Chicago Workers Collaborative
                     Uniting low-wage and temporary workers to bring down barriers for full employment and equality
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About Us


Chicago Workers' Collaborative  is an Illinois non-profit organization founded in 2000 that promotes full employment and equalityfor the lowest wage-earners in the Chicago region through leadership and skills training, critical assistance and services, advocacy and collaborative action. CWC has assisted thousands of economically disadvantaged immigrants, day laborers and others employed in the contingent underground workforce to move into the mainstream. We educate about workplace rights, provide critical services to our members, and mobilize to gain full access to employment for all workers, especially immigrants and African Americans.The CWC presently is working on the following initiatives:

  • Collaborating with the Illinois Department of Labor and the Illinois Attorney General's office to improve enforcement of state labor laws.
  • Growing the membership of our Chicago, Waukegan and Northwest Suburban Worker Service Centers by providing critical Assistance to our members.
  • Aiding our worker members to locate the best legal assistance for employment-related issues.
  • Working with law enforcement authorities in arresting the perpetrators and helping the victims of human traffiicking.
  • Bringing together African-American and Latino workers to end the criminalization of our people, including Comprehensive Immigration Reform, so we may all work and participate in our community as equals.

 

Not only does CWC has a long history of assisting temporary workers, but we have also incubated many other


organizing efforts on behalf of low-income workers. In 2007, members of the Workers Collaborative joined together to form Workers United for Eco Maintenance, a cooperative working to protect the environment andpromote fair-wage jobs. After several years of incubation/support Eco Maintenance became an independent business in June 2010. In 2008, the CWC helped to build the leadership of Chicago Street Vendors Association in the struggle to stop repressive police action and convince the City to adopt an Ordinance that would enable them to obtain a license to legally prepare and sell food on the street. In 2009, we assisted in the formation of Chicago Community and Worker Rights (CCWR) which focuses much of its organizing work on the struggle of the street vendors.

More recently, as part of our initiative  to reach out to African Americans, we are the fiscal sponsor of the Change 4 Good Project which trains ex-offenders in the barbering profession.

 


The CWC is recognized as a leading worker rights organization in the City of Chicago and the United States. In 2009, the CWC was awarded the Ron Sable Award for Activism by the Crossroads Fund.