about IMMIGRANT RIGHTS | TOOLS & RESOURCES | IMMIGRANT WORKER ORGANIZING | COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM | STOP ATTACKS ON IMMIGRANTS

SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT WORKER ORGANIZING

Our Goal: Improve working and living conditions for immigrant workers and their families. This entails supporting unions organizing primarily immigrant workers and those that represent immigrant workers in collective bargaining, as well as highlighting the barriers that immigrant families face in securing healthcare coverage and accessing services.

Local JwJ coalitions support thousands of immigrant workers in workplace justice campaigns. Historically, bosses and corporations have pitted workers against each other based on their race, ethnicity, and immigration status. As unions seek to organize growing numbers of immigrant workers, Jobs with Justice facilitates relationships with organizations in immigrant communities that can support such campaigns. Immigrant rights issues cut across our other program areas: threats to immigrant workers thwart organizing campaigns; immigrant families face critical barriers to accessing quality affordable health care; and immigrant families in the U.S. are very invested in global justice issues, particularly as they affect their countries of origin.

One example of a campaign that combines workers’ rights with immigrant rights is Boston JwJ’s Fair Wages Project, which seeks to address that city’s growing problem of immigrant workers being paid less than they are owed, or not paid at all. JwJ is working with organizations within the Brazilian, Chinese, and other immigrant communities to educate workers about their rights, ensure that they have access to legal services to collect their pay, and to build a larger campaign to fight this unjust treatment and compel employers to treat their workers fairly. Local coalitions around the country have been working on broader immigrant rights issues including access to drivers’ licenses and educating communities about the REAL ID Act. Campaigns like these tackle the barriers that immigrant workers face while maintaining a focus on the larger cause of immigrant rights.