has its leaders and they are more organized, they can realize that they have the ability and the power to make changes. When you are able to get workers in motion and using their power, an organizer feels rewarded. One of the most difficult things in this work is that there is so much that needs to be done and so little resources and so little time to get it done. Sometimes the lack of resources to accomplish things is a huge obstacle to getting things done. In Fe y Justicia, when there is an open staff position, anybody could apply. Imagine that! What an opportunity! I love being part of an organization that is opening its doors in such a way. Sometimes there are organizations that only give you chances if you have a degree, but here it is not like that. So I said to myself, I’m going to apply. Talk about luck—here I am. I agree with giving members . . . access to these jobs. Who else is going to understand our situation better than those of us who have gone through this? We are more conscientious and more motivated. We are not doing this for a salary. This is our vocation. The will to do this job has to come from deeper sense of commitment and understanding that the final goal is to improve our communities. Members are not only for calling them when you need them. Members are in the fight for their dignity. The worker center provides the space to give workers back their dignity. I have contributed to the building of the center by telling my story, by showing with my example that as a day laborer I went through many challenges, but by organizing I empowered myself. I am a living example. I build this center by telling workers that we are the ones who orchestrate change. The change doesn’t come from politicians. It comes from oneself. I tell them, don’t wait on your neighbor to take action before you do, because you don’t know if he is waiting on you to do something. And if you didn’t take action, neither he nor you did anything . . . you both did nothing. The next step in our work is to reach more and more members of the community in order to grow our power. We will continue providing a space for the members to act and make decisions, because they are the ones who know what they need.

You can feel José’s passion through his words. You can imagine why he would be a great organizer. He has the values a worker center needs.

Fostering a Strong Staff Team

Reward Longevity Experienced staff should be significantly more productive and effective at doing tasks than new staff members. Experienced staff will have developed organizational relationships with dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of people in the community, depending on the jobs. Executive directors who grow organizations find ways to encourage and reward longevity. Your personnel policy can reward longevity by giving staff members who stay increasing amounts of vacation time or extra retirement contributions. Some organizations offer employees a sabbatical after five years, seven years, or ten years as a means for encouraging people to stay. If you aren’t able to offer full-family health care for all staff members, perhaps you could offer it for those who have been around for a few years. Keep track of when staff members begin working so you can recognize important anniversary dates. Everyone appreciates recognition. How about a handwritten card from the director on the first anniversary, a cake on the third, a day off on the fift h, and special board recognition on the tenth? If your budget allows it, gifts are nice too.

Encourage Work-Life Balance Building a worker center is hard work, but staff and directors will stay at it longer and be more effective leaders if they can create a sustainable work-life balance. Some of the components of encouraging work-life balance should be imbedded in your personnel policy. Staff members should be given vacation time and encouraged to take it. Sick time should cover both the employee and dependent care, so the person can take a paid day off to care for a sick child or family member. Parents should be given some paid time off with the birth or adoption of a new child. Allow trusted staff to work flexible hours. Particularly with long-term, trusted staff members (e.g., those you know that work hard and intelligently), allow them to adjust their work schedules to accommodate their family needs. Not all positions can support flexibility, but try to find ways to support people to sanely balance their family lives with their work lives. You can also allow trusted staff to work from home one day a week or one day a month. In many worker centers, staff members have very little time to read, write, or even think complete thoughts. Setting aside a day a month just to do bigger-picture work can be extremely healthy and productive for trusted staff members. Parents of young children are often the most stressed. Can babies be brought to the office or to community meetings or rallies? Can grade school kids be brought to the office during a school holiday? Can people work at home when kids are sick? Developing ways to support and provide flexibility for parents and others who need it. These will be much appreciated. The founding director of Casa Latina, Hilary Stern, was pregnant with her fi rst child at a time when she was building the organization and the two employees (herself and another person) shared one salary. Over time she not only managed to build the organization and raise two children, she also helped create a culture that encouraged parenting. A comic book celebrating the organization’s ten-year history claims, “In 8 years,

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Venus Veronique, Pat, Emma, Lupita, Clauda, Alica, Hilary and Araceli all drank the water at Casa Latina and all got pregnant.” Jackie Kendall, the former director of the Midwest Academy, had a ten-year rule: Ten years from now who will remember? Ten years from now will the board remember if a staff person was there? No. Ten years from now will your child remember if you were at his or her graduation? Yes. When there are conflicts between work and family events, consider the ten-year rule. Not all family events should win out. You do not need to be at every soccer game or every PTA meeting, but there are important family moments that should not be sacrificed for work. Directors and other organizational leaders should also help staff members consider the ten-year rule themselves.

Performance Management Like onboarding, current human resource programs emphasize performance management over evaluation. The main difference is that evaluation is usually experienced as a one-time event that happens at the end of the year. An evaluation is written up, signed, and then filed away, never to be seen or thought about again. A performance management program or system, on the other hand, is an ongoing engagement between a supervisor and the person being supervised. Goals and objectives are developed at the beginning of the year in ways that reflect the amount of time to be devoted to them and the ways the work can be measured. The goals and objectives are agreed to by the employee and the supervisor. Instead of shelving away the document, the two meet regularly throughout the year, at least four times, to review the goals and objectives, assessing both progress and obstacles. Directors and supervisors need to help staff set priorities. As worker centers develop, there is a tendency to add more projects without taking away any responsibilities. Supervisors must watch for burnout and help their staff members shed responsibilities and projects that are less important in order to make room for new ones with higher priority. Since only a few worker centers in the country are big enough to have staff dedicated to “human resources,” usually other staff leaders figure out what can be done in this area. Some worker centers have no staff evaluation process whatsoever, let alone a more ongoing performance management system. There should be something along these lines, but it should not be burdensome, otherwise no one will use it. Interfaith Worker Justice received a Taproot Foundation grant to develop a stronger performance management system. The performance management tools were revised, and staff leaders were trained on using the new tools. The new tools do a better job than previous ones in uplifting the organization’s values (and evaluating people in part on sharing and implementing these values), allocating percentages of time for work priorities, and holding managers responsible for extra tasks around staff development.

Structure Team Building and Vision Sharing Even though there is too much work to be done, you must never shortchange time spent on structured team building and vision sharing. There are many ways to foster team building and vision sharing.

Fostering a Strong Staff Team

Host annual staff retreats Many worker centers take staff members on an annual staff retreat. Usually it involves at least one overnight, sometimes two. Getting out of your regular office space encourages creativity and bonding. Make sure the retreat includes lots of unstructured time or play time so people can relax and enjoy one another. Casa Latina sometimes plans retreats in which no work is planned. Organize quarterly planning days Some worker centers have quarterly planning days on which all staff members check in and refocus on the priorities of the organization. Fun events Some centers plan special fun events for staff, like bowling or skating parties. Many centers shut down and march collectively at big rallies, May Day events, and meaningful protests. Cleaning days or stuffing parties Some tasks are not all that fun but can be made more enjoyable and opportunities for bonding if all staff members participate. Spending the day (or afternoon) cleaning your office can help your office sparkle and help folks bond. Everyone working together on a year-end mailing, entering names in the database, or another such project, followed by a pizza party, can serve the same goal. Joint reading programs If there is a book that is particularly important to your work, buy a copy for every staff member and hold a discussion about it. All staff members of worker centers should be encouraged to read key literature in the field. Outside speakers Any time someone of interest in your field (an author, a labor leader, or a technical expert) visits your town, invite the person to have lunch with your staff. Invite key allies, such as the head of your central labor council, to come talk with your staff. This will expose your staff to key leaders in the field and foster important bigpicture conversations about the work. Regular sharing in staff meetings Start each staff meeting with a warm-up activity, meditation, reflection, or sharing opportunity that allows people to connect with one another personally. Share lunches Eating together fosters community and informal conversations that often generate good work ideas. Schedule a day each week in which everyone eats together. Or organize a lunch club in which different people rotate responsibilities for bringing lunch. Th is is a good way to learn about one another’s cultures through food.

Boards Supporting Executive Directors Worker center boards need to help their directors build the kind of leadership team that can really help the organization build power in the community. This means that the leader must surround himself or herself with great talent, a constellation of stars, share a vision with other core leaders, and delegate tasks in such a way that the workload is shared among the team. Most worker center boards do little to support and help their directors grow and develop. Some worker centers boards actually undermine their directors, although probably not intentionally so, and make their jobs more complicated instead of easier.

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Worker center boards should support executive directors in the following ways: Review annual goals and objectives The executive director should set annual goals and objectives for herself or himself. The board, however, or perhaps an executive committee of the board, should talk through the goals and objectives with the director. The board should make sure that building a staff team is one of the director’s goals and should encourage the director to set aside time for his or her own growth and development. Encourage work-life balance In the same way that a director must encourage his or her staff to develop a healthy work-life balance, so too the board must help a director do this. Too many worker center directors have burned out because of the pressure of the work. The board can encourage the director to pace himself or herself, making sure the director takes a vacation and watching for signs of burnout. One worker center director, who worked nonstop for months following an immigration raid at a nearby poultry plant, got so burned out trying to respond to workers’ families that she abandoned her post, abruptly leaving workers and fellow staff members confused, bills unpaid, and funding reports undone. Perhaps, had the board intervened, this might have been avoided. Serve as a sounding board The board of directors, or the executive committee of the board, should serve as a sounding board for the director, particularly around thorny staffing challenges. For most directors, money and staff are at the center of challenges causing them to lie awake at night. This does not mean that the board should intervene on staffing matters. They should not. Rather, board members should listen and advise on personnel matters. Conduct an annual review Directors need to have at least one time each year during which they reflect on their work and hear feedback. The board and the director should work together on establishing an annual process that is not too cumbersome but provides a chance for the director to reflect on his or her work, the board to thank the director for his or her work (and call attention to a few areas that might need improvement), and staff and allies to convey to the board leaders how they think the director is doing. Most worker center boards do not conduct annual reviews with their directors. This is a serious shortcoming. Busy worker center directors, in other words all of them, will not always take the time to reflect on their work without some encouragement. The board should offer the time for this, because directors need to talk honestly with their board members about what worked well and what didn’t. The board needs to have a process whereby its members can express their appreciation to the director and raised concerns in a helpful fashion. Generally speaking, a subset of the board should conduct the review and present the board comments in a balanced way. If there is not a structured way for this to happen, board members may try to provide their feedback to the director in less-structured (and less-helpful) fashions. Even though staff members should be able to talk with their directors about problems and concerns, sometimes they don’t feel comfortable doing so. It is important that the board committee conducting the review allow some form of staff input in order to address staff concerns before they become big problems.

Fostering a Strong Staff Team

Because most worker center directors work really hard, and often for not very much money, board members conducting evaluations should be sure that the tone of the evaluation is one that is primarily supportive of the director, assuming they do support the director. Sometimes in an effort to be thorough, a board that actually believes a director is doing an excellent job will raise so many picky concerns that the director will be demoralized. Directors can grow and improve with support and encouragement, but board leaders must focus on one or two growth areas and not pick on too many minor issues. Be careful not to undermine the director Boards need to be careful not to undermine their directors. One worker center director fired a staff person whom the director believed was not performing well. The director carefully followed all the personnel policies around performance problems. When the staff person appealed to friends on the board, the board of directors overturned the director’s decision. The long-standing, very talented director resigned as a result. The board of directors had clearly undermined the ability of the director to lead a staff team. Even though boards have an understandable bias in favor of workers, they must understand that directors have to function as directors and lead a staff team, which includes dealing with those who don’t perform up to standards.

Transition/Succession Planning and Implementation Worker center directors will not (and should not) be around forever. Thus there must be thought put into transition or succession planning. Many worker centers have struggled after the departure of their founding directors or long-term directors because there were no adequate transition plans or they were not implemented well. Long before a director leaves, the board of directors and senior staff should: Stabilize finances It will be tough to recruit a great director if the organization’s finances seem precarious. Try to build a bit of a reserve to help in the transition. Seek a consultant It is very helpful to have an outsider work with your staff and board on a director transition. If such a transition is in the near future, ask foundation supporters about helping fund a transition consultant. Get referrals on who specializes in transition consulting. Clarify what is needed in a director What are the skills and characteristics that are most important in the next director? Update the job description The outgoing director can help make sure that the job description is accurate. Decide on a process for recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new director A group of board members, or perhaps the entire board if it is small, will have to be on the transition committee. As long as the director is around, he or she should help with the process. In addition, a few key senior staff leaders should be involved in a transition committee. These staff members will not make the fi nal decision on hiring a new director—that is a board decision—but they can and should help with many parts of the process.

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Plan for overlap It is ideal for the new director and the old director to have some time of overlap. Plan for this if possible. Once a director officially decides to leave, the board of directors and senior staff should: Prepare a job notice This notice will take some time to prepare because it requires the board and senior staff leadership to finalize the job description, confirm the priority skills and characteristics that are sought, determine (usually) a salary range and benefits, and decide the process and time frame for candidates to apply. Decide who will do what Who will sort the resumes? Will all board members look at all resumes? Who will check references? Doing really good reference checking on the fi nal candidates is very important, time-consuming, and requires a fair amount of skill to gather useful information. If your outgoing director is still around, he or she might help with this. Who will participate in the interviews? If your board is small, the whole board can interview the candidates. Most boards assign a subset of the board to narrow down the candidates to one or two. The senior staff, or perhaps the entire staff, should get a chance to meet the fi nalists and give their input to the board. Inform your key funders and supporters personally The departing director or the board president should personally reach out to funders and key supporters about the transition so everyone feels informed and connected with the process. Sometimes funders are willing to provide extra funds to assist with the transition. Recruit widely Running a worker center is exciting, challenging work and requires leaders of great talent and passion. Throw the net widely, including publicizing via national worker center networks. The perfect person may be interested in moving to your town. Wait for the right person If the pool of candidates is not adequate, wait. Do more recruitment. Do not hire someone who might work out just because you feel desperate to have a director. Hiring someone who is not a good fit could set the organization back a few years. Some worker centers came close to shutting down when new directors were hired who were not capable of leading the organizations. The new directors floundered, frustrated staff, burned through reserves without bringing in new money and then left their positions within less than a year. Such situations have happened repeatedly, which is why it is so important to take your time to search for, hire, and onboard the new person. Honor the departing director (and raise money) When a long-term or founding director leaves a worker center (assuming the departure is amicable), the board and staff leaders should publicly celebrate the person. Th is is also an opportunity to raise money for the organization. Develop and implement a strong onboarding system The board of directors and senior staff leaders should work together on developing and implementing a strong onboarding system for the new director. This can ensure that a good director succeeds. Following a long-term or founding director is particularly challenging.

Fostering a Strong Staff Team

Co-directors Running a worker center is a big job and a hard job. A handful of effective worker centers, such as Make the Road and Centro Trabajadoras Unido en Lucha, have co-director structures that work very effectively. Creating a co-director model should not be forced from either the outside or the inside without the co-directors knowing one another very well and being confident that they can work well together. Co-directors should not be created when two organizations are merging and the newly merged board does not know what to do with two directors. Creating co-directors from two merged organizations when the directors have had no day-to-day experience with one another is a recipe for disaster. Don’t do it. Co-directors should not be created when the board is trying to hire a new director and can’t decide between two finalists. This is another recipe for disaster. Co-directors should not be created by two staff members who want a flat structure. If your organization is so new that it has only two staff members, it probably does not have the board structure and experience to supervise two directors well. The first time there are tensions between the staff members, the board will not be equipped to intervene. One of the staff members will probably end up leaving out of frustration with the lack of accountability. A co-director situation can work, but only when: The directors know and trust one another When experienced staff leaders have worked together for a good length of time and both believe they could make a co-director work, it could well work. The proposal should come from the co-directors themselves. Sometimes two directors propose it to a board of directors during a time of transition. Other times an existing director wants to share the responsibility with a talented colleague and proposes it. There are clear divisions of labor The directors themselves need to be clear with staff and leaders about who will handle what parts of the work. The board of directors can support and supervise two people Most boards of directors of worker centers don’t do a particularly good job supervising and supporting one director, let alone two. The board of directors should not allow a system of co-directors to be established without ensuring that it is prepared to support two directors and intervene if there are problems between them.

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Developing a Communications Program

Figure 9 Workers Defense Project generates strong media coverage for most of its public events, like this

Dallas Thirst event. Photo courtesy of Jason Cato and Workers Defense Project. Photo by Jason Cato.

Worker centers do important and effective work. They need a good communications program to help keep members, boards, and constituents informed and engaged, reach the broader community about their work (in ways that can increase funding), and influence public opinion on critical issues like minimum wage and wage theft. Initially, volunteers can handle the most basic communications tasks. As your center grows, it will want to assign the tasks to staff or long-term volunteers. You can be doing terrific work, but if you don’t communicate it to your members and others, you won’t get the respect you deserve or build the power you want. 220

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Basic Tools Logo Although you don’t need a logo initially, it is helpful for designing a website and your communication tools. Logos are tricky to design—they need to be simple, catchy, and reflective of your purpose or values. When Interfaith Worker Justice was forming, it approached a great labor artist, Ricardo Levins Morales, about creating a logo. At first he was trying to create something religious, given that the organization was interfaith. Many of his first designs had doves in them. When he finally sketched IWJ’s people logo (five people with joined hands), the board unanimously supported the design, and it quickly offered a simply way to identify the organization. Consider asking a design school or class to draft a number of simple logos as a class project that you could review. Or see if a marketing firm might donate a designer to work with you on creating a logo. Many worker centers involve their memberships in the making of the logo. Ask your members if anyone is good at drawing. Perhaps a picture from an action or event might inspire a logo idea. Just be sure that you really like the logo before confirming it. Website Every worker center needs at least a basic website. There is bound to be someone on your planning committee (or board) who can do it or can recruit a teenager to do it. Many first websites are created with WordPress, which is free and has many templates and themes from which to choose. Weebly is also very simple to use. One particularly helpful website for designing a website is www.websitesetup.org. It claims it can help you get a site up and functioning in thirty minutes. Creating a website is simpler than figuring out how to keep it current. Maintaining and updating the website needs to be someone’s responsibility or it won’t happen. This is a great volunteer job for a young web-savvy high school or college student. Facebook Facebook is another possible web space for worker centers to showcase their work and victories. A place to posting pictures, information about wins, and media links, it can connect members and the community to the day-to-day work of the center. It can also serve as a good tool for setting up center events and keeping in touch with members. Most worker centers have a Facebook page. Some new worker centers use Facebook in lieu of a website until their website is developed. A Facebook account can be created in a few minutes and is a simple way to connect with many people, especially students. Do make sure that you update the page, and be sure to post information about your events. Ideally, post two or three times a week. If you post too often, people will block you from their feeds. If you post too little, you will be lost and forgotten. E-mail The fastest and cheapest way to communicate with groups of people is via e-mail. Many centers use e-mail systems to connect with members and supporters (e.g., to call for support for an action or an event). The e-blasts can connect members and supporters who may not be able to regularly attend meetings or events. Additionally you can consider doing a regular e-newsletter. Initially many organizations just send group e-mails via Gmail or some basic e-mail program, but keeping this organized over the long haul will be challenging. See chapter 21 for more information about options to consider.

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Once you’ve figured out your e-mail system, you can consider doing a regular e-newsletter. Some groups simply send a newsletter when there is big news. Others send one on some sort of regular basis, such as monthly or quarterly. Most people don’t read long newsletters so feel free to make this a relatively simple affair. As your organization grows, it needs an e-communications calendar, which considers timing and integration of e-newsletters, Facebook posts, calls to action, fund-raising appeals, and other updates. Texting Almost all younger workers text. Many will use texting more than e-mailing, because they have phones but not computers. Thus, it is good to reach out to workers via texting. WhatsApp is a popular texting program in 2015, but ask around because the technology and tools change quickly. Media list Begin building a media list of writers and reporters who might cover your issues. Create a simple coding system about the various types of media so you can target your outreach if necessary. For example, you might code media people as: • Mainstream media—reporters for major newspapers, radio stations, or television stations • Religious media—contact people for denominational publications and congregational newsletters and bulletins • Union media—contact people for local union newsletters or email communiqués • Alternative media—contact people for neighborhood organizations or progressive groups • Student media—contact people for publications and email communiqués at area colleges and other schools. Basic brochure Many new organizations find it helpful to have a basic brochure that describes their mission and work. Design standards Even though many organizations don’t create design standards until they have lots of publications and communication vehicles with completely random fonts and designs, it is much better for the organization to establish a uniform look from the beginning. This is best achieved by having or creating design standards for your communication vehicles. Design standards are simply an agreed upon list of colors, fonts, and styles that you will use. You can change your standards whenever you want, but having this ensures a more consistent look for your organization’s communications. There are quite a few local websites for volunteers where you can list a project you need help with, and people can volunteer to do it. Idealist (www.idealist.org) is primarily for listing jobs but you can also post volunteer positions. A lot of first drafts of things like logos and brochures can be done by volunteers.

Additional Tools Print newsletter As organizations grow and mature, many find that they need a print newsletter as well as an e-newsletter. Given the barrage of e-mail most people receive, many e-newsletters are deleted before they are read, so print newsletters may more likely be read—at least by some. Research confirms what you may know assume—that

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there are generational differences in how people communicate and read. Older people, boomers and older, often prefer printed materials. Young people read more news reports online. Remember that your donors and allies are probably of multiple generations so you should use multiple forms of communication with them. A problem with paper newsletters is that they cost money to print and mail. Consequently, many centers only send paper newsletters to donors. If you work with (or hope to work with) labor unions, you must make sure that your paper newsletter is printed by a union printer and has a union bug on it. If there are no union printers in your community, ask the central labor council leadership how it handles printing. If you are going to do a print newsletter, there is one “must read” book for using your newsletter to build and encourage donors: Making Money with Donor Newsletters, by Tom Ahern (2013). Some centers hand out newsletters to their members to reduce postage costs. Another way to save costs is by combining mailings, such as sending a newsletter with the membership renewal letter. Twitter Twitter is a great way to reach the media, especially local media who often rely on crowdsourcing for stories. In addition to the media lists mentioned earlier, you can create a list of local reporters who use Twitter and reach out to them with story ideas using the tool. You can also engage with members who use it, but before committing to dedicating staff or volunteers to the tool, survey members and supporters to see if it would be a valuable option. Instagram Instagram is a free and simple way to share pictures and videos. These pictures and videos can also be shared across the other social media forums like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Tumblr Tumblr is a super simple blogging venue, enabling most anyone to blog about subjects of concern.

Communicate with Your Constituents Constituents are people who are already in your organization (your members) and others you want in your organization. Your communications program should communicate regularly with your constituents to engage them in your work and connect them with one another. Worker centers communicate with constituents when they: Send e-newsletters and print newsletters Even though low-wage workers may not have computers at home, they often have phones that allow them to read e-newsletters. Make sure that your newsletters can be read well on a phone screen, which means they should have a single-column format. Such electronic and paper newsletters tell people about upcoming events and activities. They also invite people to take actions. Post on Facebook Many worker centers effectively use Facebook to get the word out about upcoming actions. The day before an action, or sometimes even a few hours before an action putting pressure on an employer to pay workers their back wages, someone will post information on Facebook about where and when to show up. Pages are created to publicize events. Petitions may also be distributed through Facebook.

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The Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center used Facebook creatively to get a restaurant owner to pay workers their back wages. The restaurant itself had a Facebook page. The center asked members and supporters to write on the restaurant’s Facebook wall, “Why don’t you pay your workers?” The employer quickly paid them. New Labor used its Facebook page to organize a reunion party for old and new members. The party helped bring back lapsed members to the organization, and it was inspirational to read what members from 2000 shared with members from 2013. Members may not always use email accounts but most use Facebook. Increasingly it is possible to make decent quality videos cheaply and easily. Creating and posting videos that you think might go viral could help you reach thousands of new people. Group texting and conversations The Association of Filipino Workers (AFW), which is the organizing project of the Pilipino Worker Center, is organizing circles, composed of four to eight members, with each circle choosing its own leader. The AFW organizes and gets the members of circles talking with one another via texting, Facebook, and other social media. A key application has been GroupMe, which is a group texting app. It is free and works on almost any phone. The company is part of Skype, a program that most immigrants are already familiar with because they use it to talk with friends and family back home. The circles also use Google Hangouts to do joint conference calls. The AFW has trained workers to use the phone conference calls so they can stay engaged. Most of the AFW’s caregivers work in isolation and far from each other, so having phone meetings has proved to be very effective. More than two hundred AFW members are actively engaged in fift y AFW circles. Provide news and information via Twitter Workers Defense Project and New Labor are two worker centers that use tweets well. New Labor often live-tweets from actions or events, such as at a city council meeting when New Labor’s wage theft ordinance was considered. Workers Defense Project uses Twitter to share media clips and info about events with its supporters. Host a radio show Somos Un Pueblo Unido hosts a half-hour weekly radio show that highlights the “struggles and triumphs as Latinos and Hispanos in New Mexico.” The program, Nuestra America, is on Santa Fe’s public radio station, KSFR. Podcasts from each show are available on the Somos website (www.somosunpueblounido.org). Initially KSFR invited Somos to host a show once a month, but the show was not at a great time for listeners. Then the show moved to once a week, but still not at an ideal time. Eventually, because the show did prove popular, it was moved to a great slot, every Tuesday from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. The show usually includes two fifteen-minute segments. The segments interview local Somos leaders who are doing important work around the state and national experts who can inform listeners about the larger context for what is going on in New Mexico. The show has been a great way to train and tap the gifts of Somos leaders. Members love being on the show. The show has helped Somos gain credibility in the community. It has generated additional media stories because reporters listen to the show and follow

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up on story ideas. And the show gives Somos an opportunity to frame issues for a broader audience. Somos staff organizes the programming, but the organization pays no money to produce and air the show. Develop strong ties with radio stations Micah, the worker center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has built a strong relationship with a Spanish-speaking radio station, La Mejor Grand Rapids. Radio station staff participate in the worker center meetings and allow the center to announce its events. Casa Latina leaders went on the local Spanishlanguage evening television news program on April 15, 2015, to tell workers who lived in Seattle to check their pay stubs to see if they had a gotten a raise after the new Seattle minimum wage ordinance went into effect. This appearance generated many new calls to Casa Latina’s wage theft hotline. Host a public access television program When Interfaith Worker Justice was promoting a workers’ rights legal clinic, its staff hosted a monthly show on workers’ rights. Then another show was hosted interviewing ethical employers who did not steal wages and looking at the benefits to the company of paying workers fairly. This show also promoted the clinic. The cost to host the show was less than $100 for ten shows, plus the staff time involved. Many communities have public access television stations, so you too could do shows such as these. Invite people to take online action Asking people to sign petitions or send letters or e-mail to elected officials is good for moving your issues, but it also allows you to capture the names of others who share your center’s values and concerns. The articles listed below can help you design and implement online actions: • Kyle Henri Andrei, “A Few Good Tools for eAdvocacy,” Idealware, November 2011, www.idealware.org/articles/few-good-tools-eadvocacy • Laura S. Quinn and Kyle Henri Andrei, “A Few Good Online Petition Tools,” Idealware, July 2011, www.idealware.org/articles/fgt_online_petitions.php • July Katz, “9 Online Petition Tools: How to Make a Difference,” Socialbrite, www. socialbrite.org/2010/07/20/9-online-petition-tools-how-to-make-a-difference. There are lots of free online petition tools available to use. MoveOn.org and Change. org are two prominent ones, where groups can create a petition and publish it online. MoveOn also provides a service for organizations by promoting petitions that perform well. Check out the MoveOn progressive partners program. When creating an online petition, be sure you are clear about the target (the person who can make the decision and to whom you are sending the petition) and what you want him or her to do. For example, the petition may be to a restaurant owner asking that he or she pay cooks the wages they earned. Be sure that you print and deliver the petitions so that your members and supporters aren’t signing a petition merely for the sake of signing. Deliver those petitions! Submit public service announcements Most radio shows accept some public service announcements. They may be read at midnight, but stations that are widely listened to by your constituents could be sent public service announcements on a regular basis. Usually the stations’ websites will explain how to submit them. This is a great project for an intern or volunteer.

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Develop comics Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) has developed two comic books that have been very popular with workers. You can use IWJ’s books and develop shorter versions yourself if you know someone who draws and writes comics.

Communicate with the General Public In order to influence the public attitude toward issues like immigration or wage theft and to put some generalized pressure on elected officials, it is good to get media coverage about your organization and its issues. Many organizers complain about “corporatecontrolled” media, and at some point there could well be limits to how much coverage you get based on this factor, but usually organizers don’t get mainstream coverage because they don’t work at it. It takes time and energy to cultivate relationships with reporters, write letters to editors, and pitch good stories. In the early stages of your center, you may need to recruit a volunteer to help develop and implement a media plan. As you grow, someone on staff or a long-term volunteer should be charged with developing media contacts and implementing a media plan. The worker centers that have devoted even marginal amounts of time to working with the media tend to get very good coverage. The issues worker centers organize on are very media-worthy. Worker centers regularly: Build relationships with reporters Figure out who in your community has covered issues similar or related to the ones about which you care. Meet with these reporters and learn what they are interested in. Then, when you have a story you think meets their interests (and yours, of course), you can tweet the story or call the reporter and pitch the story. Make sure to get to know the reporters personally. They are people— not just reporters or names on a list. Build relationships and thank them if they write good stories about your work or about the issues in general. Reporters appreciate the support. Respond to reporters quickly When a reporter calls you, he or she is usually on a deadline. You must call the reporter back quickly or you will not be called in the future. If the reporter asks you to find someone who will talk about an issue or asks for a quote, do the best you can to be supportive. Of course, there may be issues you do not want to talk about, and in these cases just politely explain that. Write letters to editors Letters to editors are fairly easy to write, and, if published in a daily paper, are well read. Ask board members to write and submit letters on timely topics. Give interviews on radio and television Getting your board or staff leaders interviewed on radio and television is usually good for your organization, and giving a good interview is a skill that can be developed. Explore free or low-cost media training in your community. If you are doing a radio interview, consider preparing a list of questions you’d like the interviewer to ask you. Sometimes the interviewers will ask directly from your questions, and then you can be quite well prepared.

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Meet with editorial boards Most mainstream papers have an editorial board that writes their editorials. You can call and ask for a meeting with one or a group of them. Be sure to bring workers with you to tell their stories. Despite expressing opinions via their editorials, members of newspaper editorial boards are used to dealing in facts, so bring studies or documentation with you. Respond to national stories If your center is doing something related to major national stories, issue a press release and make the link between your work and the national stories. Doing so could enable you to be a local hook on a national story. For example, when President Obama issued the DACA Executive Order (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), many worker centers that had been strong advocates for immigration reform issued press releases in support of the order and managed to get themselves quoted in local media stories. Casa de Maryland and Casa Latina organized TV-watching parties with their members at the time Obama was scheduled to announce DAPA. Both organizations dominated local media coverage of the issue as a result.

Support Organizing All good organizing campaigns have strong communication components. Worker centers have done amazing work using communications to help support their organizing campaigns. Promote events and actions via the range of communication tools Whatever you decide to do in pushing a campaign forward, ask people to join you via your electronic and paper communications and in stories you wrote for nontraditional media. Ask people to show up at events, send letters to elected leaders, sign online petitions, or pray about situations. Use all your internal tools plus your access to union, congregational, and progressive newsletters to get the word out on your campaigns and how folks can help. Enable workers to talk with one another New communications tools, such as GroupMe and Google Hangouts described above, can assist you in talking with your members and enable them to talk with one another. Many workers do not work in close proximity with one another and thus it is critical to use technology to reach and engage them. You can reach workers via a variety of social media platforms including Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and YouTube. Pitch your story to reporters If you have built relationships with reporters, you know who to call. Ask reporters to investigate persistent wage theft by an employer, cover a story about proposed legislation, or attend an action that is a critical component of a campaign. Getting reporters to write about your work and issues (in positive ways) gives you credibility in the community—with your own constituents, donors, and potential donors. Good stories can help influence elected leaders to vote the right way or recalcitrant employers to reach a settlement. No worker center has used the media more effectively than the Workers Defense Project in Austin, Texas. Every campaign is accompanied by strong print, radio, and television stories. To get a sense of the breadth of their media coverage, visit the media section on the Workers Defense Project’s website (www.workersdefense.org).

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Create opportunities for media coverage There are some actions worker centers do that are at least partly aimed at the media. For example, when Workers’ Dignity was trying to get downtown hotels in Nashville to pay their workers all the wages owed them, the center organized a march through downtown with workers and supporters carrying brooms and mops. The organization got a great story and great pictures. Media people love to cover new reports and studies, so often worker centers partner with academic institutions to research and write reports that can be publicly released. When Arise Chicago was organizing car wash workers, it partnered with the University of Illinois at Chicago to jointly produce a report on wage theft among car wash workers. The press conference about the report drew a standing-room-only crowd and generated coverage throughout Chicago. Promote an action or pitch stories to reporters via Twitter Increasingly, many reporters are getting news from folks who tweet. If you tweet regularly and tweet at one of your actions, it may help generate coverage of the action and get more folks following you. Ask event participants to tweet, post on Facebook, or send Instagrams Nothing creates more of a buzz about an event than lots of people posting about it via a range of social media. Encourage all participants to use social media to promote your message.

Prepare Your Leaders If you want workers who have not done much public speaking to do well in working with the media, you must help them prepare. Working well with the media is a skill, not something you are born with. The two biggest problems workers face in speaking in public is fear and staying on message. Nothing is better for addressing these problems than practicing with supportive colleagues, like friends at the worker center. Help your leaders: Consider your core message What is the basic message you want conveyed? Clarify it for yourself and the group. Write out what you want to say Even if you are doing a live talk show, write out what you want to say. It will help you focus how to present the message. Ask about providing questions Some friendly media people, particularly radio and television interviewers, are open to having you provide some of the questions for the interview. If so, you can write the question and the response. This helps ensure that you are prepared and that the questions are good ones. It doesn’t hurt to ask if you can provide sample questions. Practice There is no substitute for practice and experience. Practice articulating your core message before doing any media work. Try to get your key points pared down into clear sound bites. Experience only comes with time, but you can practice. If a leader is going to be on television, videotape him or her and work with the person on whatever needs improvement. If the leader is going to do radio, record the person answering some basic questions and play it back for the person. All speakers can get better with practice. No one should simply wing it.

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Evaluate After your worker leaders encounter the media encounter, talk with them about what went well and what could have been done better. Again, nothing beats experience. Help workers who interact with the media get better at this through experience and feedback.

Make It a Job Communications is clearly critical to the growth and development of the organization. The social media explosion has greatly increased the different ways nonprofits can communicate. Worker centers have found that it is difficult to develop a strong communications program without it being someone’s job. Initially you may have a strong volunteer or two who can do your communications work, especially helping with the social media and creating some basic materials. As you grow, however, try to hire at least a part-time person who focuses on communications.

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Buying Your Own Property

Some of the strongest worker centers in the nation have purchased their own buildings. Those that have done so claim that it has played a role in strengthening the power and influence of their organizations. Hilary Stern, executive director of Casa Latina, says, “Buying a building is not for everyone, but it has transformed our organization from a scrappy marginalized group operating in a parking lot and in borrowed spaces to an established organization that has a beautiful space for organizing and community building.” Another worker center director, Cristina Tzintzún, echoes this, saying, “Buying a building was a critical decision for the growth of Workers Defense Project. It allowed us to establish ourselves as a community center and to give our members a sense of ownership over the space.” Although purchasing property does not make sense for all organizations, this chapter focuses on why you might consider doing so and steps to move forward.

Why Buy Property? Worker centers buy property for numerous reasons. They want to: Get more space Many worker center staff and programs are crammed into office space that does not help strengthen their programs or mission. They want space that can allow workers to meet, space for offering training and classes, space for child care, and good office space for staff members. Some centers want outdoor space for gardens and soccer fields. Get more usable space When you rent, you pretty much accept the property as it is. When you purchase something, you can make it your own—changing walls, building kitchens, creating storage facilities, and breaking out small areas into large meeting spaces. You can also create murals and install other works of art. Stabilize the organization Some worker centers have had to move repeatedly because landlords have decides to sell or develop their properties. This is especially true for worker centers based in gentrifying neighborhoods. Moving is terribly disruptive for organizations. Become more visible in the community Owning your own property makes a visible statement that you are committed to the community and going to be around for a while. Usually you can hang out a big sign or banners that make your presence known. 230

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Build up organizational assets If you pay rent for twenty years, you will have no assets accrued from your rent payment at the end of that time. If you pay a comparable amount on a twenty-year mortgage, you may have a significant asset—a building—at the end. The asset is not easy to convert to cash, but it certainly helps the balance sheet. Save money Although it can be challenging to raise a significant down payment for purchasing a building, you may be able to save money over the long term by doing so. If you purchase space that is larger than you need, you may be able to rent out some of it to other organizations. Make a simple spreadsheet to calculate possible savings. See the section on “Quick Calculations” later in this chapter. Whether or not it makes sense to own or not often depends on your location. In expensive housing markets, it will be difficult to purchase anything that will save you money. In cheaper markets, the odds of saving money over the long haul are much more likely. Engage new donors There are individual donors, donor-advised funds, and foundations that will not give to cover your rent but might help you buy a building. Building campaigns usually connect organizations with donors in new ways. Cement community partnerships You may decide to rent space, share spare, or share ownership with key community partners. For example, Workers Defense Project rents space to a worker-owned cooperative that shares the worker center’s values. Meet multiple community needs at once Sometimes buying a property can meet multiple needs and serve multiple purposes. In 2013, the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) in Southern California realized one of its long-time dreams and bought a building. It did this not only so that it would have more space but also so it could address another pressing need in the community: a lack of affordable housing. PWC’s building includes fortyfive units of affordable housing for families, youth transitioning out of foster care, and people who were previously homeless.

Downsides to Buying Property Buying property for an organization, like owning a home, is not for everyone. There are serious downsides. Some of the downsides to buying property are that it: Diverts energy If you have to raise capital funds, deal with banks, figure out repairs, and so forth, you will divert staff and board energy from raising money for and working on your core programs. Costs more than you think Purchasing and maintaining property usually costs more than you think. Closing costs for loans are ridiculously expensive. Commercial loan rates are higher than personal ones. Doing modest rehab almost always costs more than planned. And things break down and are costly to repair. Demands regular attention Once you own property, if the toilet backs up, you can’t just call the landlord. You have to figure out how to fi x it and pay for it. Both are a hassle. Someone on staff will have to spend part of his or her time functioning as a property manager.

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Makes it hard to move Your center’s location is important for workers. The neighborhood may gentrify or change around you in such a way that it is no longer a good location for a worker center. If you own your own property, it is complicated and time-consuming to move. Is not very liquid Owning a building becomes an asset, but it is not a very liquid one. You may need special funds for an amazing opportunity but a high proportion of your funds are tied up in a building.

Begin Preparation Long before you actually purchase property, prepare for the possibility. During this early phase, you should: Talk with your leaders Are there good reasons to consider purchasing a building? Work through with your leaders the pros and cons of purchasing a building. How much space do you need or want? How much space do you have? How much do you need or want? Do you want space to rent to others? Do you want to partner with another organization to purchase something? Try to imagine what space you will need in ten to twenty years, because you don’t want to run another capital campaign within a few years. Can you afford it? In some markets, it makes financial sense to purchase. In others it doesn’t. Do a rough tally on the numbers to figure out what you can afford in a mortgage. Make a rough guess on what you might be able to raise. Then look around and see what’s available that you might be able to afford. You might be able to raise more than you think. Casa Latina hired a consultant to do a feasibility study before starting its capital campaign. At that time, the organization had an operating budget of about $600,000. The consultant interviewed Casa Latina’s biggest donors and concluded that the organization had the capacity to raise $3.2 million, which seemed impossible to the board until the consultant explained what a fund-raising plan might look like. In the end, Casa Latina raised about $4 million for its building. Who offers nonprofit loans? Most towns or states have organizations or banks that offer nonprofit loans for purchasing property. Call or meet with the loan officers. Find out what the rates are, what percentage of down payment is required, and how long the terms extend. Commercial loans usually have higher interest rates and shorter terms than home loans. Some foundations and religious orders have program-related investment (PRI) funds that invest in projects (like buying a building) that are related to their program mission. Ask around about PRI funds. Could you get donated or super low-cost property? Are there denominations, congregations, unions, community banks, or others that might donate or give you property at a great rate? Talk with agencies who have been known to do this. How much money could you raise? Do you have savings that could go toward the building? Are there existing institutional supporters, like congregations or foundations,

Buying Your Own Property

that would provide additional support for purchasing a building? Are there individuals you could approach to help purchase property? Could you get any city or state funds for purchasing or rehabbing a building? How do you get the property off the tax rolls? In most communities, nonprofits do not pay property taxes. This is a huge savings for buying over renting. But there is a process, sometimes a complicated one, for getting the property off the tax rolls. Until the property is removed from the tax rolls, you will have to pay the property taxes, which can be significant.

Quick Calculations Long before you’ve located the perfect space, you will want to figure roughly what you can afford. You need to make reasonable and honest assumptions in order to figure out what is possible. What do you spend? Consider what you spend now and what you will likely spend five or ten years from now. If your monthly rent is $1,000 now and it goes up 5 percent per year, it will go up to $1,276 in five years and $1,629 in ten years. What will it cost to purchase and rehab? Use the chart below to make simple (but honest) assumptions about property options. Based on how much space you need, property will costs vary dramatically based on locations. And you may get a property super cheaply but need to do lots of rehab. You should assume that you will want to do some modest rehab on most properties. Look at real estate listings to get a sense of the range of property available that might meet your needs. Make a chart outlining the ranges you might consider. Compare various mortgage rates over various terms. For example, one bank may offer a rate of 5 percent, but only over a fifteen-year term. Another might offer a rate of 7 percent over a thirty-year term. Although the insurance and utilities will go up some over the years, the increase is usually not as dramatically as that of the rent figures, so don’t complicate your chart at this point by trying to estimate those increases too. Although this looks complicated, once you have completed these computations you will understand the importance of shopping around for mortgage rates, figuring out how to make a good down payment, and how much you might realistically afford to spend.

Table 25.1 Estimated renting costs

Now Rent Utilities Other Total

Five years from now

Ten years from now

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Table 25.2 Estimated owning costs

Low-cost option

Mid-range option

High-end option

Purchase Price Minus down payment Plus rehab costs Total for mortgage 1) Monthly mortgage payment for rate and term one (e.g., 5 percent for fifteen years) 2) Monthly mortgage payment for rate and term two (e.g., 6 percent for twenty years) 3) Monthly mortgage payment for rate and term three (e.g., 7 percent for thirty years) Add utilities Add insurance Add repair savings Minus rental income from others Total estimated costs using mortgage 1 Total estimated costs using mortgage 2 Total estimated costs using mortgage 3

Getting Serious If you decide to move forward on trying to buy property, based on your leadership conversations and your rough calculations, here are some early steps for moving forward. Create a board and staff committee The purchasing process will take some time and is an opportunity to build relationships and commitment among the board and staff. You may invite some community experts or major donors to join the purchasing committee as well. It is another opportunity to draw people close to the organization. Explore nontraditional ways of acquiring a building Do denominations own local property that they might sell to you? Are there banks that own property that could be sold to you below cost? Would the city give you a building? Centro Humanitario was given a building by an older couple with the agreement that the center would pay the couple an annuity until both of them die. (Although this annuity approach sounds good, it does limit the organization’s ability to move or sell until the organization owns the building outright.)

Buying Your Own Property

Explore sharing space Are there allies you’d like to jointly purchase property with or who might want to rent from you? Only talk with organizations that you know quite well and with whom you share core values. There can be great synergies from sharing space if the organizations get along well, and a joint community space might generate foundation interest. Talk with lenders Figure out who provides nonprofit loans and what the best rates are. What down payments are required and what terms are allowed? Do you know foundations or religious orders that provide program-related investment funds? Explore ways to get prequalified for loans. Learn what the process is for getting a loan. Talk with funders Explore with donors and program officers whether they might help with putting together a good down payment. Large organizations usually hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility plan around a capital campaign, but for smaller endeavors like ones most worker centers will undertake, your leaders can talk with funders about how they might help. Try to get commitments to help before you locate your dream property. (Unfortunately, often it is easier to get a commitment once you have a specific property in mind.) Ask allies about public funds Casa Latina raised more than $2 million in city, county, and state public funds for its building. This required the center to learn about how capital dollars are allocated and devote senior staff time to lobby for those funds. Find a good realtor If you do not think you can get a building through nontraditional means, find a good (and patient) realtor who can help you fi nd property to look at that meets your needs and budget. Look at properties Nothing clarifies your thinking about what you need and want better than actually looking at properties. Look at a range of things in a variety of price ranges and then reconsider what you need and want. What is really important to you and what could you give up to save money? This is terribly time-consuming, so make sure you are serious before looking. Find a local mentor or guide Other nonprofit organizations have gone through this process. Talk with them and line up some folks to serve as guides in negotiating the process. Fine-tune your numbers As you get more information about mortgage rates, what you anticipate paying, and how much you can raise, develop more detailed and realistic financial worksheets. You will need these for your board, your funders, and your loan officer.

Casa Latina’s Experience Buying a building isn’t for everyone, but it made sense for Casa Latina. The organization had been around for more than ten years when it began thinking of purchasing property. It had a good reputation with funders for managing its money well and for being extremely effective with very few resources. According to Hilary Stern, the director, Casa Latina’s facilities were inhumane. The organization was organizing day laborers in a parking lot with a trailer, porta-potties, and no potable water. The trailer and

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parking lot were located on a street where prostitutes and drug dealers used unorganized day laborers, waiting for work on the surrounding sidewalks, as camouflage. The organization’s administrative offices were located elsewhere, but the staff had to move every few years as landlords pushed the organization out in order to develop the properties in the gentrifying neighborhood. As a worker center focused on day laborers, Casa Latina had very specific physical space needs that couldn’t be found in rental property in Seattle. The organization needed space for a hiring hall that could fit one hundred people, at least three classrooms, and administrative offices for its staff and volunteers. The solution was to buy property and develop it for Casa Latina’s particular needs. But buying a building seemed daunting to Casa Latina’s leadership. Its friends knew Casa Latina as a small, scrappy organization with a lot of heart. Casa’s enemies described it as a shelterer of street people who would follow the organization to its new neighborhood. They foresaw sidewalks and parks full of drunkards, public urination, and harassment of women and children. At the time, Casa Latina had an operating budget of just more than $600,000, which it struggled to piece together every year. Casa Latina focused all of its fund-raising efforts on program staffi ng, not infrastructure. A building that met its needs would cost millions of dollars to buy and develop. The staff said, “We are organizers and popular educators, not property developers.” Like any good campaign, Casa Latina’s organizers had a vision and a goal that felt a little extravagant. The board and staff went for it anyway. The project took the organization ten years, but not only did Casa Latina raise more than $4 million and build the campus of its dreams, it fought off NIMBYism (“not in my backyard”), racism, classism, and a right-wing national group, Judicial Watch. The campaign took its toll, however, on staff and programs. At its lowest point in the project, after having been chased out of one neighborhood after a nine-month fight, Casa had to lay off half its staff. The director, staff and board had been so occupied by endless community meetings with irate neighbors and responding to the local press that it had spent little time on fund-raising. But two years later Casa Latina had regrouped and found a better piece of property in a better neighborhood. The second time around, Casa Latina did a much better job of community outreach and told its story before its opponents did. The center negotiated with its detractors and signed a good neighbor agreement. It won reluctant community acceptance, and the City of Seattle released the money for its down payment. One of most ridiculous things that Casa Latina needed to agree to after it moved in was to hire an outreach worker who biked around the neighborhood for a year making sure that no poor Latinos were loitering on sidewalks. Luckily Seattle agreed to absorb the cost. Since Casa Latina’s programs were all located indoors and its dispatch happened over the phone and in the hiring hall, there was no point for workers to wait outside. And they didn’t. The outreach worker built up his muscles on the hills of Seattle and fi lled out endless daily reports of “nothing noted.” After a year, the police released a report to Casa’s neighbors that crime had gone down in the neighborhood since it had moved in.

Buying Your Own Property

In the end, Casa emerged stronger. Along the way, the organization gained visibility, new allies, and many new major donors. The center added institution-building cred to its street cred. Ten years after Casa started its capital campaign, its 2015 operating budget was $1.3 million. The most important effect of owing a building was on Casa members. The experience of coming every day to look for work in a beautiful building instead of checking in at a trailer and waiting outside in the rain and cold transformed how Casa Latina’s members saw themselves and how others saw them. The move to the new facilities allowed Casa Latina to dispatch more jobs at higher wages and provided more opportunities for training, political education, and organizing. The worker center changed from a place that most good people of Seattle wanted to avoid, to a place that is a magnet for community organizing meetings and other events, dance and music group rehearsals, and even private parties when Casa Latina is not holding its own job dispatch and organizing meetings or its ESL classes, computer classes, and workplace health and safety classes. Casa Latina’s neighbors love it. A former opponent said in a community meeting that a new organization serving low-income people should take a page from Casa’s book and do good community outreach in the neighborhood like it did. Casa Latina’s persistence reflects its overall values and tenacity.

Workers Defense Project’s Experience For years, Workers Defense Project rented a small office space about the size of a closet where staff and volunteers worked during the day. It held worker meetings in a church that offered its space free of charge, first a Salvation Army location and then later the Friends Meetinghouse of Austin. Staff and volunteers had to cart all of their organizing materials in portable filing boxes across town to hold their Tuesday-night worker meetings or Sunday organizing meetings. Something was always missing. Of course, the materials had to be carted back afterward to the small office space. In 2009, Workers Defense Project entered into conversation with another community group, Third Coast Activist Resource Center, which was interested in establishing a shared community space that would bring together different sectors of Austin’s progressive community. Workers Defense Project and Third Coast collectively raised funds and began looking for properties around town. Workers Defense Project also obtained a low-interest loan from PeopleFund, a nonprofit community development finance institution that provides loans to Texas groups that otherwise might not qualify. When a former day-care center at 5604 Manor Road in East Austin came onto the market for about $350,000, Workers Defense Project and allies had raised enough to put a down payment on the building and set up a mortgage to pay off the rest. Workers Defense Project undertook a major remodeling project that took about five months. Worker members donated a great deal of volunteer labor. With the help of many members and community supporters, the new community center opened at 5604 Manor in May 2010.

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The community center is bright and airy. It has great meeting space. The building is on a large piece of land that is used for community functions. There is plenty of parking, and no one hauls boxes of materials to and from training sessions anymore. By the end of 2014, Workers Defense Project had grown to such an extent that its programming required the entire use of the building and the center became the sole owner of the property. Although the organization still owes some money, it has a modest monthly mortgage payment, way less than commercial rent would be, and the building has increased in value.

Part 4

TAKING THE WORK TO SCALE

Combining Services and Organizing

26

FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZING

Among community organizers, there is a long-running debate about the role of social services. Many organizers view social services as programs that maintain the status quo. They view organizing as challenging power, the antithesis of social service programs. Because so few social service agencies have done any organizing, many believe that it is terribly difficult, perhaps even impossible, to combine organizing and social services. Worker centers have struggled with the service-organizing tension. When worker centers first open, they often struggle to get workers in the door, and they find that offering needed services can attract people. As most centers grow and develop, their members want a variety of services and programs. Worker-leaders will often plan programs to meet their needs. And directors looking for funding for growing and building the centers have an easier time finding social service program funds than general support or organizing funds. As a result, many centers move into a mix of services and organizing. Indeed, the worker centers with the largest budgets and the largest memberships, essentially the most powerful ones, all have a complex mix of social services and organizing.

The Secrets of Scale In the fall of 2013, Peter Murray published a groundbreaking article, “The Secret of Scale,” that looked at the core components of growing large-scale civic organizations.1 Murray researched fift y of the largest civic organizations (mostly U.S. institutions) and sought to understand what drove and enabled their growth. What he found was that the largest (and most powerful) civic organizations have all grown large by providing “benefits and services to cater to the everyday needs of their members—such as insurance, childcare, support groups, and discount cards—giving people a practical reason to join and remain active while providing the organization with a steady revenue stream.” Anyone who has turned fifty knows that most folks join AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired People) not because of AARP’s advocacy positions but because one gets great discounts and benefits for a modest membership fee. AARP is then able to be a 1. Murray, Peter, The Secret of Scale: How Powerful Civic Organizations Like the NRA and AARP Build Membership, Make Money and Sway Public Policy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2013.

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powerhouse in senior policy advocacy. Murray explains that the National Rifle Association has grown so strong not so much because of its pro-gun advocacy but for its great mix of hunting clubs, shooting classes, discounts on gun-related items, and insurance programs. These services that members want also generate additional funds for the organization. Murray refers to this model of organizing, using services as a basis, as “functional organizing.” Unions have long used functional organizing to build, support, and energize their bases. For example, the AFL-CIO has a benefit program called Union Plus. Likewise the two largest worker centers in the country (based on budget and membership), Casa de Maryland and Make the Road, have sophisticated social service programs that support their organizing work. They are both exploring ways to build fund-raising opportunities into their relations and services and move toward more of a functional organizing model. Murray suggests that not only should you use discounts and services to attract new members, but also that you should find ways for “monetizing benefits and services so as to generate income every time services are used.” AARP licenses and endorses (and receives money for) insurance programs, travel programs, and other services. The Freelancers Union figured out how to offer health insurance to its members, whose numbers quickly grew to 200,000. Although at first blush this appears challenging for organizations that work with very low-wage workers, there are still services and benefits that worker centers’ members need and pay for and thus could be explored for growing the memberships. Both Casa de Maryland and Make the Road have a wide array of services they offer that are only available to their members. Make the Road helped workers establish bank accounts, and the banks offered no-interest loans for workers to pay their lifetime membership dues (then set at $120) over a six-month period. (Make the Road has since moved away from a lifetime amount and instead is seeking additional monthly dues.) For organizations that want to launch a functional organizing model, Murray recommends that you do five thing: 1) understand your members’ challenges, 2) focus on what you’re good at and known for, 3) create products and services to generate profits, 4) join with other organizations to negotiate deals, and 5) find funders willing to act like venture philanthropists. The remainder of this chapter considers these components and how worker centers might move this direction.

Member Challenges Worker centers members face many challenges. Below are some of the challenges and how worker centers might create programs to address them and monetize some of the solutions. Access to legal services Most low-income people have little access to legal services. Worker centers with attorneys on staff can provide this access. At Make the Road, members involved in organizing committees get priority access to legal services. Assistance with immigration forms created by DACA and DAPA executive orders Immigrants are seeking assistance in fi lling out the forms to apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA). Some worker centers helped young people file paperwork for DACA. Quite a few worker centers are gearing up to assist their members (and future members) in fi ling their DAPA papers. Centers view this as a way to assist their members with high-quality services for much lower fees than others will charge, bring in new people and new members, and raise funds.

Combining Services and Organizing: Functional Organizing

Make the Road charges fift y dollars to conduct a legal analysis of whether or not a person is eligible for relief. If the person wants Make the Road to assist in fi lling out and submitting the application, members are charged an extra two hundred dollars and nonmembers are charged an extra four hundred dollars. Make the Road has a goal of assisting ten thousand people in submitting applications. If Make the Road reaches its goals, it will have helped a lot of people through the process and have generated between $2 million and $4 million to support its programs and work. Income tax assistance Many low-wage and immigrant workers seek assistance with their taxes. Even though the Volunteers in Tax Assistance program (VITA), run by the Internal Revenue Service, provides assistance for free, many workers still pay for assistance in their local communities. Before ACORN’s demise, some of its affi liates were providing fee-based tax assistance as a means for generating revenue. Remittances Many immigrants send money back to family members in their home countries. These remittances cost money. A group of worker centers explored whether there might be ways to offer this service less expensively than banks do, but to date nothing has gotten off the ground. Translation services Many workers need translation of basic documents. Perhaps there is a service model here. The Workers’ Rights Center of Madison formed the Interpreters’ Cooperative of Madison, a worker-owned and -operated translation cooperative that pays 10 percent of its fees to the center to handle its management (and to support the center). The co-op makes sure that agencies, businesses, and nonprofits have good quality translation services for members and clients. Banking services Many low-income and immigrant workers do not use traditional banks. Several worker centers already partner with banks to provide financial education to their members. Worker centers could partner with credit unions or community banks to offer banking services. Perhaps worker centers could receive something from the banks for getting new clients. Transportation Many low-income workers pay large fees to the services that provide drivers and overly packed vans that transport them to jobs. Several worker centers have considered whether they might provide transportation for a fee. Health care outreach Some worker centers already offer health-care programs. Are there ways to partner with some reputable health-care providers and thus generate revenues? Affordable housing Some unions have leveraged their resources to help create affordable housing for their members. Could worker centers do the same? Hiring halls Could hiring halls be established that could seriously compete with the large temp agencies? If so, perhaps they could undercut abusive agencies, pay workers higher and fairer wages, and still generate revenue for the organization. If a day laborer hiring hall became a popular place for employers to find good workers, perhaps the centers could charge employers a fee over and above the fair price paid to the worker, to help cover its costs. Although a few worker centers are beginning to generate decent amounts of income from membership fees, most of these centers’ funding and support still comes from foundation and government sources. None of the worker centers would claim they have

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figured out how to take the work to scale based on member-related funds. And even though most worker center leaders are frustrated with being so dependent upon foundation grants, the functional organizing model is a bit of a shift for most community organizers. The conversations and plans being developed to work on DACA and DAPA may develop more models for future functional organizing approaches. Many worker center leaders may not find the functional organizing model appealing, but it certainly bears consideration given the challenges workers are facing and the need for worker centers to grow and expand.

Building Membership Structures

Worker centers seek to build power for workers. Power is usually measured in people and money, and progressive social change groups tend to have more access to people than money (although groups have to get serious about money too, as discussed in chapter 19). As worker centers grow and mature, they almost always move toward building a formal membership structure that can foster ownership among workers of the center, enable democratic structures for leadership, raise funds, and demonstrate the organization’s power through deep connections with workers and the community. A worker center that can claim to represent five thousand dues-paying members is much more powerful than one that has loose connections with a few dozen workers. Consequently, most worker centers seek to build a membership base. Numbers of members, however, are not the only reflection of power and effectiveness. Worker centers place high value on leadership development and worker activism. If your center has five thousand members but only a handful of committed and trained leaders, you might be better off and more powerful with five hundred active and committed members. Five hundred active leaders are way more powerful than five thousand names on paper. Many worker centers seek to have a large group of active and committed members, most of whom have participated in leadership training opportunities, and an even broader group of workers and allies who can be tapped for occasional events and activities. Some centers distinguish between membership categories to take into account the levels of commitment and to give those with the most engagement more decisionmaking control. Although most worker centers in the country have fairly small memberships, most are working to expand their overall numbers and increase the number of worker leaders who are active in the organization. This chapter reviews general approaches to membership structures and then looks in more detail at how a handful of centers have seriously grown their memberships. The first few examples are ones that groups might strive for in the early years. The later examples are larger and more sophisticated membership structures. The biggest challenge for most centers is how they can grow their members significantly while still maintaining their vibrancy, creativity, and grassroots democratic approach.

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Dues Most worker centers set their dues levels at a few dollars per month, typically $24 per year ($2 per month), $36 ($3 per month), or $60 ($5 per month). As mentioned above, one center established lifetime dues of $120, but its leaders now regret having set the amount so low because many workers have now been members for more than ten years. Whatever the amount, you must create an easy way to collect the dues. If you have to rely on your organizers begging people to hand in their dues annually (or, worse, monthly), you will spend way more on dues collection than you collect. You should figure out a simple way for collecting dues via debit cards, credit cards, and/or bank withdrawals. Many center leaders admit reluctantly that it is easier to get the initial dues than it is to get workers to renew their memberships. This is particularly challenging if you can’t link dues collection to debit cards and bank accounts. There is no perfect amount for dues. Your worker leaders should figure out what seems reasonable and appropriate. The organization with the largest membership by far, Casa de Maryland, requires members to pay thirty-five dollars per year.

Requirements for Members Some worker centers require their members to take certain training sessions or participate in organizational activities. Casa Latina in Seattle, whose membership consists only of day laborers and domestic workers, requires members to pay a fee and take a training class. To renew their memberships, workers must take renewal classes and pay a renewal fee. The classes offered change each year but cover such topics as health and safety, gender/sexual harassment, and LGBT rights. Members have access to job dispatch services in addition to all of the other free services Casa Latina offers, such as ESL classes and wage theft recovery. Casa Latina has approximately five hundred members. Fe y Justicia in Houston limits membership to low-wage workers who commit to participating in at least half of the membership meetings (neighborhood membership meetings are held monthly, so a member commits to attending six a year) and helping with at least one fund-raising activity. Centro de Trabajadoras Unidos en Lucha restricts its membership to low-wage workers who have attended three meetings. Make the Road, in New York City, which has sixteen thousand members, requires members to be active for at least two months if they want to be referred to the legal department or be elected to a leadership position. Being active is defined as participating in two activities (meetings, actions, training sessions) per month. Restaurant Opportunities Center affi liates restrict membership to current and former restaurant workers and their families. Members must complete an orientation. Active members have completed the orientation session and attended both a workers’ rights training session and an organizing training session. Core members have attended these training sessions and at least eight meetings. Only active and core members are eligible for most benefits. Requiring a high level of activism for someone to be a member makes it harder to increase membership numbers, however. Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) in San Francisco and Oakland revised its membership structure after twenty-five years to

Building Membership Structures

allow four levels of membership: “member,” “active member,” “leader,” and “organizer.” To become a basic member, a woman must sign a membership card agreeing to support the organization’s mission, participate in a short orientation, and start to pay dues. The other levels of membership require deeper investment of time and specialized training and allow members to take on greater leadership roles. Once MUA clarified its membership structure, more workers joined at the basic member level, and there was a clear pathway for all who wanted to move into deeper leadership to do so.

Benefits for Members Worker centers offer many benefits to their members, including: Democratic participation Every worker center with a membership involves those members in making decisions about the work of the organization. Most worker centers have members elect some board members. Some centers have members elect all the board members, although most centers want a variety of community leaders, including worker center members themselves, on the boards. Very large membership organizations have leaders elected to their boards through their active issue committees. Many day laborer worker centers have the day laborer members vote on leaders who run and operate the hiring halls. The members decide the rules for the hiring hall, the standards by which workers can be hired, and the process for deciding who gets jobs that come in. Jobs Day labor centers that have hiring halls only allow members to get referred out for jobs. Training and leadership development opportunities All worker centers offer training and leadership development opportunities for workers. These opportunities include: • Job skills development. Many centers offer job skills development, particularly centers that have sector focuses. For example, centers that focus on restaurant workers offer training in skills to help people move into fine dining establishments. Centers that serve day laborers offer training in building trades. Centers that serve domestic workers offer training in using safe cleaning products. • Workers’ rights education. All worker centers offer training to workers on their rights in the workplace. This always includes wage and hour issues and health and safety rights, but it can also include training on discrimination, sexual harassment, and other issues. • English classes. Most worker centers that serve immigrant workers provide some English classes. This is a great way to get workers in the door and meet the needs of immigrants. • Political education. Many worker center leaders are very intentional about helping their members understand and talk about the political and economic structures that are oppressing workers. This training is always done in a popular education format that draws from the wisdom and experience of workers. See appendix E for suggestions. • Expungement workshops. The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative and the Workers Center for Racial Justice partnered in offering their members workshops on expunging criminal records.

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Access to attorneys A growing number of worker centers have attorneys on staff or formal partnerships with attorneys. Only members are allowed access to these attorneys. Immigration assistance Larger worker centers often offer some level of immigration assistance, such as completing DACA forms. ID cards Many worker centers provide workers with photo ID cards. For immigrants who struggle to get good identification materials, these ID cards are important. Many centers are beginning to use the ID cards to keep track of workers’ involvement in training sessions and activities through swiping technology. (See chapter 21 for a description of the Machete database distributed by NDLON.)

Membership Discounts The worker centers with the largest memberships offer a wide array of services and have deep discounts for members in such a way that people find it in their self-interest to become members and get the discounted rates. By far the two largest worker centers are Casa de Maryland, with 67,000 members, and Make the Road, with 16,000 members. Both are very clear about offering super discounts for services so the people who want the services have to become members. Both organizations charge modest fees for their services. For example, Make the Road has a goal of helping ten thousand people file for DAPA (Deferred Action for Parental Accountability), the special immigration program for parents. Make the Road, with a lifetime membership fee of $120, plans to charge $250 for members and $450 for nonmembers. Casa de Maryland, with dues of $35 per year, plans to charge $200 for members and $300 for nonmembers. If you are a nonmember and want the assistance, you would save money by becoming a member. See more in chapter 26 on combining services and organizing, but it certainly appears that taking membership to scale requires careful consideration of the benefits of membership.

Member Meetings and Engagement Worker centers that have grown their membership numbers significantly have a high level of membership involvement in the work. These centers have: Lots of meetings Worker centers that engage many people have lots of meetings. The Congress of Day Laborers at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice meets weekly and regularly draws three hundred to four hundred workers. Its meetings are completely worker-led. Make the Road has thirteen active committees and each meets weekly. The committees plan their own actions and regularly undertake direct actions involving twenty-five to fifty people. Leader teams meet monthly and coordinate the work between the committees and plan for organization-wide actions. In addition to all these meetings, the organization also has quarterly meetings that are open to all members to discuss the overall direction of the center. Casa de Maryland has seventeen committees, and each has campaigns it is working on. All the committees come together and have representatives on the organization-wide Human Rights Committee. Some committees meet monthly, and others meet more often. Fe y Justice has five committees that meet monthly plus a monthly general meeting.

Building Membership Structures

Casa Latina has weekly meetings of its Worker Assembly that draw on average about sixty workers, plus weekly meetings of the Worker Board of Directors and weekly meetings of the Domestic Worker Leadership Program. Dynamic campaigns Workers are drawn to organizations that win on issues they care about. The best campaigns for building membership seem to be ones that are a bit bold and that address concerns about which members feel passionate. Of course, there must be a carefully considered strategy for how to win. Centro de Trabajadores en Lucha, in Minneapolis/St Paul, dramatically grew its membership as it took on trying to change the entire retail cleaning sector. Taking on Target, with members undertaking a dramatic hunger strike, catapulted the organization into citywide recognition. Casa de Maryland has led campaigns over the years to raise the state minimum wage, pass the Maryland Dream Act, and fight for immigration reform—all big-picture issues that its members care deeply about. Workers Defense Project in Austin, which has focused on construction workers, has accumulated a long list of campaign victories—all of which were led and mostly designed by workers. Campaigns it has won include six landmark agreements with Austin developers to expand safety protections, hiring requirements, and living wages and monitoring, passage of Texas’s first misclassification protection law, passage of city and county economic development policies that raise standards on construction work, establishment of safety training for workers on city contracts, paid rest breaks for Austin’s sixty thousand construction workers, and increased tax and fraud investigations undertaken by the Texas Workforce Commission. Community building As more and more Americans are “bowling alone,” worker centers are countering national trends by building community among workers.1 Successful membership-building programs often create ways for workers to get to know one another and foster community. Fe y Justicia’s membership committees meet in people’s homes. Make the Road’s committees often serve food. Workers Defense Project members have dances in the center’s building and organize soccer games outside. Community building happens through solidarity actions, but it also develops through intentional activities. Many leadership roles. Worker centers that grow their memberships usually have lots of leadership roles. As discussed in chapter 10, you not only need to have training programs that help people become strong leaders, but you must have many leadership roles for people to fill. Each of Fe y Justicia’s committees has three leadership roles. Some worker centers that have found it easier to recruit new members than to keep older ones engaged have created staff positions to focus on keeping members engaged and renewing. Fe y Justicia has a part-time membership coordinator who calls all members to make sure dues get paid and people are involved. Arise Chicago has a membership coordinator whose job it is to keep members engaged. This coordinator provides systematic training for workers and engages members in actions. These positions have increased retention and engagement.

1. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Touchstone Books, 2001) describes how many Americans are becoming disconnected from people. Large percentages of the population are no longer involved in congregations, book clubs, block clubs, or bowling leagues. People are now “bowling alone” and not in groups.

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C3 and C4 Membership Most worker centers are structured solely as 501c3 nonprofit organizations, and when workers are recruited as members, they are recruited as members of the 501c3 operation. Some worker centers are reconsidering this approach. As was described in chapter 9, if you are a 501c3 organization, you can do a modest amount of lobbying but no partisan electoral activities. If you are a 501c4 organization, you can do an unlimited amount of social welfare lobbying (advocating what you believe is the common good), and you can do some electoral work as long as it is not your primary purpose and you don’t spend more than half your money on it. (Some recommend keeping your partisan work to no more than 30 to 40 percent of the budget, just to be safe.) For great information on what you can and cannot do as a 501c4, see the Alliance for Justice’s resources created in its “Bolder Advocacy” Project. Visit www. bolderadvocacy.org and download some great resources on the subject. When someone joins Casa de Maryland, one becomes a member of both Casa de Maryland (a 501c3 organization) and Casa in Action (a 501c4 organization). One’s thirty-five-dollar dues payment is split between the 501c3, which gets 65 percent, and the 501c4, which gets 35 percent. Make the Road’s primary membership, which enables people to participate in the work and services of the organization, is $120 for life. As also previously mentioned, there are approximately sixteen thousand members of this c3 membership organization. In addition, Make the Road has a c4 Action Fund that people can also join. This fund, which requires no membership dues, has ten thousand members.

Membership Growth Examples Fe y Justicia (Houston) Fe y Justicia Worker Center describes itself as a safe space for low-wage workers to learn about their rights in the workplace and organize to improve working conditions on the job. From 2008 to 2015, the center grew its membership to one thousand members. Members are low-wage workers who share the organization’s mission, commit to being involved in membership meetings (at least six a year), and participate in one fund-raising activity. Fe y Justicia developed a neighborhood membership structure that grew out of its wage theft fight in which the organization figured out where its members lived in order to organize meetings with city councilors. Each month, all five neighborhood membership groups meet. Each meeting is hosted in a member’s home. The meetings are structured in order to encourage social interaction, address neighborhood concerns, and connect people with broader strategies. Each neighborhood membership group has a coordinator (who works on the agenda and turnout), a host (who physically hosts the meeting), and a supplement (who supports the coordinator in planning and leading a good meeting). Each neighborhood group has its own Facebook group. Fe y Justicia encourages people to join and pay their thirty-five-dollar membership dues. These dues not only support the work but are also required in order to participate in training sessions, on topics such as CPR and technology. These sessions are free to members, and nonmembers cannot participate. In the center’s workplace justice program, workers can get help with wage theft or health and safety concerns without being a member, but if a person wants higher levels

Building Membership Structures

of support and help, such as someone accompanying the worker to small claims court or organizing an action to support the worker in recovering unpaid wages, he or she must be a member. Fe y Justicia has a membership coordinator who keeps track of who is and is not a member and actively encourages membership renewals. The organization has tried various ways of encouraging renewals, including calling members on the month when their membership expires and calling everyone at the end of the year or the beginning of the year about renewal. The organization’s leaders do not feel it has yet developed a great system for renewals. At the organization’s annual meeting in November, only members are allowed to vote on board members. Names are checked on the membership list, and only those who are current in paying their dues are given ballots. Somos un Pueblo Unido (New Mexico) Somos, founded in 1995, is a statewide community-based and immigrant-led organization that promotes worker and racial justice. Initially the organization was a Santa Fe–focused immigrant rights organization, but in order to address statewide issues it needed to build a statewide organization. Somos’s membership is organized into ten teams. Most of the teams outside Santa Fe focus on a range on immigrant issues, such as race relations and law enforcement, as well as wage theft. In Santa Fe, the membership team is the United Workers Committee. It focuses primarily on work-related issues and formed a worker center in 2012. The worker center and the committee lead the organization’s advocacy on living wages and wage theft, help workers address wage theft, and help workers organize worker committees. See chapter 28 for more details on this important work. The membership teams around the state work together on determining and implementing statewide strategies to improve lives for immigrants in New Mexico. Somos’s dues are twenty dollars a year. Anyone can become a member, but if you want to form a work-site committee (and be assisted by the organization) or work with one of the membership teams, you must become a member. Dues can be paid with cash, check, or credit card. Somos does not yet have a strong system for ensuring annual renewals. From 2010 through 2014, 2,800 people paid dues or donated to the organization. Make the Road (New York City) Make the Road was created in the fall of 2007 through the merger of Make the Road by Walking (MRBW) and the Latin American Integration Center (LAIC). Make the Road by Walking was founded in 1997 in to help immigrant welfare recipients address disruptions in their public benefits under the new welfare reform. MRBW combined community organizing and leadership development with high-quality legal and support services. When the merger occurred, MRBW had strong organizing and services programs and a strong track record of winning citywide policy changes on welfare. The Latin American Integration Center was founded in 1992 by Colombian immigrants seeking to promote and protect human and civil rights of Latino immigrants and encourage their civic participation in New York City. Over the years, the LAIC developed into a dynamic grassroots organization, combining education, support services, and advocacy in areas of school reform, access to health care, and immigration reform. LAIC’s pioneering community-led citizenship campaigns were some of the largest such drives New York City had ever seen and helped more than ten thousand New Yorkers become U.S. citizens.

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When the organizations merged, the new Make the Road had no formal membership base but clearly had strong programmatic community engagement upon which to build. Its leaders decided to systematize an approach to membership. The board of directors set a lifetime membership fee of $120 and decided to require membership in order for people to receive services or discounts for services. Depth of engagement in the community and breadth of services combined to encourage and grow the membership. Casa de Maryland (Maryland) The worker center that has truly taken membership to scale is Casa de Maryland. Until 2009, the organization’s membership had never reached ten thousand. At that point, Casa’s leaders made an intentional shift in how they thought about and recruited people for membership. The shift in membership focus was piloted in Baltimore and then moved throughout the organization. The core features of the program are that membership: • Is open to immigrants and allies who support Casa’s values. The website says, “Members are immigrants and other Marylanders who work to build power to improve the quality of life for immigrants in Maryland.” • Offers an ID card. This is a helpful feature for many immigrants. • Gives members access to lots of free services. Nonmembers cannot receive many of the services. • Provides deep discounts to other services that immigrants want, such as ESL classes. • Is easy to access and understand. Forms and information are all available online. A few programs really helped build the organization’s membership base. When Casa de Maryland first announced its DACA events, thousands of young immigrants lined up. Casa signed up members on the spot. Since its leaders first began building the center’s membership base, Casa has had a constant presence in the media and regularly promotes membership benefits and concerns.

Helping Workers Organize Work-site Committees or Unions

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Worker center leaders recognize that the best way for workers to address a range of problems they experience in their workplaces is for them to organize. Although most worker centers organize a broad range of workers, regularly pressure some of the most egregious employers to pay workers their wages or address dangerous working conditions, and work to pass policies that raise standards for workers or strengthen enforcement against wage theft, some centers are also helping workers build permanent structures in their workplaces to address problems in an ongoing fashion. There are two main ways this is happening: by building workplace committees through a citywide structure and by supporting workers in organizing unions.

Organizing Work-site Committees Somos un Pueblo Unido has the most experience in developing work-site committees. Even though the work is still relatively new, these have enormous potential for rebuilding a worker movement, and thus the model and its history are explained below. Since its founding in 1995, Somos has always helped workers address workplace problems. It has assisted workers in recovering unpaid wages, led the minimum wage fight in Santa Fe, and helped passed a statewide wage theft bill. In 2008, fourteen workers from a Hilton Hotel were concerned about a variety of problems in their workplace so they started talking together about the problems and eventually collectively met with the local manager to try to address some of the problems. Instead of dealing with the issues, the manager fired the workers in the middle of their shifts. Not surprisingly, the workers went to Somos immediately. Somos organized a protest to support the workers and a press event at which it announced that the workers were filing complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administrative, and the National Labor Relations Board. The EEOC complaint didn’t go anywhere. OSHA didn’t find any problems when it visited (after it had informed the employer that it was coming). But the NLRB took the firing of the workers in retaliation for their concerted activity very seriously. With a strong NLRB ruling requiring the employer to pay the workers their owed wages and reinstate them, Somos helped the workers negotiate back wages and a settlement in lieu of reinstatement. Most of the workers didn’t want to return to the workplace. Somos and the workers were pleasantly surprised to find that the NLRB could help protect workers. 253

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The National Labor Relations Act says, “It is declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.” The act says, “Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” When folks come together to engage in concerted activities, it is illegal (called an unfair labor practice) for an employer to: (1) Interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of these rights. (2) Dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it (but the employer can meet with workers during working hours). (3) Discriminate in regard to the hiring or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization. (4) Fire or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he or she has filed charges or given testimony under the NLRA. (5) Refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his employees. In practice, the NLRB protects groups of two or more workers who come together to address problems in their workplace. Somos and its United Workers Committee realized that small groups of workers could affect change in their workplaces and be protected against firing and retaliation if they were intentional about forming a committee. Somos began calling such small groups “work-site committees.” Since 2008, Somos has assisted workers in approximately forty work sites form worksite committees. All members of the committees must be or become Somos members for the organization to work with them. Here is what generally occurs: A small group meets A small group of workers (often three to five) meet and talk about their concerns in the workplace. Somos explains the process it recommends. The group names itself A group should give itself a name in order to demonstrate that it is an organized group (the First Clean Work-site Committee, for example). Group members sign an agreement with one another The group members sign an agreement with one another that outlines their commitment to work together, pledge to only meet collectively with the employer about problems, and pledge their willingness to contribute a portion of any back wages, settlement, or penalties that are recovered to Somos if Somos is unable to get its legal fees covered. Letter is written Somos helps the group write a letter to the employer outlining the problems and desired solutions. Signatures are gathered All the group members sign the letter, and they seek additional signatures from coworkers on the letter.

Helping Workers Organize Work-site Committees or Unions

Letter is sent The letter is sent to the boss by certified mail. Copies are kept by the organization. Worker are prepped Workers are prepped through role-playing how to respond to the boss and deal with possible retaliation. Workers document what happens Somos works with the work-site committee to carefully document every meeting and every incident that appears like discrimination or retaliation. Workers give notice if there is retaliation If there does appear to be retaliation, Somos helps workers send a letter to the employer that begins, “As a result of our collective concerted activity.” Often this will get the employer to meet with the workers and Somos. A complaint is filed with the NLRB If the employer will not meet with the workers and Somos, the work-site committee files the complaint with the NLRB and Somos helps put together all the documents regarding what has happened. Somos publicizes the results Somos always publicizes wins because it encourages other workers to stand up and discourages other employers from retaliating against workers. As of early 2015, Somos had filed twelve complaints with the NLRB, and the agency had issued charges in eleven of those cases. As Somos has gotten known in Santa Fe for this work, employers have begun to recognize that if they don’t meet with workers and discuss working conditions they could face NLRB charges. Representatives from the work-site committees are encouraged to participate in the United Workers Committee that meets monthly. Marcela Diaz, the director of Somos, estimates that approximately a fourth of all workers engaged through the work-site committees get involved in the broader work of the organization, but all those involved have experienced the power of collective action. Santa Fe is a town with very few unions. Somos organizers would never suggest that these work-site committees are as good for workers as a union, but in the absence of unions they are giving workers increased voice and protection. Quite a few workers centers are helping workers file NLRB charges for concerted activity retaliation. The Madison Workers’ Rights Center has helped workers file dozens of complaints as a means for addressing workplace problems. For example, a group of housekeepers were fired because they were preparing a petition to complain about problems with a manager. The workers came to the center, filed an NLRB complaint, and won back pay and reinstatement (the workers chose a cash settlement since they had found better jobs). In another example, a worker at a Chipotle restaurant raised concerns on behalf of his coworkers. He was fired and then filed an NLRB complaint with the center’s help. The NLRB found merit in his complaint. The company offered $5,000 for him to walk away, but he wanted his job back and wanted to show his coworkers that sometimes workers can beat the boss. “Concerted activity” is a very powerful tool that more worker centers should use. Using the process to create a permanent worker committee or to connect workers with unions helps create long-term protection for workers and not simply an immediate resolution of complaints.

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Connecting Workers with Unions Many workers who organize to get their back wages or to address health and safety issues end up deciding that they’d like to have more protections and benefits in their workplaces than are provided by many employers and are required under federal and states laws. (U.S. workers have the fewest core legal standards of any industrialized country in the world.) They also understand that unions have a wealth of resources, knowledge, and experience that can help them and that it would be good to learn from other workers in similar sectors. Consequently, many workers ask worker centers to connect them with unions that operate (or might consider operating) in their sectors. Some of these connections have led to workers organizing unions and getting contracts. Here are a few examples of worker center work with unions. Golan’s Movers, Arise Chicago, and the Teamsters In 2013, Shelly Ruzicka, an Arise Chicago staff person, was asked to meet movers at the apartment of a friend who was moving cross-country and had already left. Shelly started talking with the movers from Golan’s, a company based in nearby Skokie, and heard from them about terrible working conditions. Workers had to work off the clock, unpaid, from the time they arrived at the company site early in the morning until they were sent out to a customer’s house. If a worker was promoted, the company deducted $500 from the worker’s paycheck. In addition, workers complained about abusive treatment and routine fines deducted from paychecks, such as a fine for damage to a truck. Shelly urged the workers to visit Arise Chicago and learn what their rights were. Arise Chicago met multiple times with increasingly larger numbers of workers over a period of a few weeks. Its organizers educated workers on their right to be paid fairly and their right to organize a union. The workers wanted the wage theft to stop, but they also wanted to form a union in order to address the full range of problems. Since these workers were movers, the logical union to put them in touch with was Teamsters Local 705. Teamster organizers met with the workers and worked with a committee of workers to get cards signed indicating workers’ desire to be represented by Local 705. In December 2013, the workers voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the local. Although Arise Chicago had recruited the workers as worker center members and introduced them to the union, the Teamsters took full charge of organizing the workers into their union. Local 705 negotiated with Golan’s for six months and got nowhere.  The workers believed Golan’s was unlikely to give them a contract without a fight.  The workers decided to go on strike (an unfair labor practice strike). Eighty-two of the one hundred workers joined the picket line. Workers who were still in touch with Arise Chicago asked it to help get the company back to the bargaining table. Arise Chicago sprang into action and mobilized hundreds of community supporters to participate in weekend rallies. It organized support for a wage theft ordinance in Skokie and then had Golan’s workers testify about the company’s wage theft. It created the Skokie Worker Advocacy Team to provide community support for the striking workers. The owners of Golan’s were active in the Jewish community so Arise Chicago engaged rabbis and Jewish leaders to talk with them about Jewish values around work and payment. Arise Chicago and community supporters focused their efforts on getting the company to negotiate in good faith and resolve the problems.

Helping Workers Organize Work-site Committees or Unions

After six months on strike, including cold and snowy Chicago months, the Teamsters and Golan’s reached an agreement. The Teamsters negotiated the contract. Arise Chicago helped ensure that Golan’s would get back to the bargaining table. Golan’s workers are now active members of Arise Chicago and the Teamsters. Janitors, Centro Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, and SEIU Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) in Minneapolis/St. Paul began in 2005 as a project of Workers Interfaith Network (WIN) with the goal of supporting low-wage workers who faced problems such as unjust firings or wage theft. Initially the project served mainly as a service for low-wage workers, focusing on resolving immediate workplace issues mainly through legal means. In 2007, the center shifted from being a service organization to a base-building organization by focusing on empowering low-wage workers to lead a movement aimed at achieving fair and equitable wages, working conditions, and treatment for all. Although the center still helps workers recover unpaid wages and get reinstatement after unjust firings, it now focuses much more on organizing. Toward the end of 2008, active workers formed the Mesa Organizadora (the Organizing Table) to lead the center’s organizing work. After six months of conversation and deliberation, Mesa Organizadora decided to initiate a campaign to address the root problems of worker exploitation in the retail cleaning sector. The Campaign for Justice in Retail Cleaning kicked off in 2010. The goals of the campaign were to gain fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace. Workers with CTUL initially used the strategy of approaching stores directly, calling on the companies to adopt a code of conduct for the contracted cleaning of stores— similar to the model of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and its work supporting tomato pickers. At that time, there were a couple of dozen cleaning companies in fierce competition over contracts. SEIU represented janitors in most of the downtown office buildings but had no members in the retail cleaning sector. Across the board wages were awful, wage theft was rampant, benefits were negligible, and working conditions were dehumanizing. Workers approached stores with letters, phone calls, and delegations but got no response. Workers then led a three-mile march, followed by a twelve-day hunger strike in 2011. Thanks to this pressure, the campaign raised wages across the industry by around fift y cents an hour and caused the consolidation of the industry down to four cleaning companies controlling around 75 percent of the retail cleaning industry in the Twin Cities area. Workers then decided to change strategies, although they still sought the same goals—fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace. Rather than seeking a code of conduct from the stores, workers decided they wanted to organize a union and needed the ability to organize without fear and intimidation. Throughout all this work, SEIU was an active supporter of the janitors. Janitors in the retail sector knew janitors in buildings represented by SEIU. When the retail janitors decided that the best way for them to gain more power and improve conditions for themselves and their families was to organize a union, the logical union was SEIU, given how many janitors it represents nationwide. In early 2012, workers started directly pressuring their cleaning companies to win union representation. After a series of actions against cleaning companies over the next

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year and a half, including a series of strikes in 2013, the Target Corporation contacted CTUL and asked to meet. Over the next year, CTUL members urged Target to adopt a responsible contractor policy for the contracted cleaning of its stores in the Twin Cities metro area. This was significant, because at the time Target contracted with three of the four largest cleaning companies in the metro area to clean its stores. Target adopted new language in a responsible contractor policy that: • protected and ensured workers’ rights to collectively bargain with their employers; • ensured that workers have the right to form safety committees in the workplace made up of at least 50 percent of workers who are designated by their co-workers; and • ensured that workers are not forced to work seven days a week. CTUL then asked the Target Corporation to help it in reaching out to other retailers in the city to also adopt the responsible contractor Policy. This policy is the first of its kind in retail cleaning in the nation, and thus it is significant for workers beyond the estimated one thousand retail janitors in the Twin Cities. Soon after Target adopted the policy, Kellermeyer Bergensons Services (KBS), one of the cleaning companies that cleans Best Buy stores in the Twin Cities, signed an agreement with SEIU Local 26, and the workers at KBS joined the union. SEIU Local 26 then began dialogue with the other two cleaning companies that cleaned Target stores. Because CTUL is a 501c3 it cannot and does not organize unions. It can and does help workers understand what unions are and what their rights as workers are in terms of organizing. CTUL does really deep leadership development work with leaders, which helps them gain the courage and confidence to take on companies like Target. CTUL and SEIU have both been very careful in following the laws around what CTUL organizers can and cannot do. For example, no CTUL staff member does anything related to collecting union cards. All that work is done by union organizers. SEIU, not CTUL, represents the workers in collective bargaining, which is 501c5 union activity. CTUL continues to provide leadership development training and support for workers, which is clearly 501c3 activity. CTUL had hoped that the retail janitors could be dual members of both CTUL and SEIU, but lawyers advising CTUL say they cannot be dual members. CTUL and SEIU are working on an agreement in which SEIU will provide a per-member contribution to support CTUL’s leadership development and training work with members. This is perfectly legal, acceptable, and appropriate. Retail workers, Make the Road, and RWDSU By 2004, Make the Road was a thriving worker center and community organization that successfully integrated social services, legal advocacy, policy work, and community organizing. Make the Road and many of its members believed workers needed stronger protection in the workplace— the kind of protection best offered by union contracts. Over the years, Make the Road organizers and attorneys had met with lots of workers from retail stores that cheated workers. With one of its strongest bases in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a community with lots of small retail businesses and widespread wage theft, Make the Road decided to partner with the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union (RWDSU), which is now a division of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW).

Helping Workers Organize Work-site Committees or Unions

Make the Road formed Despierta Bushwick (Wake up Bushwick) and began door-knocking in the blocks surrounding a densely packed two-block retail section along Knickerbocker Avenue. Make the Road members knocked on more than six thousand doors and talked with thousands of residents about working conditions in the retail sector. Residents understood the problems and quickly signed pledge cards indicating their willingness to boycott stores that didn’t respect workers’ rights to organize. Door-knockers also gathered information about which stores they patronized. Meanwhile, RWDSU systematically talked with workers in the two-block retail section. Lots of wage theft problems came to light, and claims were fi led for unpaid wages with the New York State Attorney General’s Office. The campaign came to a head in August 2005, in the midst of back-to-school shopping. Make the Road sent a letter to two of the chain stores that employed many workers. The letter urged them to stop their practices of wage theft, allow workers to organize without fear and intimidation, and sign a pledge agreeing to stop illegal behavior and allow workers to organize. If not, Make the Road would mobilize residents to boycott the stores. One store closed rather than address its problems. The other store signed the agreement. RWDSU went to work and bargained a contract covering about one hundred workers. This raised wages three dollars per hour and got workers health insurance, paid sick days, and vacation days. Once again the roles were clear. Make the Road identified the businesses and some of the workers through its community contacts. Make the Road organized to make sure that workers’ right to organize without fear and intimidation was respected. RWDSU organized the workers and negotiated the contract. Bakery workers, Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, and Bakers Local 1 Because of its focus on temporary workers, the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative (CWC) discovered that the bakery sector had become largely staffed by temporary workers. In 2013, the CWC coordinated with Bakers Local 1 to develop a campaign called Justice for Bakery Workers, to support bakery and confectionary workers in the greater Chicago area. In a period of roughly one year, Bakers Local 1 won two different union elections and began engaging a bakery company in a third campaign. One of the union victories was at the recently reopened Hostess facility in a northwestern Chicago suburb. Hostess had declared bankruptcy earlier and shut down nationally, only to reopen months later and require all new hires to go through SelectRemedy, a national temp staffing agency. While Bakers Local 1 focused on the organizing and union election campaigns, CWC’s community organizer focused on helping both the direct-hire and temp staffing workers to understand their labor rights (such as the right to organize without fear of retaliation), laws governing temp workers, and other laws regarding wages and working conditions. This dual approach showed how coordination between organizing direct-hires and temp workers can result in gains for low-wage workers. Justice for Bakery Workers also showed that unions and community-based organizations can be effective in improving the lives of low-wage workers’ families, even when temporary staffing workers are part of the workforce. Anyone who has done much work in the field of worker rights knows that the laws protecting workers are weak and enforcement of the laws spotty at best. The best

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protection for workers is a union. The second best is some other form of association in which workers join together in asserting their rights. Worker centers can help workers learn how to organize and connect them with unions who can represent them or help them figure out new structures, like Somos has done. Addressing immediate problems, like wage theft, is good. Creating ongoing structures that enable workers to have voice in the workplace is better.

Partnering with Lawyers

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Although a few worker centers, like the Workplace Project in Long Island and the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights in Greenville, Mississippi, were started by attorneys, most worker centers are started by community organizers and activists who are either low-wage workers themselves or closely connected with low-wage workers and frustrated with the systematic mistreatment of so many workers. Most worker centers quickly connect with attorneys who share their values and develop ways to working together. Progressive attorneys have always partnered with organizers and have been an essential partner in the civil rights movement.

Why Partner with Attorneys Worker centers partner with labor and employment (worker-side) attorneys for many reasons. Labor and employment attorneys: Share values Most worker-side and union-side attorneys share the core values of the center and want to help. Know the law. Lawyers know (or should know) the law Worker centers don’t exclusively work on legal issues, but they often focus on wage theft and health and safety problems, which are areas in which there are clear and relatively strong laws protecting workers. The laws are not effectively enforced, but they exist. When a worker center is new, it often creates a workers’ rights manual or offers workers’ rights classes. A worker-side lawyer can help in creating the materials or curriculum and teaching classes. Understand enforcement systems Attorneys who represent workers on a regular basis know how the local, state, and federal enforcement systems work or don’t work. They can help you navigate the systems and know how things really work. At the point when your organization wants to change the enforcement system, perhaps through a campaign or legislation, attorneys can help you think about what might work and craft legislation if needed. Help workers There are many situations in which either individual workers or groups of workers need the representation of an attorney. You should be able to offer this as an option to workers. Protect workers who organize Nothing is more important than protecting your leaders. Workers who step forward to challenge unjust systems and organize their coworkers are often targeted for firing, discipline, deportation, or other forms of retaliation. 261

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Worker centers must have a wide variety of ways to protect workers, and attorneys can help. Enhance organizing campaigns Friendly lawyers can help you think about organizing campaigns and also explore whether there are ways the law and legal action might support and enhance your organizing work. Assist in set up As was covered in chapter 9, there is a fair amount of work that needs to be done to establish a nonprofit organization. Even though labor lawyers don’t necessarily know nonprofit law, they probably know other attorneys who can provide pro bono assistance in establishing your nonprofit. Defend you Many worker centers eventually find themselves sued or have their files subpoenaed by employers and employer associations that don’t like the work they are doing. It is nice to have lawyer friends who can help defend you. Limit your liability Because there are opponents out there that seek to undermine the important work being done by worker centers, worker centers must be careful and do their best to limit areas of vulnerability where opposing forces could attack them. All states have laws that restrict non-lawyers from giving legal advice to people. These laws vary greatly by state, but the definitions can be very broad. (See how each state defines this at “State Definitions of the Practice of Law,” American Bar Association, www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/ migrated/cpr/model-def/model_def_statutes.authcheckdam.pdf.) Worker centers need to be very careful that they do not have non-lawyers handing out legal advice and that there are clear statements given to workers explaining that your volunteers are not lawyers (unless they actually are). Lawyers can help you address this potential vulnerability. Review letters and flyers It is wonderful to have attorney colleagues who can quickly review letters, flyers, or other documents and flag potential concerns. Raise funds Attorneys can help you raise funds. Most small worker-side law firms do not have huge capacity, but their attorneys can certainly make individual contributions. Attorneys know other attorneys, so attorneys in small firms can often connect you with more prosperous firms.

Sometimes Challenging Partnerships Historically there are tensions between organizers and attorneys. Some attorneys, leaning too much toward legal caution, have discouraged organizers from using a variety of legitimate tactics. Organizers, on the other hand, have accused attorneys of disempowering workers, undermining organizing campaigns, siphoning off leaders, and operating arrogantly toward workers and organizers. Sometimes these accusations have been accurate. Lawyers have accused organizers of distorting facts, manipulating workers into taking on campaigns without understanding fully the potential legal consequences, and giving workers legal advice without having a law degree. Sometimes these accusations have also been accurate. One ethical issue that often arises is around the lawyer’s role in advocating what is best for his or her clients versus what is best for all workers or best for pushing a campaign forward. Worker centers handle this in a variety of ways. One worker center attorney talks

Partnering with Lawyers

with workers ahead of time and explains that the overarching goal of the center is to improve working conditions for all workers and that it uses cases to reach that goal. If individual workers don’t agree with that approach, they may get referred to private attorneys. Regardless of the historical tensions, thoughtful attorneys and organizers recognize the need to cooperate. Many of the strongest worker centers in the nation, such as Casa de Maryland, Make the Road, and the Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, have multiple attorneys on staff and clearly view their legal services as important and connected to their organizing work. Increasingly, emerging worker centers, such as Workers Defense Project and Somos un Pueblo Unido, have hired their own attorneys on staff and are trying to build legal programs that support their organizing programs. In Chicago, seven worker centers banded together to form the Raise the Floor Alliance (www.raisetheflooralliance.org), which has a legal arm that serves all the centers. In addition, organizations that started primarily as legal clinics, such as the Equal Justice Center in Washington, D.C., have hired organizers and are looking more like worker centers than merely legal clinics. The most thoughtful discussion of the legal-organizing challenges is presented in “A Legal Clinic and Organizing,” chapter 5 in Jennifer Gordon’s Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005). Gordon, the founder of the Workplace Project in Long Island, outlines the benefits of the legal clinic and the ways in which it can (and often did) undermine organizing. During her tenure at the Workplace Project, various legal clinic models were adopted. The chapter also reviews the important way the United Farm Workers used legal services.

Kinds of Attorneys There are many kinds of attorneys. In small rural communities there may not be many attorneys, but in most urban areas there is a fair amount of specialization among attorneys. Worker centers tend to work with: Union/labor attorneys Union attorneys either work directly for unions or work for firms that work primarily or sometimes exclusively with unions. These attorneys know laws related to the National Labor Relations Act very well. Most of them also have a solid understanding of wage and hour laws (needed for dealing with wage theft) and health and safety laws. Employment law attorneys Employment law attorneys tend to deal with individual worker problems, although some of them also handle class action suits in which multiple workers are affected. There are four main types of employment attorneys that worker centers deal with, although many of them switch back and forth between different laws. There are attorneys who practice: • Wage and hour law. This is the term for laws covering minimum wage, overtime, and problems related to wage theft. Many worker centers have very close ties with these attorneys. • Workers’ compensation law. Each state has its own workers’ compensation law, and it tends to be fairly complicated. Thus, attorneys tend to specialize in this field and develop whole practices around workers’ compensation. The attorneys are called “workers’ comp lawyers.” Most worker centers refer all workers’ compensation concerns directly to workers’ comp attorneys because the issues are hard for worker centers to deal with.

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Workers’ comp lawyers will take a case for a portion of the settlement, so workers don’t have to pay anything upfront. If a lawyer takes a case, she or he thinks it is winnable. • Discrimination law. Some attorneys file suits for workers based on the employment discrimination laws enforced federally by the EEOC and by various state agencies. Most discrimination cases are individual cases, but there are many sectors that discriminate against women and people of color. There probably should be many more class actions, but they are often difficult to prove. Many immigrant workers who come to worker centers are the victim of various forms of discrimination, but they often are more focused on wage theft and health and safety issues than on the discriminatory practices. In addition, some of the remedies for discrimination cases, such as reinstatement, don’t apply for undocumented immigrant workers. Many African American workers are excluded from work in some low-wage industries for discriminatory reasons. • Unemployment insurance law. Attorneys help workers get the unemployment insurance they are owed, although in some states you do not have to be an attorney to help individuals appeal unemployment decisions and attend appeal hearing with them. Many workers do not understand that they are usually eligible for unemployment when they are laid off and often times when they are fired. Some employers try to deny workers unemployment benefits to which they should be entitled. And some state agencies have been known to routinely deny many unemployment claims and then force workers to appeal. As people with DACA and DAPA get work permits, they will become eligible for unemployment benefits, and some benefits will be unjustly denied. Thus your center should develop connections with unemployment benefits attorneys. Immigration attorneys Most worker centers organize immigrant workers, many of whom have immigration-related problems. Some centers provide direct immigration services. Most simply refer people to attorneys or nonprofit organizations that assist with immigration-related concerns. Because there are people who prey on immigrants, promising unrealistic things and taking their money, centers can help immigrants by referring them to honest immigration attorneys. Housing attorneys Some worker centers help workers with landlord-tenant issues and mortgage foreclosure problems. Even if your center does not, you may want to refer workers, many of whom have housing problems, to appropriate attorneys and nonprofit agencies that work in this area.

Important Legal Advocacy Groups If you are trying to figure out who in your community practices worker-side law and to whom to reach out, consider visiting the websites of these important legal advocacy groups: National Employment Law Project (NELP) National Employment Law Project is a national organization, composed primarily of attorneys, that promotes policies and programs that create good jobs and strengthen workers’ rights. NELP helps worker centers design the language for proposed wage theft laws and does useful studies on wage theft and other employment problems. NELP also has a great electronic discussion list that most activist employment-side attorneys are on, and thus NELP can probably connect you with new activist attorneys. Download some of NELP’s resources at www.nelp.org.

Partnering with Lawyers

National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) National Employment Lawyers Association is the country’s largest professional organization comprised exclusively of lawyers who represent individual employees in cases involving employment discrimination, wage theft, and other employment-related matters. NELA and its sixty-nine state and local affi liates have more than four thousand members. NELA has a pro bono project that encourages its attorneys to volunteer with groups like worker centers. You can find a NELA attorney by visiting www.nela.org. Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG) Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group is the national network of attorneys who represent workers who suffer workrelated injuries or occupational illnesses. WILG networks attorneys for best practices and leads state efforts to reform and improve workers’ compensation laws. If you are looking for good workers’ compensation attorneys, this is the place to look. Visit www. wilg.org. AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (LCC) The AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee is a national membership organization of over 2,100 union-side lawyers in more than five hundred firms and union legal departments around the country. Union allies should be able to connect you with LCC members. The LCC runs several important programs to encourage law students to become union-side lawyers. For more information, visit www.lcc.aflcio.org. National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Founded in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest progressive network of public interest and human rights activists working within the legal system. NLG members are usually the lawyers who volunteer to get people out of jail at major protests. The NLG has a labor and employment committee that works directly with organized labor and other organizations that represent workers, like worker centers. For more information visit www.nlg.org or www.nlg-laboremploy-comm.org.

Ways to Partner with Attorneys There are many ways worker centers can partner and work with attorneys. Worker centers can: Create a lawyers advisory committee Some worker centers, like Arise Chicago, have legal advisory committees composed of worker-side lawyers who assist the organization. These lawyers sign a partnership agreement that outlines terms for the partnership, including shared principles, communication expectations, referral processes, and fees. Most of the attorneys take referrals from the worker center to represent the center’s members. Others offer advice informally on an as-needed basis and at annual labor advisory committee meetings. Create an exclusive partnership with a nonprofit or private firm Some worker centers have found a few attorneys that are so in line with the organizations’ values that the centers decide to have a special relationship with them—with just one firm or one legal assistance group. Justice at Work is a Boston-based nonprofit that “provides strategic workplace-related legal services to community-based worker centers in order to support and encourage lowwage immigrant worker organizing that enables workers to directly impact conditions at

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work and in their communities and families.” The eight immigrant worker centers in the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative (IWCC) partner almost exclusively with Justice at Work. Working Hands Legal Clinic was organized by three Chicago worker centers, Latino Union, Centro De Trabajadores Unidos, and Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, to serve as a nonprofit law firm to assist their members in addressing wage theft and to assist in their campaigns. Working Hands Legal Clinic and its worker center partners led a successful statewide effort to improve wage enforcement in Illinois. This clinic has now become the legal arm of the Raise the Floor Alliance, the coalition of Chicago’s worker centers, and no longer exists as a separate entity. Recruit attorneys for your board It is useful to have one or two well-connected labor or employment attorneys on your board. Prepare wage theft investigation reports The Madison Workers’ Rights Center conducts wage theft investigations for a local law firm. The organization prepares a report on workplaces that practice systemic wage theft. The report is submitted to the firm, which then pays the center an hourly rate for its work. The firm then decides on its own whether or not to contact the workers about pursuing a possible case. Partner with a law school The Indianapolis Worker Justice Center has a special partnership with the Health and Human Rights Clinic of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. The Madison Workers’ Rights Center has a long-standing partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School’s Neighborhood Law Clinic. After the center helps workers get wage determinations, law students, supervised by their professor, assist workers in going to small claims court. The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights has a ten-week legal internship program that brings seven to ten law students from the City University of New York to work in Mississippi for the summer. The students work on research, organizing, and surveys, and they greatly boost the worker center’s capacity. They learn “community lawyering” from the ground up. Law schools have many deep relationships with firms in their cities and can draw on the private bar for additional assistance when needed.

Use Legal Strategies to Support Your Campaigns Although some organizers have viewed lawyers and legal work as an impediment to organizing, arguing that providing legal support will undermine organizing efforts, many significant campaigns need the additional power and leverage that attorneys and legal advocacy can bring to them. Legal strategies can play critical roles in supporting and enhancing organizing campaigns. As J. J. Rosenbaum of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice says, “We need to embed lawyers into campaigns,” arguing that workers, organizers, and lawyers must work side-by-side to bring the best talent and a full range of creativity. Consider the following examples: Support for the Illinois Wage Payment and Collections Act campaign In 2005, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Illinois Wage Payment and Collections Act did not allow workers to hold individual owners liable for wage theft unless they could demonstrate that the violation was committed willfully or knowingly, which was a very

Partnering with Lawyers

high standard. As a result, employers that had huge wage theft judgments against them were able to file bankruptcy or reorganize in such a way as to avoid paying workers their owed wages. Many of these employers were very wealthy personally and were simply trying to avoid paying workers. In addition, the process for workers to file for their back wages was slow and cumbersome. In 2009, the leaders and members of three Chicago-based worker centers, the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, the Latino Union, and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, formed a coalition called Just Pay for All to address the problems with the Illinois Wage Payment and Collections Act. Attorneys from Working Hands Legal Clinic worked with the centers on drafting legislation to bring the standard for individual liability in line with other wage and hour statutes and to streamline the administrative process for workers. The worker centers met with legislators, testified at the state capitol, gave media interviews, and organized boots on the ground to move the legislation forward. In the middle of the campaign, the worker centers identified a case that epitomize the problems. A couple of multimillionaire hedge fund types, two brothers, bought a distressed company named Duraco. They then stiffed the workers their owed wages while claiming to be reorganizing the business. In the meantime, they paid themselves and other family members exorbitant salaries out of the company’s limited fi nances, sold off the company’s assets, and fi led for chapter 7 bankruptcy. In the end, the workers were owed more than $350,000 in unpaid wages. Working Hands agreed to represent these workers, even though everyone involved knew that they could not fi le a lawsuit against the company because of the bankruptcy. The workers decided to fi le a lawsuit against the individual owners but knew the higher standard of proof for individual liability would make it difficult to prevail. When the case was fi led, the workers protested at the company headquarters in Hanover Park, a small town northwest of Chicago. Latino and white workers united to claim their rights. Many of these workers later went to the state capitol in Springfield to rally and talk with legislators about the problems with the act. The case, combined with the protests, generated enormous media attention. Before the law was changed, the case was won against the company, but the workers could not receive any money from it, because the individual owners couldn’t be held responsible. Ultimately, the coalition of worker centers won an amazing victory to strengthen the Wage Payment and Collections Act. Even though it had proved difficult to win the case against the individual owners, the case helped highlight to legislators the loopholes in the existing law. Although the legal advocacy alone did not win the campaign, it was an important component of the campaign and certainly helped in achieving the victory. In 2014, after a five-year legal battle, the Duraco workers finally won a judgment for their owed wages against the individual owners, but the workers then had to fight to actually recover on that judgment. Working Hands, now part of the Raise the Floor Alliance, is working with its worker center members to make improvements in the law to make it easier to recover owed money. Cleaning up Chicago’s staffing agencies The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative (CWC) began working with people employed by temporary staffing agencies in 2000. Initially the work was focused on supporting Latino immigrants, but the organization quickly

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realized that many African American workers also were being exploited. The CWC decided to reorganize itself to better support both immigrant and native-born workers. Details of how this was done are outlined in chapter 17. A Temporary Workers Committee was organized, composed of both Latino immigrants and African Americans. As workers shared their stories, some startling patterns emerged. Latino immigrants were given jobs, but they were routinely cheated of wages. African Americans were systematically discriminated against and not sent to jobs. Companies appeared to be colluding with temporary agencies to deny African Americans work and only hire immigrants, whom the companies then cheated of wages. The workers’ committee developed a comprehensive strategy to recover unpaid wages and open the doors to employment for African American workers. The committee also decided that it wanted to embrace the power of the law. Workers decided to sue the companies and the temporary agencies for back wages (for the Latino workers) and discrimination against the African American workers. Several African American individuals who were denied work opportunities through temporary staffing agencies fi led class action discrimination lawsuits in federal court against five different staffing agencies and three companies. One case was tentatively settled, winning substantial back pay for African Americans who had been shut out of these jobs. The remaining cases were still pending as this book went into production. Although the CWC was not involved in the fi ling of the lawsuits, its organizing efforts gave workers the strength and courage to stand up to illegal conduct. Dozens more charges of discrimination were fi led with the EEOC, and the EEOC launched a broader investigation as a result. Because of the visibility of the CWC’s organizing efforts, several Latino dispatchers came forward who were willing to testify that the companies didn’t send African Americans to certain companies. Getting justice for CJ’s Seafood workers In 2012, workers at CJ’s Seafood, based in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, contacted the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice and the new National Guestworker Alliance, housed out of the center. The forty workers were employed under the H-2B guest worker program and processed seafood, 80 percent of which went to Walmart. Workers described being forced to work twenty-four-hour shifts, threatened if they complained about working conditions, watched via surveillance cameras at the factory and their company-owned housing, locked in the workplace at times, and not paid for all their work. This was clearly a case of forced labor and a situation that demanded a full range of approaches for addressing it. Both organizers and lawyers met with the workers, and collectively they mapped out how to protect and address the CJ’s Seafood workers’ situation but also how to use the situation to publicize the problems faced by all H-2B workers and other workers along Walmart’s supply chain. The overall strategy included worker-led organizing, mobilization of allies across the nation, and powerful legal work in support of the organizing. Throughout the campaign, workers and organizers led. Eight of the workers went on strike. Workers confronted the manager and videotaped the confrontation. Rallies were held at Sam’s Club stores and Walmart stores and letters were delivered to store managers. Online petitions to Walmart were circulated widely. Workers fasted for twenty-four hours in front of a Walmart board member’s home. Eventually Walmart leadership met with CJ’s Seafood workers. This was clearly an organizing campaign, but the embedded legal team supported the workers and the campaign throughout. The legal team helped workers file administrative

Partnering with Lawyers

complaints with OSHA on health and safety issues, the DOL Wage and Hour Division on unpaid wages, and the EEOC on discrimination. Attorneys worked on the human rights report that was published about the situation. Attorneys conducted legal analysis of the supply chain, prepared paperwork and pushed for U-Visa certification for many of the workers, and prepared safety plans for the actions. Other attorneys worked on the policy proposals for changing H2-B regulations and filed complaints to the NLRB about retaliation. Eventually the campaign, using the full range of organizing and legal approaches, protected the workers, got them compensated, and changed national policies. The Department of Labor levied $34,000 in fines for safety violations and ordered the company to pay $214,000 for wage violations. Walmart, not known for its great concern for workers along the supply chain, suspended CJ’s Seafood for violating its supply chain standards. Many of the workers got U-Visas. The case helped highlight the importance of the new DOL whistle-blower protections for H2-B workers. ROC-NY and Del Posto workers The Restaurant Opportunities Center has long combined organizing and legal work. In 2010, workers from a high-end New York City restaurant, Del Posto, complained to ROC-NY that they were not getting paid all their wages. When ROC-NY staff members met with the workers, they realized that the workers were upset about both legal issues (nonpayment of wages and discrimination) and nonlegal ones (disrespectful treatment and lack of paid sick days and vacation days). The workers and staff members mapped out an overall campaign. Workers organized multiple demonstrations outside the restaurant, usually at dinnertime. They delivered a letter to the owner. They mobilized community allies to sign petitions and pressure the owner. Workers began to speak up inside the restaurant and eventually got one abusive manager replaced. Simultaneously, a lawsuit was filed alleging wage theft due to not paying minimum wage, not paying overtime, and tip misappropriation, and a complaint was made to the EEOC about race and national origin discrimination and retaliation. Eventually the owner, celebrity chef Mario Batali, reached a settlement with ROC-NY and the Del Posto workers. The settlement resulted in $1.15 million for thirty-one workers covered by the suit, but it also established paid sick days, a promotions policy, cultural sensitivity training for managers, and expanded paid vacation. The settlement focused on the workers’ campaign priorities, which involved both legal and nonlegal matters. In the process of the campaign, ROC-NY built a relationship with Batali, who agreed that Del Posto would become a “high road employer” in the industry.

Hire Your Own Attorney and Legal Organizer The reasons to have your own attorney are fairly obvious and mirror the reasons to partner with attorneys. Having your own attorney enables a worker center to better understand the law and how enforcement systems work. Your own lawyer will not only assist workers when you want the person to do so, but also help develop strategies on how to use legal power as part of an overall campaign. Attorneys can protect your worker-leaders when they are fired or threatened with deportation because of their organizing work. Given the potential liability around practicing law without a license, hiring your own attorney can ensure that your organization is not doing this. Your lawyer can oversee all your workers’ rights education and the preparation of related materials.

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Instead of simply hiring a regular attorney who knows the law and how to practice it, try to hire a legal organizer—someone who not only assists you in providing legal advice to workers but who can also figure out how to use legal strategies as part of a larger organizing strategy and who can help organize the skills and resources of the legal community to support and enhance the work of your center. Although there are still some centers whose leaders are ideologically opposed to having attorneys on staff, the primary concern for most worker centers involves money. How can you raise the money for hiring a lawyer given how hard it is to raise the core budget of the center? Aren’t lawyers super expensive? There are many recent law school graduates who can’t find jobs and many young (and older) attorneys who want to practice social justice law. There are many folks who would jump at the chance to work for a worker center if there were even a modest salary offered. Gabriela Ibañez Guzmán in New Mexico wanted to work with Somos un Pueblo Unido because she loved the organization’s work and came from a family of previously undocumented immigrants who had experienced wage theft and workplace abuse. Somos didn’t feel like it could hire a full-time attorney right away, but it worked out an arrangement whereby she would work part time until the organization could generate some legal fees on cases and other support that could allow her to move to full-time work. Somos anticipates moving her to full-time employment as part of a DAPA implementation program. If you do plan to hire an attorney who is straight out of law school, you must find experienced attorneys who can mentor the person. Experienced lawyers who have not worked with organizers will need mentoring as well. Luckily, there are many experienced and committed attorneys who know how to partner with organizers and want to see worker centers develop their legal capacity. But hiring attorneys, even ones with modest salaries, requires fund-raising. In many communities there are funds for legal services that are different from the funds that support the rest of your worker center. Thus, you are not competing against yourself but rather raising new monies. Most social justice attorneys in your community will know what legal services funds are available in your community. Private attorneys, worker-side law firms, and other donors might also give you special start-up funds to hire an attorney. Once you get an attorney on your staff, you can: Collect legal fees If you end up taking cases to court, your attorney can get his or her legal fees covered by the other side when you win. Initially this won’t be a huge amount, but over time it can be significant. Somos un Pueblo Unido asks groups of workers represented by its attorney to decide ahead of time what percentage of a judgment or settlement fee that workers will contribute to the organization if it is not able to recoup its attorney’s fees. Generally the workers collectively decide to contribute in the 5–10 percent range. Make the Road attorneys either collect legal fees or get 15 percent of the recovery. Co-counsel with private firms This is a common arrangement for new attorneys of worker centers and other nonprofits. Usually fees are shared between the private firm and the worker center’s legal department based on the amount of work done. When you build a relationship with the private firm, it may become a long-term donor to your organization. Collect referral fees In many states, if an attorney refers a case to another attorney, the referring attorney can receive a percentage of the other attorney’s fees if the case is

Partnering with Lawyers

resolved, so long as the referral agreement complies with that state’s rules of professional conduct. In Chicago, the customary referral fee among attorneys is about 30 percent. In most states, nonlawyers are not allowed to refer cases for money. Th is could result in a significant amount of money for worker centers if handled properly. Working Hands Legal Clinic has received these fees for referrals to private attorneys in certain circumstances and then used the funds to finance legal support for worker center organizing. Negotiate with attorneys Many solo and small fi rm attorneys want to help but must be careful about taking cases that they can’t collect on. If you have an attorney on staff, he or she can help negotiate with attorneys about taking a few challenging cases as long as you also send them some cases more likely to be fruitful. Although non-attorneys could probably do this negotiation, attorneys are more comfortable working this out. Build relationships with other attorneys Attorneys know attorneys. They go to attorney networking meetings. They hang out with other attorneys. Getting a lawyer on staff will expand your networking with other attorneys and thus increase the number of possible volunteers and supporters for the organization. Charge workers Sometimes people value services more if they pay something for them. In addition, worker centers can become experts in particular types of processes and could learn to handle certain kinds of cases effectively and efficiently. Some centers are charging modest amounts to help workers process their DACA and DAPA papers. For example, Make the Road plans to charge $250 to its members and $450 for nonmembers to process the DAPA paperwork.

Don’t Let Attorneys Take Advantage of You The main asset worker centers have is access to low-wage workers. As a result, every so often there is an attorney who wants to use worker centers to his or her advantage. Some wage theft cases, particularly class actions, can be quite lucrative for attorneys. One worker center in a rural area found itself translating for the attorney, driving the workers to court, communicating regularly for the attorney to the clients (because the attorney couldn’t speak Spanish), and other additional work. The attorney collected his fees, thanked the worker center staff, and gave nothing to the center. This was not fair. Some attorneys, who have earned tens of thousands of dollars from cases referred by worker centers, have donated very modest amounts, say $50 or $100, to those centers. Attorneys who prosper from worker cases should donate generously to worker centers. Worker centers have the trust of workers. Attorneys with no long-term commitment to workers and the community cannot be allowed to waltz in, take advantage of your relationships, and make money off workers from your center without giving anything back. Be careful. Get to know the attorneys in your community and work with those who share your values, want to build the worker center, and figure out ways to support your work.

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Expand the Coalition Social change needs broad, diverse, and powerful coalitions. In most communities, unions, faith congregations, and worker centers already view themselves as partners for change. If labor and employment attorneys are not yet a substantial part of the progressive social change coalition in your community, use your relationships to bring them into the coalition, tap their wisdom and skills, and build power with and for workers.

Engaging and Honoring Ethical Employers

30

When you are building or running a worker center and hearing workers’ stories of abuse and exploitation on a daily basis, it is easy to become jaded about the business community and forget that there are many ethical business leaders who share your values. Indeed, there are wonderful business leaders in every community who could be important partners for your work. Why Build Partnerships with Ethical Employers? There are many reasons to build partnerships with good employers. Decent, ethical employers: Care about the community Good employers care about the community, like you do. It is always good to be in relationship with people who share your core values. Know their sectors. If you are working with restaurant workers, ethical restaurant owners can help you understand their industry in ways that will strengthen your work and ability to talk about and challenge the industry effectively. For example, one restaurant owner of a high-end restaurant explained that an owner could never stop wine pilfering unless he or she paid workers fairly and decently, because workers who don’t believe they are paid fairly will fi nd illicit means to increase their wages, including theft . “Shrinkage” is a huge problem in the restaurant sector. Likewise ethical construction owners can help you understand the construction sector, and so forth. Deserve positive recognition Many ethical employers, especially those who work in sectors in which wage theft is rife, deserve to have positive recognition and publicity. To the extent possible, you should encourage community members to do business with the ethical employers in the community. Contribute to community causes Most ethical business leaders contribute to community causes, either through direct contributions, workplace-giving programs, or inkind contributions. Worker centers can always use more supporters. Know many people Most employers know lots of people in the community, including many people you don’t know. They can help make connections with other business leaders and politicians when needed.

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Make good spokespeople Quite often worker centers find themselves making the “leveling the playing field” argument about strengthening wage theft enforcement. No one makes this argument better than a business leader who is being undercut by competitors who are stealing workers’ wages. If you plan to run a wage theft enforcement campaign in your community or state, you will need ethical business leaders who can speak out on the issue. Can help you connect with other allies Many people, especially in faith communities, want to honor ethical employers as well as challenge unjust ones. These allies appreciate that your organization has a balanced approach that recognizes that there are good employers in the community, not just bad ones.

Relationships Don’t Require Complete Agreement Those who are building worker centers may have different backgrounds, different life experiences, and different worldviews from those who have started and are running local businesses. You don’t have to be in complete agreement on everything in order to build relationships. The two areas that are generally places of disagreement are around unions and the role of government in setting standards. By and large, most business leaders—even strongly ethical ones—are anti-union. There is a pervasive anti-union animus in the country that permeates most of the business community even if owners have had no direct experience with unions. This view is hard to change overnight, and thus you may need to agree to disagree on the importance and role of unions in society. Likewise, many business leaders who pay people well, offer excellent benefits, and treat workers with respect and dignity do not want the government to require higher wages or standards. There are principled employers who treat their own workers very well but do not support an increase in the minimum wage or government requirements regarding paid sick days, even though they have always paid well above the minimum wage and provided paid sick days. One of this book’s authors was about to conduct a radio interview with an ethical employer about how and why he treated his workers so well, paying excellent wages with great benefits. In preparation for the interview, the employer mentioned that he opposed the increase in the minimum wage, which this author was actively supporting. They discussed the issue and mutually decided that they wouldn’t talk about it on that particular show. Again, this is a view that will not change quickly, and thus you may need to agree to disagree on the role of the government in setting standards but find areas of agreement.

Finding Ethical Employers Every community has good employers, but how do you find them? Try the following: Ask workers Workers who come into your center are probably now working for a bad employer but they may well have worked for others or may have friends who work for ethical employers. Ask workers who they know to be a good employer. Ask religious leaders Religious leaders often have ethical employers in their congregations. They can introduce you.

Engaging and Honoring Ethical Employers

Meet Ignatian Volunteer Corps folks The Ignatian Volunteer Corps, mentioned in chapter 8, is a Catholic volunteer program for people over fift y. It includes many retired business leaders who want to give back to the community. Th is program is a great source of volunteers, and its volunteers may be able to connect you with ethical business leaders. The program operates in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, D.C. and nearby Maryland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New England, New York City, Omaha, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Diego, Syracuse, and northern Virginia. Talk with people at business schools and business ethics programs Many colleges and universities, especially religiously affi liated ones, have business ethics programs. These programs train current students on ethical practice but they also connect with employers in the community. Ask for recommendations of employers with whom you should connect. The business ethics program may even invite your worker center to make a presentation on wage theft . After a presentation by an IWJ staff member at the DePaul University’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, the institute’s managing director Patricia Werhane recruited students to examine the issue of wage theft and then produced a video explaining the issue—a video that was then shown on public television. Connect with your local Rotary Club Almost every community has a Rotary Club. These clubs pride themselves on service and community engagement. According to the Rotary International website, Rotary encourages services, high ethical standards in business, the application of service in real life, and the advancement of international understanding. The organization’s “Four-Way Test,” which is recited at club meetings, creates a great basis for working together. The tests asks, “Of the things we think, say or do: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?” Wage theft clearly does not meet these tests. Find your local rotary at www.rotary.org. Find a benefit corporation Many states have created new legal entities called benefit corporations. These companies have a commitment to have a positive impact on society and the environment. There aren’t that many of them in the United States yet, but there is growing interest, and they could well be an important formation in the future. Learn more about these corporations and find the ones in your community at www. benefitcorp.net.

Build Relationships Building relationships with ethical employers is like building relationships with anyone—it is personal and it takes time. Figure out who are your community’s business leaders you would like to know. Reach out to them individually. Ask to meet for lunch or for a cup of coffee. Tell the person that you heard he or she was a principled business leader, and inquire about the person’s business. Find out when and why the person started the business or got hired in the business. Learn about the person’s family, involvement in the community, and concerns about poverty or inequality. Ask about which worker policies he or she is most proud and why. If he or she is involved in a congregation or an ethical business association, ask why, and ask him or her to tell you more about it.

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After you’ve asked lots of questions and listened (more than you’ve talked), then share information about your worker center. Explain the core work you do and why it is needed. Unless the person works in a sector known for its wage theft, most good and ethical employers are surprised to learn that there are employers in their communities who routinely cheat workers of wages. Figure out ways you might follow up and work together. To build a relationship, you must meet again. You must begin working together. You must figure out a logical next step or follow up. Ask the person to: • Introduce you to other ethical business leaders. • Invite you to present about the center at his or her club or congregation. • Be interviewed for your blog, radio show, or newsletter about ethical treatment of workers. • Speak against wage theft at a community hearing or public forum. • Write an article about why decent employers should oppose wage theft. Although it is hard to tell where the relationship will lead, getting to know and building relationships with good employers is bound to be useful for your work. Get started and see where it leads. It has worked for others. If you are going to be promoting an employer in some public fashion, make sure that the person or business “walks the walk.” Talk with some workers and see how they feel about the company. Some employers can talk a big game about “family,” but workers don’t feel respected or treated fairly. Conduct a reality-test conversation with workers before doing much public promotion of a business. You’d hate to have your support for an employer undermine your ability to reach out to and relate with workers.

Organize a Living Wage Certification Program The Tompkins County Worker Center in Ithaca, New York, created a living wage certification program as a means to honor and recognize employers who pay living wages, encourage others in the community to raise wages and standards, and encourage consumers to support good employers. In 2015, Tompkins County had approximately one hundred certified living wage employers. Just Economics in Ashville, North Carolina, and the Northampton Living Wage Coalition developed their own living wage certification programs modeled after Tompkins County’s program. In 2015, Just Economics had more than four hundred employers certified and was scrupulously documenting the impact of its program on raising wages and standards in the community. Together, the Tompkins County Worker Center, Just Economics, and Interfaith Worker Justice developed a tool kit for building a living wage certification program. By early 2015, there were five new communities building such programs. These are great for building connections and relationships with ethical employers. Not only can you recruit them to be one of your living wage certified employers, you can also ask some of them to: • • • •

Allow you to speak about the program to their colleagues in other companies. Serve on your living wage certification leadership team that reviews applications. Speak at press events and be interviewed by media about the program. Contribute to your worker center.

Engaging and Honoring Ethical Employers

If business leaders get involved in your work, they will become fi nancial supporters. That’s just what happens (if you ask, of course). Those who are connected and volunteer will also give, but you must think of relationship building with business leaders as being about much more than just money. You are building a long-term relationship that will benefit you, your organization, and its members in many different ways. You can get a free copy of the living wage certification tool kit from the Interfaith Worker Justice website at www.iwj.org.

Organize Responsible Employer Groups Worker centers and networks that take a sector-focused approach can create ways to support and honor ethical employers in their sectors. In some sectors, it may be almost impossible to find ethical employers because of how cutthroat the sector is. For example, in the temporary staffing sector, companies underbid one another to get jobs, and the only way to make a profit is to keep wages low. In other sectors, there are huge differences between how employers treat workers. In sectors with wide variations, you can publicly demonstrate that it is possible to treat people fairly and prosper. Here are some examples of programs that support responsible employers: Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC United) and “high road” restaurants ROC United has a sophisticated program to honor “high road” restaurants (those that take the high road in how they treat workers). It invites restaurants to apply to be a part of its RAISE (Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment) group. These employers are identified in ROC United’s diners’ guide, invited to speak at press events, and regularly held up as the alternative in every campaign focused on an unethical restaurant. Madison Workers’ Rights Center and Its Just Dining Guide The Workers’ Rights Center of Madison has a local version of the ROC dining guide. The center sends certificates to high-scoring employers and publicly recognizes them in press releases. The dining guide is distributed widely in the community, and patrons are asked to choose where they eat based on the guide. The center is planning forums with “high road” employers to emphasize that restaurant owners have choices in how to pay workers. National Domestic Workers Alliance and Hand in Hand partnership Domestic worker groups and domestic employers have united in recognition that improving working conditions for domestic workers will result in improved care for seniors and people with disabilities. Hand in Hand, a domestic employers’ association, has joined with worker centers that are part of the National Domestic Workers Alliance to create and promote the Fair Care Pledge, a pledge that employers can sign to show their commitment to being fair and respectful employers.

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Figure 10 Illinois governor Pat Quinn signing a “ban the box” bill and surrounded by leaders from the

Worker Center for Racial Justice. Photo courtesy of Workers Center for Racial Justice. Photo by Kelley L. Ford.

The right to vote and be engaged in the political process has long been a part of the nation’s civil rights and social change history. Over the centuries those who didn’t own property sought the power of the vote. African American fought to be allowed to vote. Women fought to be able to vote. Even once people legally were allowed to vote, many were discouraged or physically prevented from actually registering. Despite the long history of struggle for the right to vote and participate in the political process, far too many low-income citizens and people of color still don’t participant 278

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in civic society. Right-wing forces have sought to suppress voting even further. As a result, many politicians feel free to disregard disenfranchised communities’ concerns. Worker centers are democratic forces for social change. They are engaging their members in the full range of civic life. They are amplifying workers voices in the community. They are forcing elected leaders to take workers and their concerns seriously. One way worker centers is doing this is through civic engagement. Quite a few worker centers do important and effective civic engagement work: The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights (Greenville, Mississippi) The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights conducts voter registration drives at major community events, such as Greenville’s annual Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival. Workers’ rights materials are distributed as well. Voces de la Frontera (Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin) Voces de la Frontera, a 501c3 organization, began organizing immigrants in Milwaukee in 1998 and opened its Milwaukee worker center in 2001. That same year it set up Voces del la Frontera Action as a related 501c4 organization, although it didn’t really operate until 2008. The two related organizations both do civic engagement. Before same-day registration, Voces de la Frontera did nonpartisan voter registration drives. In 2004, it registered 5,100 new voters. Since same-day registration was approved, the organizations have focused more on voter education and turnout, because if you can get folks to the polls they can register. In 2006, Voces de la Frontera increased voter turnout by 32 percent in targeted wards in Milwaukee and by 20 percent in targeted wards in Racine. The youth arm of the work, Youth Empower in the Struggle (YES), has helped win four school-funding referenda. In 2008, Voces de la Frontera Action endorsed its first candidates. It organized a get-out-the-vote campaign for the primary elections in twenty-five wards, focusing on Latino swing voters. It also ran volunteer canvasses to support paid sick days, again with a focus on Latino voters. In 2010, Voces de la Frontera Action focused on reaching infrequent Latino voters in Milwaukee and Racine. In 2014, it endorsed a candidate and knocked on twenty thousand doors in Milwaukee’s South Side neighborhood. Workers Center for Racial Justice (Chicago) Chicago-based Workers Center for Racial Justice engages voters in advocating its policy positions. Civic engagement was key to its statewide victory banning the box on employment forms that discriminate against workers with prison records. Using voter registration files, volunteers knocked on suburban voters’ doors to engage them on the issues, generated hundreds of postcards to legislators, and phone-banked into swing districts outside Chicago. In 2014, the center wanted to support the Illinois minimum wage ballot initiative by focusing on engaging black voters through door-knocking and phone-banking. After careful analysis of what areas could have the most impact, the center decided to focus on the city of Rockford and the 5th and 20th Wards in Chicago. The center had a team of six canvassers that knocked on more than nine thousand doors in the 5th and 20th Wards and made nearly one thousand phone calls to voters in Rockford. Ultimately the center persuaded almost two thousand people to sign pledge cards stating that they would vote to increase the minimum wage.

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In the two weeks before the election, the center shifted to get-out-the-vote efforts, again focused on getting voters with a history of staying home to turn out in the 5th and 20th Wards. The center’s analysis showed that its work helped increase early voting numbers in both wards by more than 50 percent from the previous election. Voters in both wards voted by more than 90 percent to increase the minimum wage. Casa de Maryland Casa de Maryland has transformed its relationship with elected leaders through its civic engagement work. A 501c3 organization, it runs nonpartisan voter registration drives focused on registering immigrants who are citizens. Casa de Maryland established a related 501c4 organization, Casa in Action, that lobbies extensively on issues of concern to immigrants and mobilizes voters for and against candidates based on their positions on Casa’s issues. Casa in Action interviews candidates to figure out which ones it might support, hosts candidate forums, organizes phone banks to encourage voters to go to the polls, supports candidates based on their positions, door-knocks in key districts to increase turnout and share Casa’s positions on candidates, and communicates widely with the public about Casa in Action’s stances in the elections. Make the Road (New York City) Make the Road is another a strong advocate of civic engagement. Its organizers believe that civic engagement creates the context for shaping the public narrative on its issues. A 501c3 organization, it runs nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. Its members and leaders knock on doors asking citizens to “join us in voting our values.” Make the Road also established a related 501c4 organization, Make the Road Action Fund, that endorses candidates based on their positions on issues. The 501c3 organization does voter registration and general voter mobilization and turnout. The 501c4 organization organizes candidate forums, endorses candidates, and does voter education. The Coalition on Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles The Coalition on Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), a 501c3, and CHIRLA Action Fund, a 501c4, run comprehensive civic engagement programs. CHIRLA was formed in 1986 as an immigrant rights organization but has always worked on wage and workplace issues. It continues to mobilize workers around recovering unpaid wages and fights for policies to raise core standards for workers, with a special focus on day laborers and household workers. CHIRLA registers voters at citizenship ceremonies. It has registered seventy-five thousand people since 2007. CHIRLA Action Fund communicates regularly with voters about issues, candidates, and the importance of getting to the polls. In 2012 it made seven hundred thousand phone contacts with voters statewide, primarily on immigration reform issues, and two hundred volunteers in immigrant-dense neighborhoods knocked on doors. Worker centers, large and small, undertake civic engagement activities because they make sense for their organizations and memberships. This chapter will not provide all the nuts and bolts, and certainly not the legal advice, needed to run a full-scale civic engagement program. Rather, it explains what is meant by the term “civic engagement,” why worker centers do it, and how they support it. Helping members engage more fully in the political process seems to be a logical next step for many worker centers. The stories of those centers already engaged are inspiring. Ideally more worker center

Integrating Civic Engagement

organizers will consider how they too might become more involved in the democratic process in ways that strengthen the centers and engage members.

What Is Civic Engagement? Civic engagement, broadly defined, means helping people use their power as citizens to influence decisions made in the public sphere. There is a great need for the communities in which worker centers are located to become more involved in civic engagement opportunities. The disproportionate amounts of power that decision-makers usually have make it important for underrepresented communities to exercise their power and raise their voices. Civic engagement can be a great way for this to happen. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has fairly strict guidelines on what you can and cannot do in terms of civic engagement. Worker centers that have fairly modest nonpartisan programs can usually do what they want to do through their 501c3 organizations. Centers that want to run more sophisticated programs and want to be able to endorse candidates establish related 501c4 organizations. (As noted earlier, a 501c3 organization is a charitable organization. It can do a little bit of lobbying but no partisan election work. A 501c4 is a social welfare organization that can lobby and spend less than half its money and resources on certain kinds of partisan election work.) The best resources on these legal issues are available free from Bolder Advocacy (www.bolder advocacy.org). Other legal resources for questions on voter protection and other Election Day-–related assistance can be found at the Brennan Center (www.brennancenter. org) and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (www.lawyerscommittee. org). Worker centers are trusted messengers in many communities and could play important roles in civic engagement. Be sure to review what is allowed and not allowed for 501c3 organizations before undertaking civic engagement activities. Different components of civic engagement include: Voter registration You can organize a campaign to get people registered to vote. Nonpartisan voter registration can be done by either a 501c3 or a 501c4, but it is usually done by 501c3 organizations because the funding is easier. In many of the communities in which worker centers operate, there is a voter registration gap that needs to be fi lled. Low-income communities and communities of color are not always registered in high enough rates to get the attention of decision-makers. Increased levels of registration can make a difference. Voter identification, education, and engagement You can reach out to voters, find out their positions, and educate and engage them on issues or candidates. You may ask voters to sign a petition or send a letter to an elected leader. You may get voters in a room and have them ask questions of candidates. Voter guides on the candidates, providing background and their positions, can be distributed if done in a fair and balanced way. Some of this work can be done by the 501c3 organization, and some can only be done by a 501c4. Essentially, a 501c3 can talk about issues and a 501c4 can make the link from issues to a particular candidate. A 501c3 can send its staff and volunteers to knock on doors and tell people to go to the polls if they care about immigration reform or minimum wage, as long as the organization has a history of working on those issues. A 501c4 organization can tell people to go to the polls and vote for Susie Sanchez if they

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care about immigration reform or minimum wage. The IRS has very specific guidelines on what can and cannot be done with voter guides, candidate forums, and candidate appearances. Voter turnout Voter turnout activities are referred to as GOTV, which stands for “get out the vote.” Your organization should connect the voters’ values and interests to the election and the issues being debated. Nonpartisan GOTV activities can be done by either a 501c3 or a 501c4. If you are encouraging everyone in a particular community to go to the polls, you are doing nonpartisan GOTV. If you are working only on turning out people who will vote for the candidate you are supporting, this can only be done by a 501c4. Candidate endorsement Endorsing candidates can only be done by a 501c4 organization. If your center has a related 501c4, it can review various candidates’ positions on your issues. It can have a process for your leaders meeting directly with candidates. It can choose which candidate you think is best based on your issues, and then you can communicate that endorsement to your members and the broad community. A 501c4 organization may not coordinate its communications with the candidate. Lobbying Sometimes board members mistakenly believe that nonprofit organizations cannot lobby on legislative issues. That is wrong. A 501c4 can do unlimited amounts of lobbying on legislation related to its nonprofit purpose. A 501c3 organization can do some lobbying, but it needs to keep track of how much. (Be sure to read the IRS regulations on this.) Lobbying is a powerful tool in advocating a just position and standing up for a constituency. Decision-makers need to hear from the people who are most directly impacted by legislative, financial, and other decisions being made.

Why Do Civic Engagement? There are many benefits for worker centers getting more directly involved in civic engagement. Although civic engagement can be a good deal of work and require additional staffing and financial resources, if done properly it can strengthen the worker centers and the communities and constituencies around them. Without a clear plan and proper allocation of resources (time, money, and people), however, civic engagement can be a distraction. Worker center organizers who engage in civic engagement say they do so to: Build power Civic engagement helps workers build power. Although it is challenging, workers have arenas in which they can win concrete improvements and address the fundamental inequities in society. They can disrupt money and get businesses to pay attention, or they can get involved in political structures. Although every so often you can convince a politician to support your positions based on moral and intellectual arguments, more often politicians care mostly about votes or perceived votes. Civic engagement provides an arena in which worker centers can demonstrate to politicians that your members are or intend to be significant players in the community. Your members plan to exercise their power. Gustavo Andrade of Casa de Maryland says, “Having a 501c4 and a presence in elections fundamentally changes the relations with elected officials. Your relationship

Integrating Civic Engagement

moves from solicitation to power.” When Casa de Maryland meets with an elected official at its office, the elected official is shown the phone-banking room fi lled with computers and phones. The elected leader clearly understands that the phones can be used for or against him or her. And members have a much clearer sense of their own power. Win on issues Civic engagement work can help you win on issues. The Workers Center for Racial Justice was working on its “ban the box” legislation. It needed support and leaders from a suburban district where it had no members. The center’s volunteers knocked on doors in sixteen districts, including five Republican districts, focusing primarily on African American voters. The organization talked with people about the issue and generated five hundred to seven hundred pledge cards from voters that said, “I’m a primary voter in your district and I support Ban the Box.” Four of the five Republicans and every Democrat whose district was targeted ended up supporting the legislation. Casa in Action, which works in northern Virginia as well as Maryland, was trying to get some immigrant-friendly legislation passed by the Arlington County Board, but there weren’t enough members of the board focused on immigrants’ rights issues. In the spring of 2015, it identified two relatively unknown candidates running in the primary who were good on immigration issues. Katie Cristol was a strong supporter of immigrant rights but had little political organization with which to win even a primary election. Casa in Action endorsed her candidacy and put thirty folks in the field, knocking on doors and working the polls on Election Day urging voters to support her because Casa in Action had endorsed her. No other organization contributed anything similar for an obscure city council primary. Cristol won the primary and knew Casa in Action was important. In November 2015 she won a four-year term in the general election, and she will be a strong ally of Casa in Action. No doubt, it will be easy for Casa to get a meeting with this official. Educate candidates on your issues When it is engaged in an election, Voces de la Frontera educates all the candidates about what it wants to see happen. It may only endorse one candidate, but it uses the opportunity to educate everyone. Talking with candidates about your issues helps them shape how they talk about them. You can help give them the words and language that you know work in talking about the issues. Educate the broad community on your issues. Candidate forums are great places to get your issues talked about. Most community forums generate good media coverage of the issues. Many voters need good information about the issues and candidates. A trusted organization like a worker center can help people understand what the candidates really stand for, what issues are at stake, and why their votes matter. Recruit and develop leaders When the Workers Center for Racial Justice used civic engagement to push its “ban the box” legislation, it also recruited new leaders for the work. The center had no leaders from the targeted districts prior to knocking on doors. By knocking on doors and talking with people, great leaders were identified in each district.

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Voces de la Frontera, with worker centers in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, has dramatically built its youth work through its civic engagement program. Voces worked on four school-funding referenda. Hundreds of students were involved in knocking on doors and getting pledges to vote on the referenda. On Election Day 2012, five hundred student volunteers and adult chaperones knocked on 6,300 doors in Racine. Not only was this a great leadership development program for young people, 115 new youth members were also recruited to the organization. Make the Road leaders often develop organizers out of the center’s civic engagement canvassing programs—and eventually hire them. People who come up through the ranks of canvassing, first being good canvassers and then running strong canvassing programs, make strong organizers. They have learned communications skills, recruitment skills, and staff supervision and training skills. Build lists Doing civic engagement is a great way to build your database. If you are registering people to vote, you can ask if they would like to receive information from your organization. If you are knocking on doors asking people to sign a pledge to vote, you can also ask them if they would like to learn more about your organization and its issues. Once people’s names and information get into your database, you can communicate with them regularly. Some of them will become contributors and volunteers. Build name recognition Knocking on hundreds of doors or making thousands of phone calls in the community gets your name out to many people. The more contacts you have with people, the more recognized you become. Strong civic engagement programs also generate media coverage that also helps with name recognition. Increase individual donors As you build your list, talk with people about their issues, and engage people in your work, you will generate new donors. Some large donors are particularly interested in civic engagement work. Engage new volunteers and supporters Casa in Action finds that many folks who don’t really need Casa de Maryland’s services and who aren’t involved in Casa de Maryland’s organizing work will get involved in its civic engagement work because they share the center’s values and want to influence the outcome of elections. Generate additional foundation support Many progressive foundations have civic engagement funds. You may be able to get general support and targeted civic engagement support from the same foundation. Provide meaningful engagement to members Even immigrant members who can’t vote because they are not yet citizens like to help with the civic engagement work. Make the Road finds that its members who can’t yet vote like to help door-knock, educate their family members, and help people get to the polls. The process makes them feel like stronger community players. Create some paying jobs for your members CHIRLA Action Fund runs both paid and volunteer phone banks. The paid positions are offered to folks in the CHIRLA network and provide extra support for students and families.

Integrating Civic Engagement

Data Is Critical For any civic engagement program, you must use data. Luckily, there is a lot of publicly accessible information about voters. In twenty states, there are State Voices tables, networks of grassroots organizations, that coordinate civic engagement efforts among progressive and labor organizations. These State Voices groups allow 501c3 organizations to get access to voter VAN (Voter Activation Network) fi les fairly inexpensively. Voces de la Frontera uses the voter fi les from the state table for its 501c3 work. To see if your state has such a table, visit www.statevoices.org. Voces gets its voter fi les for its 501c4 work from America Votes (www.americavotes.org). Otherwise VAN files are expensive to access directly, but leaders of organizations that intend to do a lot of civic engagement work sometimes decide to do this. The Workers Center for Racial Justice wanted direct access to VAN fi les and so pays about $18,000 per year for access to all the Illinois records using a company called SmartVAN (www.smartvan.com). Casa in Action also uses VAN files and pays about $10,000 per year for the Maryland files. Casa in Action is planning to use the VAN fi les for its community organizing work in addition to its civic engagement work. Another company with VAN records that offers other networking and communication function is NGP VAN (www.ngpvan.com). The VAN file programs simplify the process of setting up door-knocking maps and running phone banks. Those who use the programs claim the cost is worth it because of the amount of staff time saved and the huge volume of information they provide.

Challenges in Running Civic Engagement Programs Despite all the benefits, there are challenges in running civic engagement programs, particularly the larger ones in which organizations set up affi liated 501c4 organizations. Some of the challenges of civic engagement work are: Balancing election work with year-round work Sometimes it is hard not to let all your ongoing issue-related and campaign work fall to the wayside when you get in the heat of the election cycle. Balancing the work is challenging for many groups. Staying compliant with the rules Although many 501c3 organizations participate in civic engagement work and have successful programs, abiding by the rules and guidelines of permissible activity requires good training, discipline, and vigilant oversight. If a worker center wants to have both a 501c3 and a 501c4 to do civic engagement work, it will need to have dedicated staff for the program because the rules are more complex and tend to be challenging for small nonprofits with modest administrative systems trying to stay in compliance. Canvassing Face-to-face contact is the most effective tool for voter engagement, but not everyone can do door-knocking. “When it is terribly cold, like in Milwaukee, door-knocking isn’t all that appealing to everyone,” says Christine Neumann-Ortiz from Voces in Milwaukee. Some people are fearful because they have never done it before. With the right training, practice, and placement of staff and volunteers, however, canvassing can be a powerful part of your program.

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Finding and hiring data management staff To run a serious civic engagement program, you need dedicated staff people, including some who are really good at working with the voter files and the massive amount of data. These staff people are usually not already on worker centers’ staffs and often don’t work for nonprofit salaries. Working through cycles The cyclical nature of elections can be challenging to staff. Make the Road has one senior staff member who runs its civic engagement work during election cycles and then works on communications and research during other times of the year. Additional temporary staff members are hired as needed, but it is important to have at least one person who has experience from past election cycles. Dealing with compromise If you are endorsing candidates, there are often compromises involved. A candidate may not be perfect overall but good on an issue or two that you care about, and so you will decide to support him or her. Alienating supporters If you decide to get involved in partisan, 501c4 activities, such as endorsing candidates, some of your 501c3 funders may be alienated, even though the work is done by separate legal organizations. Balancing quantity and quality Nonprofits can be pushed to produce larger numbers and more varied activities than a modest-sized 501c3 can sustain or do well. Sometimes this pressure comes from funders. Other times the pressure comes from the urgency of the issue or even community members themselves. Doing a smaller and higher-quality program is recommended for those who are new at civic engagement. Once you have become more proficient, you can increase your size and scope.

Financial Support for Civic Engagement There tends to be a fair amount of money available for civic engagement work, particularly in presidential election years, but you must have a track record. Civic engagement work is very quantitative. You must demonstrate your impact. Worker centers have gotten money for civil engagement from: National foundations Most national foundations will only support the 501c3 nonpartisan work. Unions Unions give support for both 501c3 and 501c4 work. National Council of La Raza The National Council of La Raza gives small grants for nonpartisan work to increase Latino voter registration and turnout. Center for Community Change The Center for Community Change (CCC) serves as a coordinating body for many nonpartisan civic engagement activities aimed at increasing immigrant voting at the polls and addressing income inequality. The CCC can provide technical assistance, data, and fi nancial contributions but only for its partner organizations or other entities that fit into its organizing agenda or plan. Tides Advocacy Fund The Tides Advocacy Fund allows both individual donors and coalitions of donors to mobilize funds strategically to impact legislative and ballot initiative activity and support advocacy organizations. The fund serves as an intermediary

Integrating Civic Engagement

between donors and grantees, assists in identifying or structuring potential grants, and manages anonymous contributions. Individual donors Some large individual donors really like to support civic engagement work. Talk with your allies about who some of these donors are. For organizations doing 501c4 work, the majority of money will have to come from individuals because there are very few foundations that provide 501c4 funding.

Getting Started If you’ve never done any civic engagement work but want to get started, those who have been involved for a while suggest that you do the following. Figure out your goals Why do you want to do civic engagement and how will you use it to build your organization? Consider choosing a local race where the numbers involved are not huge and where your involvement could really make a difference. Many school board or city council races are won by just a few hundred votes, so decision-makers need to hear from their constituencies and see their participation. Make a modest plan Every worker center that has a large civic engagement program started with a much more modest one. Make a plan that you can learn from and that can be used to prove your value. Most groups begin with 501c3 activities because there is so much work and effort involved in setting up and running an affi liated 501c4 organization. Try different approaches to see which ones most excite your members. Setting a goal of as few as five hundred voter contacts is sufficient for an organization’s first civic engagement program. Team up with and shadow others Lots of organizations do great civic engagement work. Partner with them. Shadow them for a while. Ask their senior staff to review your plans. Design the program to bolster other aspects of your work Have you been meaning to build a youth program? If so, perhaps a civic engagement program could help you do that. Have you been meaning to get your database in order? You will have to do so to take advantage of the new names you will get. Have you wanted to strengthen your volunteer recruitment skills? Good civic engagement programs recruit and use lots of volunteers. Civic engagement should always be done in a way that supports and advances your existing campaigns. Collaborate on fund-raising Start talking with allies about how to raise funds for your pilot program. Perhaps a larger organization will work with you as a sub-grantee on a larger grant. Ask the national networks if they might help worker centers jointly apply for civic engagement grants. Set aggressive goals for meeting with individual donors Civic engagement offers an opportunity to build your relationships with individual donors. Make a list of donors you will try to meet with—ten, twenty, or fift y. You will only raise money from individual donors if you have lots of individual meetings with prospective donors. Document your work Civic engagement demands reports that document your numbers. Document everything you do, and get some knowledgeable number crunchers to

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help you measure your impact. Good reports aren’t just a requirement from funders and required for legal compliance. Good reports can help you improve your work. Developing a civic engagement program may not be something that all worker centers want to do. However, the movement would be served well by more organizations deepening their work and experience in engaging in the political process and educating, organizing, and mobilizing more members of their communities to participate. DeAngelo Bester, executive director of the Workers Center for Racial Justice says, “Using civic engagement is like fighting with both fists. Why would you only use one?” Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, says, “Civic engagement contributes to a more collective and more powerful movement. It’s an important part of the toolbox.”

Appendix A Books and Articles

Worker Centers and Community-Labor Alliances AFL-CIO. Building Stronger Local Labor Movements: A Guide for Worker Centers Affiliating with Central labor Councils and/or State Federations. Washington, D.C.: AFL-CIO, 2015. Bussel, Robert. Fighting for Total Person Unionism: Harold Gibbons, Ernest Calloway, and WorkingClass Citizenship. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. This book shares some forgotten history about a Teamster local that operated much like a worker center in terms of fighting for the whole person’s concerns, not just workplace issues. Chun, Jennifer Jihye. Organizing at the Margins: The Symbolic Politics of Labor in South Korea and the United States. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2009. The book’s discussion of symbolic leverage and labor-community partnerships is important for worker centers. Fine, Janice. Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006. This is the most comprehensive history on the worker center movement. Be sure to read this. Jayaraman, Saru. Behind the Kitchen Door (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press), 2013. This book shares the history of the Restaurant Opportunities Center and how restaurant workers are abused and fighting back. Korstad, Robert Rodgers. Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. This book’s discussion of the intersection of civil rights and labor rights is important for worker centers. Milkman, Ruth, and Ed Ott, eds. New Labor in New York: Precarious Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2014. This book tells the story of several New York worker centers and many collaborations. Narro, Victor, Saba Waheed, and Jassmin Poyaoan. Building a Movement Together: Worker Centers and Labor Union Affiliations. Los Angeles: UCLA Labor Center, 2015. This report was commissioned by the LIFT Fund. Available at UCLA Labor Center, www.labor.ucla.edu/ building-a-movement-together. National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Building Community: The Components of a Day Labor Worker Center Model: A Summary of the Best Practices for Creating and Operating a Day Laborer Center from the Perspective of the Workers and Their Organization. Los Angeles: National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Request this report from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, [email protected]. Poo, Ai-jen. The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. New York: New Press, 2015. The founder of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Poo makes the case for changing U.S. policy toward caregivers based on her experience with caregivers and worker centers across the nation.

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Appendix A

Organizing and Campaign Work Bobo, Kim, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. Organizing for Social Change. 4th ed. Santa Ana, Calif.: Forum Press, 2010. This is the best-selling organizing handbook in the nation. The “strategy chart,” which is referred to in several chapters of our book, is outlined in detail in this handbook. Bobo, Kim. Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid and What We Can Do about It. New York: New Press, 2011. This book provides a deep overview of the issues relating to wage theft and includes examples of the good work being done by worker centers to stop and deter wage theft. Center for Progressive Reform. Winning Safer Workplaces: A Manual for State and Local Policy Reform. Washington, D.C.: Center for Progressive Reform, 2014. The best overview of the kinds of public policies advocates should be fighting for to make workplaces safer. National Employment Law Project. Winning Wage Justice: An Advocate’s Guide to State and City Policies to Fight Wage Theft. New York: National Employment Law Project, 2011. A comprehensive overview of what has been won and could be won in the fight against wage theft.

Capacity Building Gutierrez, Aina. Walking the Walk: A Values-Centered Approach to Building a Strong Nonprofit. Chicago: Interfaith Worker Justice, 2014. The best overall handbook on the back-office administrative matters that small nonprofits, such as worker centers, must manage. Murray, Peter. “The Secret of Scale.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2013. Available at http://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_secret_of_scale. This article looks at what nonprofits need to do to grow their membership numbers significantly. It includes many ideas for worker center organizers to reflect upon. RoadMap Consulting. Weathering the Storms: Building Social Justice Resilience Against Opposition Attacks. Oakland: RoadMap, 2015. A great resource for assessing threats, reducing risks, and dealing with attacks for opponents. Available at www.roadmapconsulting.org/. Schadler, B. Holly. The Connection: Strategies for Creating and Operating 501(c)(3)s, 501(c)(4)s, and Political Organizations. 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: Bolder Advocacy, 2012. This is the best resource for understanding what groups can do with lobbying and civic engagement. Available at www.bolderadvocacy.org/.

Fund-raising Flanagan, Joan. Successful Fundraising: A Complete Handbook for Volunteers and Professionals. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill, 2002. This book focuses on getting board members and staff working together on grassroots events and on broader pushes for garnering financial support from individuals. Fredericks, Laura. The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project or Business Venture. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Every director should read this book about how to ask for money. Kim, Peter, Suzanne Tollerud, and Gail Perreault. “From Small to Scale: Th ree Trade-offs for Smaller Nonprofits Trying to Get Big,” Nonprofit Quarterly, Winter 2009. Thought-provoking article about the need to concentrate fund-raising efforts in order to grow to scale. Available at https://nonprofitquarterly.org/. Klein, Kim. Fundraising for Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011. This is a classic text for nonprofits working on social change. Panas, Jerold. The Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards. Medfield, Mass.: Emerson & Church, 2012. This easy-to-read book should be read by every board member who wants to grow his or her worker center.

Appendix B Worker Center Networks

Worker center networks are groups of worker centers that join together to support and learn from one another. The networks offer a variety of training and resources to their affi liates. Many worker centers affi liate with more than one network. Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) Worker Center Network

Interfaith Worker Justice spurs diverse faith communities into action and builds grassroots structures, like worker centers, to support workers. The IWJ Worker Center Network supports centers that organize workers from a variety of sectors, although many of the centers have a focus on a particular sector or two. The network provides technical assistance and networking for affi liates. IWJ helps groups build ties with both the labor movement and religious communities. For more information: Interfaith Worker Justice 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, 4th Floor Chicago, IL 60660 773-728-8400 [email protected] www.iwj.org National Black Worker Center Project

The National Black Worker Center Project, anchored by the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and the Chicago-based Workers Center for Racial Justice, supports the development of worker centers focused on black workers. For more information: Steven Pitts UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education Institute for Research on Labor and Employment 2521 Channing Way, #5555 Berkeley, CA 94720 510-643-6815 [email protected] www.blackworkerproject.com

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National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) unifies and strengthens its member organizations to be more effective in their efforts to develop leadership, mobilize, and organize day laborers in order to protect and expand their civil, labor, and human rights. NDLON fosters safer, more humane environments for day laborers, both men and women, to earn a living, contribute to society, and integrate into the community. For more information: National Day Laborer Organizing Network 675 S. Park View Street, Suite B Los Angeles, CA 90057 213-380-2201 [email protected] www.ndlon.org National Domestic Workers Alliance

The National Domestic Workers Alliance supports local organizations that organize and serve domestic workers throughout the country. Its member organizations receive technical assistance and resources that support local initiatives to organize domestic workers. For more information: Lisa Moore, field director National Domestic Workers Alliance 395 Hudson Street, 4th Floor New York, NY 10014 646-360-5806 [email protected] www.domesticworkers.org National Staffing Workers Alliance

The National Staffing Workers Alliance is a grassroots coalition of organizations united to raise the voice of temporary workers around the country. The coalition advocates for workers’ rights to permanent jobs. For more information: Michael Muñoz, national coordinator National Staffing Workers Alliance c/o Chicago Workers Collaborative 5014 South Ashland Avenue Chicago, IL 60609 877-775-8242 [email protected] www.nationalstaffingworkersalliance.org Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC)

Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) supports local chapters, multiracial organizations that focus on organizing restaurant workers. ROC United provides detailed

Worker Center Networks

plans and guides for its three-prong program of organizing workplace justice campaigns, promoting “high road” (ethical) employers, and conducting worker-led research and policy efforts. For more information: ROC United 350 7th Avenue, Suite 1504 New York, NY 10001 212-343-1771 [email protected] www.rocunited.org

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Appendix C Worker Centers

This appendix lists organizations that identify themselves primarily as worker centers, as well as ones that have operate much like worker centers by building power for workers around workplace issues. If you learn of new centers that should be in the list, please email [email protected] Alabama

Adelante Alabama Worker Center, 2104 Chapel Hill Road, Hoover, AL 35216, 205-317-1481, www.adelantealabama.org Arizona

Arizona Worker Rights Center, 331 E. Willetta Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004, 602-254-5452, www.azworkerrightscenter.org Southside Worker Center, 317 W. 23rd Street, Tucson, AZ 85713, 520-955-8165, www. southsideworkercenter.org Tonatierra, 802 N. 7th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85006, 602-314-5870, www.tonatierra.org Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center, 210 S. Thompson St., Suite 4A, Springdale, AR 72764, 479-750-8015, www.nwawjc.org California

Asian Immigrant Women Advocates—Oakland office (headquarters), 310 8th Street, #301, Oakland, CA 94607, 510-268-0192, www.aiwa.org Asian Immigrant Women Advocates—San Jose office, 1010 Ruff Drive, San Jose, CA 95110, 408-289-8983, www.aiwa.org Asociación de Jornaleros de San Diego, 2434 Alta Vista Drive, Vista, CA 92084, 760-630-7398, www.myajsd.org Central City Lutheran Mission, 1354 N. G Street, San Bernardino, CA 92405, 909-381-6921, www.cclm.org

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Worker Centers

Central American Resource Center, 2845 W. 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90005, 213-385-7800, www.carecen-la.org Centro Laboral de Graton, 2981 Bowen Street, Graton, CA 95444, 707-829-1864, www.gratondaylabor.org Centro Legal de la Raza, 3022 International Boulevard, Suite 410, Oakland, CA 94601, 510-437-1554, www.centrolegal.org Chinese Progressive Association, 1042 Grant Avenue., 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94133, 415-391-6986, www.cpasf.org Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, 2533 W. Third Street, Suite 101, Los Angeles, CA 90057, 213-353-1333, www.chirla.org Day Worker Center of Mountain View, 113 Escuela Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94040, 650-903-4102, www.dayworkercentermv.org Filipino Advocates for Justice—Oakland office, 310 8th Street, Suite 308, Oakland, CA 94607, 510-465-9876, www.fi lipinos4justice.org Filipino Advocates for Justice—Union City office, 3961 Horner Street, Union City, CA 94587, 510-487-8552, www.fi lipinos4justice.org Garment Worker Center, 1250 S. Los Angeles Street, Suite 213, Los Angeles, CA 90015, 213-748-5866, www.garmentworkercenter.org Hayward Day Labor Center, 680 W. Tennyson Road, Hayward, CA 94544, 510-782-9675, www.daylaborcenter.org Hermandad Mexicana—Santa Ana office (headquarters), 900 N. Broadway, Suite 604, Santa Ana, CA 92701, 714-541-0250, www.hermandadmexicana.org Hermandad Mexicana—Los Angeles office, 310 N. Soto Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033, 323-260-8012, www.hermandadmexicana.org Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, 1565 W. 14th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015, 213-252-2952, www.idepsca.org Instituto Laboral de la Raza—San Francisco office (headquarters), 2947 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-431-7522, www.ilaboral.org Instituto Laboral de la Raza—San Jose office, 240 S. Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113, 408-625-5637, www.ilaboral.org Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, 1053 S. New Hampshire Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90006, 213-738-9050, www.kiwa.org La Raza Centro Legal, 474 Valencia Street, #295, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-575-3500, www.lrcl.org Los Angeles Black Workers Center, 6569 S. Vermont Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90043, 323-752-7287, www.lablackworkercenter.org Malibu Community Labor Exchange, 23595 Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265, 310-317-4717, www.malibucommunitylaborexchange.org Mujeres Unidas y Activas—Oakland office, 2783 E. 12th Street, Suite 201, Oakland, CA 94601, 510-261-3398, www.mujeresunidas.net

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Appendix C

Mujeres Unidas y Activas—San Francisco office, 3543 18th Street, #23, San Francisco, CA 94110, 415-621-8140, www.mujeresunidas.net People Organized to Win Employment Rights, 2145 Keith Street, San Francisco, CA 94124, 415-864-8372, www.peopleorganized.org Pilipino Workers Center, 153 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026, 213-250-4353, www.pwcsc.org Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, 1682 W. Mission Boulevard, Pomona, CA 91766, 909-397-4215, www.pomonadaylabor.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of the Bay Area, 900 Alice Street, Oakland, CA 94607, www.rocunited.org/bay-area Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles, 1730 W. Olympic Boulevard, #300, Room K, Los Angeles, CA 90015, 213-380-1020, www.rocunited.org/la San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, 2940 16th Street, #313, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-864-8294, www.sft wa.org Temporary Skilled Worker Center, 1190 Flower Street, Burbank, CA 91502, 213-2513400, www.catholiccharitiesla.org/what-we-do/assist-immigrants-and-refugees-2/ temporary-skilled-worker-center United Farm Workers—Delano office, 30168 Garces Highway, Delano, CA 93216, 661-725-9730, www.ufw.org United Farm Workers—Madera office, 450 S. Madera Avenue, Suite H, Madera, CA 93637, 559-674-4525, www.ufw.org United Farm Workers—Oxnard office, 920 S. “A” Street, Oxnard, CA 93030, 805-486-9674, www.ufw.org United Farm Workers—Salinas office, 437 E. Alisal Street, Salinas, CA 93907, 831-757-6700, www.ufw.org United Farm Workers—Santa Rosa office, 1700-D Corby Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95407, 707-528-3039, www.ufw.org Wage Justice Center, 3250 Wilshire Boulevard, 13th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, 213-273-8400, www.wagejustice.org Warehouse Worker Resource Center, 601 N. Euclid Avenue, Ontario, CA 91762, 909-986-6929, www.warehouseworkers.org Young Workers United, 215 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94142, 415-621-4155, www.youngworkersunited.org Colorado

El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores, 2260 California Street, Denver, CO 80205, 303-292-4115, www.centrohumanitario.org Connecticut

Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health, 683 N. Mountain Road, Newington, CT 06111, 860-953-2674, www.connecticosh.org

Worker Centers

Junta for Progressive Action, 169 Grand Avenue, New Haven, CT 06513, 203-787-0191, www.juntainc.org New Haven Workers Association—Unidad Latina en Acción, 37 Howe Street, New Haven, CT 06511, 203-606-3484, www.ulanewhaven.org Stamford Partnership, 880 Washington Boulevard, Stamford, CT 06901, 203-325-4461, www.stamfordpartnership.com

District of Columbia

Central American Resource Center, 1460 Columbia Road, NW, Suite C-1, Washington, DC 20009, 202-328-9799, www.carecendc.org DC Employment Justice Center, 1413 K Street, NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, 202-828-9675, www.dcejc.org DC Jobs with Justice, 1875 Connecticut Avenue NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20009, 202-780-4885, www.dcjwj.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC, Washington, DC, 202-559-7498, www.rocunited.org/dc

Florida

Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, 35801 SW 186 Avenue, Florida City, FL 33034, www.centrocampesino.org Coalition of Immokalee Workers, 110 S. 2nd Street, Immokalee, FL 34142, 239-657-8311, www.ciw-online.org El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center, 106 Military Trail, Jupiter, FL 33458, 561-745-9860, www.friendsofelsol.org Farmworker Association of Florida—Apopka office (headquarters), 1264 Apopka Boulevard, Apopka, FL 32703, 407-886-5151, www.floridafarmworkers.org Farmworker Association of Florida—Fellsmere office, 29 S. Maple Street, Unit A, Fellsmere, FL 32948, 772-571-0081, www.floridafarmworkers.org Farmworker Association of Florida—Homestead Area office, 450 Davis Parkway, Florida City, FL 33034, 305-247-0072, www.floridafarmworkers.org Farmworker Association of Florida—Immokalee office, 106 S. 2nd Street, Unit 10, Immokalee, FL 34142, 863-885-9484, www.floridafarmworkers.org Farmworker Association of Florida—Pierson office, 111 Fountain Drive, Pierson, FL 32180, 386-749-9826, www.floridafarmworkers.org Farmworkers Self-Help, 37240 Lock Street, Dade City, FL 33523, 352-567-1432, www. fshflorida.org Miami Workers Center, 6127 NW 7th Avenue, Miami, FL 33127, www.miamiworkerscenter. org Restaurant Opportunities Center of Miami, 945 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 302, Miami Beach, FL 33139, 305-672-8440, www.rocunited.org/miami

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We Count!, 201 N. Krome Avenue, Suites 230–260, Homestead, FL 33030, 305-247-2202, www.we-count.org Georgia

Atlanta Chapter, National Domestic Workers Alliance, 250 Georgia Avenue SE, Suite 212, Atlanta, GA 30312-3000, 404-584-0840, www.atlantadomesticworkers.org Economic Justice Coalition, 1865 W. Broad Street, Suite C, Athens, GA 30606, 706-549-1142, www.economicjusticecoalition.org Illinois

Afire Chicago, 7315 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60645, 773-580-1025, www. afirechicago.org Arise Chicago Worker Center, 1436 W. Randolph Street, Suite 202, Chicago, IL 60607, 773-769-6000, www.arisechicago.org/worker-center Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, 3200 E. 91st Street, Chicago, IL 60617, 773-349-2806, www.centrodetrabajadoresunidos.org Chicago Community and Workers Rights, 1900 S Carpenter Street, Chicago, IL 60608, 773-653-3664, www.chicagoworkersrights.org Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, 5014 S. Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60609, 877775-8242, www.chicagoworkerscollaborative.org (also has centers in Rolling Meadows and Waukegan) Latino Union of Chicago, 1619 W. 19th Street, Chicago, IL 60608, 312-491-9044; hiring hall at 3416 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago IL 60659, 773-588-2641, www. latinounion.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of Chicago, 77 W. Washington Street, Suite 1507, Chicago, IL 60602, 312-629-2892, www.rocunited.org/chicago United Taxidrivers Community Council, 2040 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647, www.goutcc.org/drupal Warehouse Workers for Justice, 37 S. Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60607, 815-7225003, www.warehouseworker.org Worker Center for Racial Justice, 500 E. 61st Street, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60637, 312-361-1161, www.center4racialjustice.org Indiana

Indianapolis Worker Justice Center, 1734 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222, 317-408-8637, www.indywjc.org Iowa

Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, 940 S. Gilbert Court, Iowa City, IA 52244, 319-594-7593, www.cwjiowa.org

Worker Centers

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, 2001 Forest Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50311, 515-282-0484, www.iowacci.org Kansas

El Centro, Inc., 650 Minnesota Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66101, 913-677-0100, www. elcentroinc.com Lawrence Worker Justice Coalition, 925 Vermont Street, Lawrence, KS 66044, 785-727-1237, www.facebook.com/LawrenceWorker Sunflower Community Action, 1751 N. Ash Street, Wichita, KS 67214, 316-264-9972, www.sunfloweract.org Louisiana

National Guestworker Alliance, 217 N. Prieur Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, 504-309-5165, www.guestworkeralliance.org New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, 217 N. Prieur Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, 504-309-5165, www.nowcrj.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of New Orleans, 2714 Canal Street, Suite 308, New Orleans, LA 70119, 504-529-5654, www.rocunited.org/nola Maine

Food and Medicine/Worker Center of Eastern Maine, 20 Ivers Street, Brewer, ME 04412, 207-989-5860, www.foodandmedicine.org Southern Maine Workers’ Center, 68 Washington Avenue, Portland, ME 04101, 207-200-7692, www.maineworkers.org Maryland

CASA de Maryland—Baltimore office, 2224 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21231, 410-732-2694, www.wearecasa.org CASA de Maryland—Hyattsville office, 7978-B New Hampshire Avenue, Hyattsville, MD 20783, 240-491-5784, www.wearecasa.org CASA de Maryland—Rockville office, 14645 Rothgeb Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, 240-491-5780, www.wearecasa.org CASA de Maryland—Silver Spring office, 734 University Boulevard, E., Silver Spring, MD 20903, 301-431-4177, www.wearecasa.org CASA de Maryland—Wheaton office, 2729 University Boulevard, W., Wheaton, MD 20902, 240-491-5772, www.wearecasa.org Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA Maryland), P.O. Box 4362, Salisbury, MD 21803, 410-572-5959, www.cata-farmworkers.org United Workers, 2640 Saint Paul Street (Basement), Baltimore, MD 21203, 410-2301998, www.unitedworkers.org

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Massachusetts

Brazilian Immigrant Center, 14 Harvard Avenue, 2nd Floor, Allston, MA 02134, 617-783-8001, www.braziliancenter.org Brazilian Women’s Group, 697 Cambridge Street, Suite 106, Brighton, MA 02135, 617-202-5775, www.verdeamarelo.org Centro Communitario de Trabajadores, P.O. Box 1210, New Bedford, MA 02470, 508-997-4867, www.cct-newbedford.org Centro Presente, 12 Bennington Street, Suite 202, East Boston, MA 02128, 857-256-2981, www.cpresente.org Chelsea Collaborative, 318 Broadway, Chelsea, MA 02150, 617-889-6080, www. chelseacollab.org Chinese Progressive Association’s Worker Center, 28 Ash Street, Boston MA 02111, 617-357-4499, www.cpaboston.org/en/programs/worker-center Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), 1532B Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02122, 617-825-7233, www.masscosh.org MataHari: Eye of the Day, 1 Milk Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02109, 617-785-8597, www.mataharijustice.org MetroWest Worker Center, 116 Concord Street, Suite 5, Framingham, MA 01702, 508-532-0575, www.facebook.com/pages/Metrowest-Worker-Center Worker Center for Economic Justice, 112 Exchange Street, Lynn, MA 01901, 857-277-4072, www.lwcej.org Michigan

Lansing Workers’ Center, 909 W. Saginaw Street, Lansing, MI 48915, 517-342-6435, www.lansingworkerscenter.wordpress.com Micah Center, c/o Hope Reformed Church, 2010 Kalamazoo Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507, 616-425-1559, www.themicahcenter.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, 311 E Grand River Avenue, Detroit, MI 48226, 313-962-5020, www.rocunited.org/michigan Minnesota

Centro Campesino, 216 N. Oak Avenue, Owatonna, MN 55060, 507-446-9599, www. facebook.com/CentroCampesinoMN Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, 2511 E. Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55406, 612-332-0663, www.ctul.net Greater Minnesota Worker Center, 2719 West Division Street, Suite 103, St. Cloud, MN 56301, 320-774-1328, www.facebook.com/greatermnworkercenter Mississippi

Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance—Jackson Office, P.O. Box 1104, Jackson, MS 39215-1104, 601-968-5182, www.yourmira.org

Worker Centers

Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance—Gulf Coast Office, P.O. Box 124, Biloxi, MS 39533-0124, 228-386-5164, www.yourmira.org Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, 213 Main Street, Greenville, MS 38701, 662-334-1122, www.facebook.com/msworkers Missouri

Kansas City Worker Justice Center, 6320 Brookside Plaza, #243, Kansas City, MO 64113, 913-232-2235, www.kcwjc.org Rural Community Workers Alliance, 60731 Highway M, Green City, Missouri 63545-2001, 660-874-4714 Nebraska

Heartland Workers Center, 4923 S. 24th Street, Suite 3A, Omaha, NE 68107, 402-9336095, www.heartlandworkerscenter.org New Jersey

Casa Freehold, 191 Throckmorton Street, Freehold, NJ 07728, 732-409-3111, www. casafreehold.org Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas—Glassboro office, P.O. Box 510, Glassboro, NJ 08028, 856-881-2507, www.cata-farmworkers.org Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas—New Brunswick office, 2–4 Kirkpatrick Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 856-881-2507, www.cata-farmworkers.org New Labor—New Brunswick office, 103 Bayard Street, 2nd Floor, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 732-246-2900, www.newlabor.org New Labor—Lakewood office, 211 Clifton Avenue, 2nd Floor, Lakewood, NJ 08701, 732-534-4166, www.newlabor.org New Labor—Newark office, 20 Wilson Avenue, Newark, NJ 07105, 862-902-7600, www.newlabor.org Wind of the Spirit, 120 Speedwell Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07960, 973-538-2035, www. windoft hespirit.net New Mexico

El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, 714 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505-246-1627, www.elcentronm.org Encuentro, 714 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505-247-2920, www. encuentronm.org OLE, 411 Bellamah Avenue NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505-796-6544, www. olenm.org Somos un Pueblo Unido—Roswell office, 1717 W. 2nd Street, Suite 203, Roswell, NM 88201, 575-622-4486, www.somosunpueblounido.org Somos un Pueblo Unido—Santa Fe office, 1804 Espinacitas Street, Sante Fe, NM 87505, 505-424-7832, www.somosunpueblounido.org

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New York

Adhikaar, 71-07 Woodside Avenue, 1st Floor, Woodside, NY 11377, 718-937-1117, www.adhikaar.org Brandworkers International, 4502 23rd Street, 2nd Floor, Long Island City, NY 111014735, 646-568-5870, www.brandworkers.org Centro del Inmigrante, 1546 Castleton Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10302, 718-4206466, www.elcentronyc.wordpress.com/workers-center Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, 345 Grand Street, Unit 1W, New York, NY 10002, 212-334-2333, www.cswa.org Cidadão Global, 4312 34th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101, 718-619-8529, www. cidadaoglobal.org Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence—Women Workers Project, 55 Hester Street, New York, NY 10002, 212-473-6485, www.caaav.org/women-workers-project Community Voices Heard—Manhattan office, 115 E. 106th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10029, 212-860-6001, www.cvhaction.org Community Voices Heard—Poughkeepsie office, 29 N. Hamilton Street, Suite L03, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, 845-790-5945, www.cvhaction.org Community Voices Heard—Newburgh office, 98 Grand Street, Newburgh, NY 12550, 845-562-2020, www.cvhaction.org Community Voices Heard—Yonkers office, 28 N. Broadway Avenue, 2nd Floor, Yonkers, NY 10701, 914-751-2641, www.cvhaction.org Damayan Migrant Workers Association, 406 W. 40th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-6057, www.damayanmigrants.org Domestic Workers United, 10 W. 37th Street, Suite 4W, New York, NY 10018, 212-4815747, www.domesticworkersunited.org Don Bosco Workers Center, 22 Don Bosco Place, Port Chester, NY 10573-5046, 914-433-6666, www.donboscoworkers.org El Centro de Immigrante, 1546 Castleton Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10302, 347-8252086, www.elcentronyc.org Empire Justice Center—Albany office, 119 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12210, 518-462-6831, www.empirejustice.org Empire Justice Center—Rochester office, 1 W. Main Street, Suite 200, Rochester, NY 14614, 585-454-4060, www.empirejustice.org Freeport Trailer, 109 Bennington Avenue, Freeport, NY 11520, 516-442-0955, www. colokiinc.com Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, 208 Parkside Avenue, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11226, 718-462-0791, www.haitianrefugees.org Hispanic Resource Center of Larchmont and Mamaroneck, 570 Van Ranst Place, Mamaroneck, NY 10543, 914-630-7022, www.hispanicresourcecenter.org Laundry Workers Center United, 619 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022, 347-829-6748, www.lwcu.org

Worker Centers

Make the Road New York—Brentwood office, 1090 Suffolk Avenue, Brentwood, NY 11717, 631-231-2220, www.maketheroad.org Make the Road New York—Brooklyn office, 301 Grove Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237, 718-418-7690, www.maketheroad.org Make the Road New York—Jackson Heights office, 92-10 Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson Heights, NY 11372, 718-585-8500, www.maketheroad.org Make the Road New York—Staten Island office–I, 278 Colony Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10306, 718-987-5503, www.maketheroad.org Make the Road New York—Staten Island office–II, 161 Port Richmond Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10302, 718-727-1222, www.maketheroad.org National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Lower East Side Workers Center, 345 Grand Street, New York, NY, 10003, 212-358-0295, www.nmass.org Neighbors Link, 27 Columbus Avenue, Mount Kisco, NY 10549, 914-666-3410, www. neighborslink.org New Immigrant Community Empowerment, 37-41 77th Street, 2nd Floor, Jackson Heights, NY 11372, 718-205-8796, www.nynice.org New York Taxi Workers Alliance, 31-10 37th Avenue, Suite 300, Long Island City, NY 11101, 718-706-9892, www.nytwa.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, 275 7th Avenue, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10001, 212-243-6900, www.rocny.org Rural & Migrant Ministry—Liturgia Rural Worker Education Center, 7 Phelps Street, Lyons, NY 14489, 315-871-4031, www.ruralmigrantministry.org Rural & Migrant Ministry—Poughkeepsie office (headquarters), 360 Noxon Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603, 845-485-8627, www.ruralmigrantministry.org Rural & Migrant Ministry—Spark Rural Worker Education Center, 172 N. Main Street, Liberty, NY 12754, 845-392-7279, www.ruralmigrantministry.org Tompkins County Workers’ Center, 115 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Ithaca, NY 14850, 607-269-0409, www.tcworkerscenter.org United Community Center of Westchester, 360 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801, 914-813-2896, www.ayudandovidas.org Vamos Unidos, 2431 Morris Avenue, Bronx, NY 10468, www.vamosunidos.org Worker Justice Center of New York—Albany office, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12210, 800-905-9644, www.wjcny.org Worker Justice Center of New York—Kingston office, 9 Main Street, Kingston, NY 12401, 845-331-6615, www.wjcny.org Worker Justice Center of New York—Rochester office, 1187 Culver Road, Rochester, NY 14609, 585-325-3050, www.wjcny.org Workers’ Center of Central New York, 232 E. Onondaga Street, 2nd Floor, Syracuse, NY 13202, 315-218-5708, www.workerscentercny.org Workplace Project, 91 N. Franklin Street, Suite 207, Hempstead, NY 11550, 516-5655377, www.facebook.com/WorkplaceProject

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North Carolina

Beloved Community Center, 417 Arlington Street, Greensboro, NC 27406, 336-2300001, www.belovedcommunitycenter.org Black Workers for Justice, P.O. Box 1863, Rocky Mount, NC 27802, 252-442-8123, www.blackworkersforjustice.org El Centro Hispano/Center for Employment and Leadership, 201 W. Weaver Street, Carrboro, NC 27510-2019, 919-945-0136, www.elcentronc.org Farm Labor Organizing Committee, 4354 US Highway 117 Alternate S., Dudley, NC 28333, 919-731-4433, www.floc.com Western North Carolina Workers’ Center, P.O. Box 3025, Marion, NC 28752, 828-432-5080, www.wncworkerscenter.org

Ohio

Central Ohio Worker Center/Centro de Trabajadores de Central Ohio, Columbus, OH, 614-589-0732, www.centralohioworkercenter.org Cincinnati Interfaith Workers’ Center, 1235 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202, 513-621-5991, www.cworkers.org Farm Labor Organizing Committee, 1221 Broadway Street, Toledo, OH 43609, 419-243-3456, www.floc.com Immigrant Worker Project, 701 Walnut Avenue NE, Canton, OH 44702, 330-4542220, www.iwpohio.org

Oregon

Center for Intercultural Organizing—Beaverton office, 12625 SW Broadway, Suite 200, Beaverton, OR 97005, 503-913-6969, www.interculturalorganizing.org Center for Intercultural Organizing—Portland office, 700 N. Killingsworth Street, Portland, OR 97217, 503-287-4117, www.interculturalorganizing.org Centro Cultural de Washington County, 1110 N. Adair Street, Cornelius, OR 97113, 503-359-0446, www.centrocultural.org Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, 300 Young Street, Woodburn, OR 97071, 503-982-0243, www.pcun.org United Farm Workers, 220 SW 11th Street, Hermiston, OR 97838, 541-564-2717, www.ufw.org VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project, 1131 SE Oak Street, Portland, OR 97214, 503-233-6787, www.portlandvoz.org Pennsylvania

Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA Pennsylvania), P.O. Box 246, Kennett Square, PA 19348, 610-444-9696, www.cata-farmworkers.org

Worker Centers

Philadelphia Unemployment Project, 112 N. Broad Street, 11th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-557-0822, www.philaup.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of Philadelphia, 1329 Buttonwood Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19123, 215-867-9747, www.rocunited.org/philly Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania, 4233 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-279-0472, www.twapa.org Rhode Island

Direct Action for Rights and Equality, 340 Lockwood Street, Providence, RI 02907, 401-351-6960, www.daretowin.org Fuerza Laboral, 127 Clay Street, Central Falls, RI 02863, 401-725-2700, www.fuerzalaboral.org South Carolina

Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment—Charleston Chapter, ILA Hall, 1142 Morrison Drive, Charleston, SC 29403-3111, www.facebook.com/pages/CarolinaAlliance-for-Fair-Employment-Charleston-Chapter Tennessee

Workers Interfaith Network, 3035 Directors Row, Building B, Suite 1207, Memphis, TN 38131, 901-332-3570, www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org Workers’ Dignity/Dignidad Obrera, 3013B Nolensville Pike, Nashville, TN 37211, 615-601-2820, www.workersdignity.org Texas

Border Agricultural Project, 201 E. 9th Avenue, El Paso, TX 79901, 915-532-0921, www.farmworkers.org/bawppage Comité de Justicia Laboral/Labor Justice Committee, P.O. Box 3895, El Paso TX 79923, 915-209-2551, www.laborjusticecommittee.org Fe y Justicia Worker Center, 1805 West Alabama Street, 2nd Floor, Houston, TX 77098, 713-862-8222, www.houstonworkers.org Fuerza del Valle Workers Center, Alamo, TX, 956-283-5650, www.fuerzadelvalle.org Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo Highway, San Antonio, TX 78211, 210-927-2294, www. lafuerzaunida.org LUPE (La Unión del Pueblo Entero)—Alton office, 220 W. Dawes Avenue, Suite B, Alton, TX 78573, 956-584-3636, www.lupenet.org LUPE (La Unión del Pueblo Entero)—Mercedes office, 1225 N. FM491, Mercedes, TX 78570, 956-565-2761, www.lupenet.org LUPE (La Unión del Pueblo Entero)—San Juan office, P.O. Box 188, San Juan, TX 78589, 956-787-2233, www.lupenet.org

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La Mujer Obrera, 2000 Texas Avenue, El Paso, TX 79901, 915-217-1135, www. mujerobrera.org Restaurant Opportunities Center of Houston, 5373 W. Alabama Street, Suite 202A, Houston, TX 77056, 832-623-6304, www.rocunited.org/houston Southwest Workers Union, 1416 E. Commerce Street, San Antonio, TX 78205, 210-299-2666, www.swunion.org Taxi Drivers Association of Austin, P.O. Box 684481, Austin, TX 78768, www. austintaxidriver.org Workers’ Defense Project/Proyecto Defensa Laboral—Austin office, 5604 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78723, 512-391-2305, www.workersdefense.org Workers’ Defense Project/Proyecto Defensa Laboral—Dallas office, 4202 S. Lancaster Road, Dallas, TX 75216, 972-479-5080, www.workersdefense.org Vermont

Vermont Workers’ Center, 294 N. Winooski Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401, 802-8614892, www.workerscenter.org Virginia

Centreville Labor Resource Center, 5956 Centreville Crest Lane, Centreville, VA 20121, 703-543-6272, www.centrevillelrc.org Shirlington Employment and Education Center, 2701 S. Nelson Street, Arlington, VA 22206, 703-933-1101, www.seecjobs.org Tenants and Workers United, 3801 Mt. Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22305, 703-684-5697, www.tenantsandworkers.org Washington

Casa Latina, 317 17th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98144, 206-956-0779, www.casa-latina.org Community to Community Development, 203 W. Holly, Suite 317, Bellingham, WA 98225, 360-738-0893, www.foodjustice.org Wisconsin

Voces de la Frontera—Kenosha office, 1213 55th Street, Kenosha, WI 53140, 414-2187115, www.vdlf.org Voces de la Frontera—Milwaukee office, 1027 S. 5th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53204, 414-643-1620, www.vdlf.org Voces de la Frontera—Racine office, 2100 Layard Avenue, Racine, WI 53404, 262-6194180, www.vdlf.org Workers’ Rights Center of Madison, 2300 S. Park Street, Suite 115, Madison, WI 53713, 608-255-0376, www.wrcmadison.org

Appendix D How Worker Centers Can Keep 501c3 Tax Exempt Status Brian Glick

The 501c3 tax exempt status of worker centers has come under attack.  The attackers claim that worker centers are not entitled to 501c3 status because “they are unions under another name.” These attacks are part of a broader campaign against worker centers. That campaign shows that business interests are worried because worker centers are becoming effective. The key response is for worker centers to intensify their main work and not be diverted or distracted by these attacks. At the same time, it may help to clarify why the attacks are wrong and what worker centers can do to protect 501c3 status.1 Why 501c3 Status Is Important

With fund-raising in mind, 501c3 status makes a contribution to a worker center deductible from the donor’s taxable income. This makes it easy for foundations to give grants directly to worker centers. (Foundations can give grants in other ways, but those ways are difficult and not readily available.) Though there are other forms of exemption from federal income tax, only 501c3 facilitates foundation grants and makes contributions tax deductible. Why Worker Centers Are Entitled to 501c3 Status

The status of 501c3 is for nonprofit organizations that are “charitable” or “educational.” “Charitable,” under tax law, does not mean giving away money. It means providing a public benefit. Worker centers fight to make life better for all workers in an industry or a community. Their activities thus fall well within IRS guidelines. Under IRS rules, a group qualifies for 501c3 if all or almost all of its activities aim to: Advance civil and human rights under law. Combat discrimination. Improve public health and social welfare.

1. The attackers also argue that worker centers should be subject to the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor Management Disclosure and Reporting Act, which govern and restrict union organizing. A helpful overview of that issue is Eli Naduris-Weissman, “Worker Centers and Traditional Labor Law: How to Stay on the Good Side of the Law!,” National Lawyers Guild, Labor and Employment Committee, January 2010, http://nlg-laboremploy-comm.org/media/ProjWkrCtr_2010_Naduris-W_WkrCtrStratGuideLbrLaw.pdf. 307

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Provide research and public education on subjects beneficial to the community. Provide instruction or training for individuals for purposes of improving their capacities. Help people who are “poor and distressed” or “underprivileged.”

Why Worker Centers Get Tax Status Different from Unions

As “mutual benefit” organizations, labor unions do not qualify for 501c3 status. They get 501c5 status, which exempts them from federal income tax but does not make contributions deductible and does not facilitate foundation grants. A labor union is required by law to serve the interests of a defined, limited groups of workers, mainly members, and to be responsible only to them. A worker center, by contrast, is a “public benefit” organization. It does not serve only a limited set of people. Its activities benefit all of the workers in an industry or neighborhood. It may have no members or only a small membership of activists who work for goals far beyond the self-interest of those activists. If a worker center has members, membership is open to any worker who wants to help. How a Worker Center Can Protect Its 501c3 Status

Make it clear that all activities are part of efforts to help a broad, open-ended set of workers and their communities Often a worker center helps an individual or a small group of workers deal with a particular abuse, such as wage and hour violations, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, or unsafe working conditions. When doing that, make it clear that such efforts are not just for the personal benefit of the workers involved but an integral part of broad initiatives to improve the lives of a very large group of people who are poor, distressed, or underprivileged. This frame is valuable politically. It is also essential legally, to show that the worker center is not operating for the “private benefit” of individuals or the “mutual benefit” of worker center members or any other small limited group. This frame should be emphasized in all the worker center’s literature and talking points. It should be all over the center’s website and Facebook page, and it should be explicit in the center’s annual federal income tax return (Form 990, discussed in point 7 below). Keep membership open-ended and indefinite Many worker centers have identified the need to build a broad, dues-paying membership base. It is fine for a 501c3 organization to have members, so long as it works to benefit a large group of workers who need help. Services (such as job training or help with wage theft or other law violations) can be available only to members, so long as any low-wage worker in the industry or neighborhood who supports the goals of the organization can easily join. Before initiating a major program of member benefits or restricting services only to dues-paying members, consult with a knowledgeable lawyer or advisor to minimize risk to your 501c3 status. When protesting against a particular employer, make it clear that the center is not seeking to become collective bargaining agent for the employer’s workers or to benefit only those workers It is fine to run a campaign—with pickets, lawsuits, whatever—against a

How Worker Centers Can Keep 501c3 Tax Exempt Status

particular employer as part of your broader efforts. But make it clear in every way you can that you are not a labor union and that you do not seek to gain recognition as the workers’ collective bargaining agent. (This helps address labor law as well as 501c3 concerns.) Stress that your work is not just for those workers but is part of your effort to improve the lives of all the workers in your industry or neighborhood. Also, if your organization contemplates supporting or promoting civil disobedience or other law violation, consult first with a sympathetic lawyer or other advisor in order to make sure your do not risk losing 501c3 status. Any labor union formed by workers you are helping should be a legally independent organization separate from the worker center It’s fine for workers of a particular employer to organize and negotiate with that employer for improved wages and working conditions on an ongoing basis (rather than to resolve a single lawsuit or campaign). But they should not carry out that activity within a worker center or other 501c3 organization. You can help the workers to understand their rights and assess their options. If the employer obstructs their efforts to form or join a union, or retaliates against them, you can help defend the workers’ freedom to exercise their legal rights. Any union the workers form or join will be entitled to 501c5 status but not 501c3. Do not support candidates for elected office A 501c3 organization can engage in nonpartisan activities such as voter registration and education or get-out-the-vote drives so long as it does not in any way support a particular candidate in any election at any level of government. Keep legislative advocacy expenditures within IRS limits Worker centers should choose to be governed by the expenditure test (IRS Form 5768). That test limits “attempts to influence legislation” to up to 20 percent of your annual budget (a little less if the center’s income is over $500,000). It imposes much lower limits (5 percent or less as income increases) on what IRS calls “grassroots lobbying,” efforts to persuade and help other people, who are not actively involved with the center, to try to influence legislation. Be sure to keep very careful records, especially of paid staff time. For complicated questions, consult the Alliance for Justice website or staff. Remember: issue advocacy not connected with legislation is unrestricted. So is lobbying any official for government action that is not linked to legislation. So is activity by your staff that is outside paid time and does not use the center’s name or resources. Remember also that some states and localities have separate registration and disclosure requirements for groups that lobby and that those laws may define lobbying more broadly than the IRS does. Pay close attention to federal income tax returns (IRS Form 990); do not just hand them off to your accountant The financial information in your annual return needs to be accurate and detailed, especially regarding legislative advocacy. Form 990 also requires that every 501c3 organization restate its mission and provide a narrative of its major programs or projects during the tax year. IRS officials read this to make sure you still qualify for 501c3 status. Opponents of worker centers also read 990s. Each 990 is a public record (except for donor lists), available on GuideStar and other websites. You are required to make a copy of the public parts promptly available to anyone who asks for it. So do not just turn your 990 over to

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your accountant. Check all figures and entries carefully. Draft your mission statement and program narratives yourselves, with help and review by a supportive lawyer or other advisor. Make sure the statement and narratives stress the broad public benefits provided by all worker center activities. For Further Guidance and Advice

To better prepare for and cope with opposition attacks Road Map Consulting (www. roadmapconsulting.org) offers materials and consulting on strategic planning and capacity building and has a special project that assists with preventing, protecting, and preparing for opposition attacks. On advocacy, lobbying, and political activity the Bolder Advocacy program of Alliance for Justice (www.bolderadvocacy.org) posts a broad range of practical, accessible, updated materials and provides workshops and trainings, as well as one-on-one technical assistance. Contact Abby Levine, legal director: [email protected]. For official government policies and forms you can learn a great deal from the easily navigated IRS website. See www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits. On 990 federal income tax returns GuideStar (www.guidestar.com). For legal advice and assistance check out local legal services offices, law school clinics, and public interest law centers such as Lawyers Alliance and Urban Justice Center in New York, Public Counsel and Insight Center for Community Economic Development in California, and other groups listed at “Pro Bono Providers Nationwide,” Lawyers Alliance for New York (www.lawyersalliance.org/ProvidersNat.php). Get referrals from a friendly labor lawyer or the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. You may also be able to get free assistance from a sympathetic lawyer working at a major law firm. This piece is used by permission of Brian Glick, an attorney and activist who founded the Fordham Law School’s Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic in 2000 and has directed it since then. The CED Clinic represents groups fighting for social justice in low-income communities and low-wage workforces. Glick has been a regular advisor to worker centers on how to reduce and respond to attacks from opponents. He graciously allowed his piece to be included in this handbook in order to share his experience and advice with the movement.

Appendix E Popular Education Training Resources

Casa de Maryland, one of the nation’s largest and oldest worker centers, has prepared many hands-on popular education resources, including training materials in English and Spanish on worker rights, tenant rights, and immigration raids. The center also makes available for purchase bilingual curricula on ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) instruction, financial literacy, citizenship, advocacy, leadership, labor history, and computer training. National Day Laborer Organizing Network has a leadership development curriculum designed particularly for day laborers, titled Levantando Nuestras Voces: Leadership Development Curriculum. It can be downloaded for free from www.ndlon.org. The University of Massachusetts Labor Extension Program has developed a great tenpart training program on worker rights. It is focused on Massachusetts laws, but it could be easily adapted (with permission, of course). This entire curriculum can be downloaded for free from http://umasslep.prometheuslabor.com/content/curricula. The Washington State Labor Education and Research Center developed a workers rights manual and then used it in working with five teachers to create curricula for high school classes. You can download an introduction to the entire curriculum packet and the curricula for five of the chapters for free at http://georgetown.southseattle.edu/ LERC/workersrightsmanual.aspx.

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