Worker Center Leaders Come Together to Build Power in Syracuse, NY
This spring, worker center leaders and worker justice organizations from across Upstate New York came together in Syracuse for an in-person gathering of the Upstate Worker Center Hub, a project of the Worker Institute at ILR Cornell.
The convening brought together organizations working across different regions and areas of the worker justice movement, including worker centers, immigrant and farmworker organizations, occupational safety and health groups, and other organizations supporting workers across the state.
The gathering created space for participants to step outside of the urgency of their day-to-day work and think together about some of the challenges facing workers and worker organizations right now. Throughout the conversation, participants named concerns about shrinking resources, increasing attacks on immigrant workers and worker protections, and the difficulty of sustaining long-term organizing while responding to immediate needs. At the same time, there was a strong interest in finding more opportunities to learn from one another, share resources, and strengthen connections across organizations and regions.
Throughout the day, participants spent time identifying shared challenges, talking through current campaigns and organizing priorities, and thinking about where greater coordination or support could be useful. The conversation also helped surface areas where organizations wanted additional training and capacity-building support, particularly around sustainable organizing practices, leadership and engagement, coalition building, and campaign strategy. Those conversations have already helped shape the Hub's summer programming, including virtual sessions on Regenerative Organizing in Times of Crisis and Building Power in Times of Crisis.
The Syracuse gathering was one step in the ongoing work of strengthening connections among worker centers and worker-aligned organizations across Upstate New York. Since then, the Hub has continued creating opportunities for organizations to connect, learn together, and think strategically about the infrastructure needed to support workers and build power over the long term. The upstate NY group will come together again this fall to continue those conversations and identify opportunities for deeper collaboration.
The Worker Center Innovation Hub is an initiative of the Worker Institute meant to support leaders of the worker justice movement as they seek to build power for immigrant workers in the American workplace. Based on our mission, the Worker Institute has a long record of engaging in research and policy innovation for worker centers that represent and advance the rights of workers in precarious work arrangements, gig workers, and workers in precarious immigration status. We focus on internal capacity building, peer-to-peer leadership development programs, long-term strategic planning and leadership development.
“Immigrant workers are facing violent attacks on their humanity and worker centers are stepping up to support an ongoing fight to defend their dignity at work and in our communities. Our jobs as labor educators are to support worker center leaders with the research and training they need to lead their organizations boldly,” says Arianna Schindle, Director of Training & Organizational Development at the Worker Institute.
“We continue to respond to the needs of leaders for training and strategic planning, but we are also helping them carry forward a vision of collective power that leads to dignity and a good standard of living for all workers,” states Liz Davis-Frost, Extension Associate at ILR, who co-leads organizing of the Worker Center Hub in upstate NY for the Worker Institute.
Similar gatherings of worker center leaders under the Worker Center Innovation Hub continue to be organized in Long Island, NY. For more information, or to become a member of The Hub, reach out to the WI at pec1@cornell.edu.
