2011-2012 INTERMEDIARY SUPPORT
FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNITIES
PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS
CATA
(El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores
Agrícolas) (Glassboro, NJ)
El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA – Farmworker
Support Committee) is a migrant farmworker organization that is
governed by and comprised of farmworkers who are actively engaged in
the struggle for better working and living conditions. CATA’s mission
is to empower and educate farmworkers through leadership development
and capacity building so that they are able to make informed decisions
on the best course of action for their interests. CATA has advanced the
farmworkers’ struggle based on the belief that only through organizing
and collective action can they achieve justice and fullness of life.
CATA’s programs are based on the Popular Education Methodology, which
actively involves farmworkers in the process of social change. Analysis
and proposed actions come directly from the farmworkers.
CATA's recent accomplishments include:
- Through a law suit filed by CATA, the Pennsylvania Third Circuit decision ordered the US Department of Labor (DOL) to use present pay levels for setting the prevailing wages to be paid to non-agricultural workers who come to the United States under the H-2B visa program. The potential impact of this decision will be a minimum $4.00 per hour increase not only to guest workers under the H-2B visa program but to low-wage workers at the national level.
- CATA is a founding member and active participant of the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP), a multi-organizational collaborative initiative to create a fair and equitable food system via social justice certification for organic and sustainable agriculture.
- The Kaolin Workers Union, the only mushroom workers union in Pennsylvania, formed with CATA’s direct support and facilitation, enhanced their capacity to renegotiate their third contract in ten years which will protect the rights of over 600 workers.
DARE
(Direct Action for Rights and Equality) (Providence, RI)
DARE’s mission is to organize low-income families in communities of
color for social, political, and economic justice. DARE does this
through: multilingual, multiracial base building, strategic direct
action organizing campaigns, leadership development from within their
base, and contributing to larger movement building efforts. DARE was
founded in 1986 by residents of the Southside of Providence, RI who
joined together to fight for basic improvements in their community. The
early victories of their efforts taught them that there is strength in
unity. Since its inception, DARE has operated on the belief that the
best way to make changes so desperately needed in low-income
communities of color is through grassroots community organizing. No
matter what campaign DARE is engaged in as an organization, they are
always working to undo the underlying oppressions that are the root
cause of the problems facing communities.
DARE's recent accomplishments include:
- DARE worked with a powerful coalition of allies to support a bill signed into law by Governor Chaffee to protect and unshackle pregnant inmates during labor, postpartum recovery, and medical visits and transportation.
- In 2010’s legislative session, the DARE community came together to end unjust 32(f) probation violations. Before, people locked up on probation violations would often have to stay incarcerated even if the new charges that caused the probation violation were dismissed or found not guilty. DARE’s victory allowed those innocent people to have their violations dropped if the new charges don’t stick, so fewer innocent people are left in prison.
EPOCA
(Ex-Prisoners
and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement) (Worcester, MA)
“We are ex-prisoners along with allies, friends, and family coming
together to create resources and opportunities for those who have paid
their debt to society” – is the mission statement of EPOCA. EPOCA
exists to fundamentally change the relationships of power in their
community, so that regular people are the foremost actors in the
decisions that affect their lives. Although EPOCA is well known as
leaders of local and statewide efforts to end the overuse and misuse of
Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI), it is in the broader goal
of building true democracy that they are most proud of their progress.
EPOCA's recent accomplishments include:
- Leaders in the statewide efforts to change the Massachusetts’ system governing the dissemination and use of CORI. The bill was signed into a new law by Governor Deval Patrick on July 31, 2010, and EPOCA is now working to ensure its implementation.
- Under the new law, employers and landlords are no longer allowed to ask, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” on their initial applications. For the first time, everyone in Massachusetts has the opportunity to stand on his or her merits, interview for a job, and explain why they deserve a chance.
- The new law also allows a person to seal his or her record in a reasonable time (ten years instead of 15-18 with probation), which significantly increases that person’s employability. From involvement in the state's regulatory piece to continuing to work with the Commonwealth CORI, EPOCA is dedicated to seeing the implementation process through.
- The real history of EPOCA is not measured by their systemic and structural victories – it is told in the stories of their members who have become powerful community leaders. EPOCA is especially proud that eight members who began their community involvement with EPOCA are now professional organizers and countless more are leaders in their neighborhoods, their workplaces and their children’s schools.
JUNTOS
(Philadelphia, PA)
JUNTOS is a non-profit community-based organization comprised of
Mexican and other Latino immigrants in South Philadelphia. JUNTOS’
mission is to build power for justice in the City of Philadelphia in
order to create vibrant, organized, vocal and healthy communities.
JUNTOS combines leadership development, community organizing, and
focused collaborations with other community-based and advocacy
organizations to help immigrants develop the necessary tools to advance
economically, integrate into the social fabric of the city, become
active participants in civic life, and impact policies and institutions
that affect their community.
JUNTOS' recent accomplishments include:
- Organized a community forum to end the collaboration between Philadelphia Police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal agency. The forum was attended by 350 members of the immigrant community. The forum received extensive media coverage and resulted in the City of Philadelphia changing the policy and denying ICE access to the City Police list of victims and witnesses of crimes.
- JUNTOS Education Committee initiated a campaign to create quality immigrant-friendly schools in South Philadelphia including four action steps: (1) development of a questionnaire and interviewing immigrant parents and school principals about their vision for quality schools and barriers that need to be overcome; (2) visiting two schools (in Philadelphia and Baltimore) which are models for integrating immigrant students; (3) making a list of recommendations for creating immigrant-friendly schools; and (4) planning and implementation of a public forum.
- JUNTOS trained immigrant parents to be advocates for their children in public schools. Twenty-four Latino and Indonesian families were trained over 6 half-day sessions in 2010.
Restaurant
Opportunities Center (ROC-NY) (New York, NY)
Although initially founded to provide support to restaurant workers
displaced after September 11th, 2001, ROC-NY has expanded to organize
restaurant workers throughout New York City to improve working
conditions and wages in the industry. ROC-NY is a membership-led
organization of nearly 5,000 restaurant workers who are new immigrants
reflecting the diversity of the restaurant industry. ROC-NY employs a
tri-pronged strategy by: 1) providing legal and organizing support to
restaurant workers whose rights have been violated; 2) partnering with
local employers who take the ‘high road’ to promote employer education
on fair employment practices, and to conduct job training and placement
programs to help low-wage workers advance to living-wage jobs; and 3)
conducting groundbreaking research and worker-led policy initiatives.
ROC-NY's recent accomplishments include:
- Engaged in negotiations with a company for the last year and expect to win a comprehensive settlement agreement which includes more than one million dollars in unpaid wages and stolen tips and major changes in the workplace, including policies for promotion, paid time off, and more. This effort is the result of an organizing campaign of a group of 40 low-wage, immigrant restaurant workers.
- Organized nearly 40 ‘high road’ responsible restaurant owners into the Restaurant Industry Roundtable, to serve as a model for ethical business practices in the industry.
- Vastly developed and grew their restaurant COLORS into a job training program, the COLORS Hospitality Institute for Workers (CHOW) Institute. The ROC-NY/CHOW program trains more than 300 low-wage, displaced, and unemployed restaurant workers annually in both front-of-house and back-of-house job skills and have placed more than 60% of the trainees in living-wage jobs while developing new leaders.
The
Workplace Project (Long Island, NY)
Since its inception in 1992, The Workplace Project’s mission has been
to fight to end the exploitation of Latina/o immigrant workers on Long
Island and to achieve social justice through the full political,
economic and cultural participation of these workers in the communities
in which they live. The Workplace Project accomplishes its mission by
conducting outreach, providing leadership training, building
membership, and organizing for change.
The Workplace Project's recent accomplishments include:
- In the last two years, The Workplace Project has recovered over $400,000 in unpaid wages on behalf of immigrant workers.
- The Workplace Project defeated anti-immigrant legislation and ordinances, and fought anti-day laborer laws in Oyster Bay and evictions of Latina/o renters in the town of Brookhaven.
- In 2010, in alliance with other organizations, The Workplace Project was instrumental in the drafting and passage of the New York State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
VAMOS
Unidos (Bronx, NY)
VAMOS Unidos is a Bronx-based organization founded in 2007 by
low-income Latina immigrant street vendors to organize immigrant
workers for economic and racial justice, immigrant rights, and police
accountability. Their mission is to develop an empowered base and
leadership of immigrant workers who are economically self-sufficient
and able to win change on local and national policies.
VAMOS Unidos' recent accomplishments include:
- Won a state victory to protect all immigrant business owners’ immigration status.
- Won a crucial policy change to stop a staff policy of asking the immigration status of applicants at the NYS Department of Taxation & Finance.
- Through VAMOS members’ organizing and collaborative efforts 1,000 new cart permits began to be issued under the Green Cart program – the first street vendor permit increase in NYC since 1979.