Members
Each of the organizations and networks comprising the UWC are firmly rooted in low-income/low-wage sectors of the economy, organizing in the workplace and the community where excluded workers are based. We are developing worker power and place a primacy on the development of worker leadership. One of the hallmarks of the United Workers Congress at the USSF in Detroit and in our subsequent gatherings is that rank-and-file worker-members of the different organizations/networks comprised the overwhelmingly majority of participants at the Congress. The experiences shared from the podium and the floor were those of workers in excluded sectors, and the proposals/recommendations for policy change and long-term strategy were those emerging from years of organizing among these sectors, as articulated by members themselves.
Criteria for membership in the United Workers Congress:
1) National alliances that represent a certain sector. For sectors without a national alliance, the organizations should already be engaged in regional or national work.
2) Represent an "excluded" sector
3) Have a grassroots organizing strategy
4) Have the capacity to contribute resources and staffing to national work
5) Sign onto the principles and vision of the UWC
Each alliance has its own membership. The core alliances/ organizations involved are:
- Restaurant Workers –Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC United)
- Day Laborers –National Day Laborer Organizing Network
- Guest Workers – National Guestworkers Alliance
- Domestic Workers –National Domestic Workers Alliance and Direct Care Alliance
- Formerly Incarcerated Workers –All of Us or None
- Workfare/Welfare workers – Community Voices Heard, SF Living Wage Coalition
- Farmworkers – Coalition of Immokalee Workers, CATA
- Right-to-work states - National Jobs with Justice, Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights, and Black Workers for Justice.
- Taxi drivers –New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Taxi Workers Alliance of PA and LA Taxi Workers Alliance
We are opening our membership to new sectors and alliances. Interested organizations should contact our staff to discuss opportunities for membership. Organizations are encouraged to attend our regional meetings or attend a membership event (or webinar) to get plugged in.
