|
|
PROGRAMSCommunity/Labor Collaborations Since 2000, CSIO has worked to support and promote activities which forward immigrants’ struggle for justice in the workplace. In the past, this work has included efforts to deepen relationships between immigrant workers centers and particular segments of the labor movement, to bring together immigrant organizers and leaders who are working to support worker rights in their own ethnic communities, and to promote understanding of workplace rights in general and the intersection of immigration and labor law, with particular focus on the rights of the undocumented.
In the last year and a half, past efforts have culminated in the successful launch of the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative (IWCC), which has become the primary focus of CSIO’s community/labor collaborations work. Through the Collaborative, six organizations which have committed to work on labor issues in immigrant communities (some have made this a priority more recently, others have had functioning workers centers for between 10-20 years) have come together to shape, set the agenda for, raise monies for and launch joint activities for the IWCC.
The focus of the collaborative is building not only individual organizational capacity, but also the capacity of the movement for immigrant workers’ rights to promote successful organizing based on immigrant worker leadership and to expand the resources available to workers’ rights activities. The Collaborative has identified several areas for work including:
developing criteria for joint campaign work as well as the space to strategize, plan and debrief those campaigns;
development of a shared database;
joint learning about the how to’s of building organizing and worker leadership around worker rights cases;
articulation of a protocol for legal strategies which would clarify ways in which legal support can forward organizing goals and create mechanisms for resources from class action cases to flow back to grassroots organizations doing the work; and
creating a process for dialogue and more effective collaboration with unions;among others.
CSIO coordinates the Collaborative, convening and facilitating meetings, documenting shared learning, assisting with fundraising efforts and helping to implement the various components of the IWCC’s work. The Collaborative takes its direction from representatives from the five immigrant worker centers which are currently participating: Chinese Progressive Association, Centro Presente, Mass COSH, Brazilian Immigrant Center and Chelsea Collaborative.
|
