What We Do

There are three main components of the work we do: 

1)  Workplace Justice Campaigns: we support workers who have been mistreated in their jobs. We provide training in labor organization, rights awareness, and working with OSHA (Occupational Health & Safety Administration). We also provide legal counseling on labor and immigration issues. See examples of our workplace justice campaigns at Hot & Crusty and Dishes.

2)  Research and Policy: this is a grassroots program that empowers workers to formulate policies that help to improve their lives inside the workplace as well as in their communities. See the Minimum Wage Coalition.

3) Progressive Block Leadership Institute:  PBLI promotes civic participation of LWC members. We are looking for future generations of community leaders who seek to develop their communities as the main unit to make social-economic changes. PBLI engagement takes place in conjunction with all of our campaigns.

"One of the core values of the organization Laundry Workers Center is training the workers so they know their rights. Also, all together we are working with other organizations and different groups and they help us to support our campaign. And, at the same time, we are learning more about the movement - the history of the movement in the United States. So how the immigrants built this country, but then we still don’t have rights... So the most important thing [is] training, and thats what we’re doing in Laundry Workers Center. We train each worker to be part of the campaign until they lead that campaign... We are the workers, we are the working class... we are going to be really radical... That’s where we will start rebuilding the labor movement.”

-Mahoma Lopez

Mahoma Lopez’s involvement with the Laundry Workers Center originated from the Hot and Crusty Campaign.  Now as the president of the union Hot and Crusty Workers Association and member of the Laundry Workers Center, he develops leaders in other campaigns.

LWCU Committees

We understand that the fight for economic and social justice is not confined to the workplace - it extends fluidly to all aspects of life.  We formed these committees to broaden the impact of our social justice mission and to address these other spaces.

1)  Workplace Justice Committee: The Workplace Justice Committee supports workers who want to create a campaign to change the conditions at their workplaces and win back wages they are owed.

2)  Policy Committee: This committee focuses on changing laws that impact low-income workers and their families.  Through coalition work, the Policy Committee connects our members to larger campaigns, such as raising the minimum wage.

3)  Health and Safety Committee: The Health and Safety Committee is concerned primarily with the home and the workplace.  This committee develops programs that teach LWC members, and the broader community, about health and safety rights.

4)  Gender Committee: The Gender Committee holds gender equity trainings, which examine and analyze the roles that gender plays in the workplace and home.  These trainings shape campaigns around women leadership, such as the 2 Thayer Street Tenant Association.

Committees coming soon:

5)  Education Committee: The Education Committee addresses the way funding cuts in the country's educational system disproportionately affect low-income families. This committee is made up of parents who are tying together workplace, home, and school-based issues.

6)  Committee for the Future: The Committee for the Future is intended to engage all components of communities with LWC, focusing on the members of the Education Committee's children.  This will not only develop leaders for tomorrow, but also create a multi-generational, holistic, community-based movement