Black Workers Matter
Chicago West Side

Workplace Campaign Organizer

Based in Chicago, IL

 

This is the most exciting time in the last fifty years to be a labor organizer! If you're an experienced union/labor organizer, who's trained in and practiced worker organizing fundamentals and are ready to teach workers those methods, while supporting them to build creative, community-based, transformative worker campaigns, this might be the challenge for you.

Founded in 2015, Black Workers Matter-Chicago West Side (BWM) fights anti-Black discrimination in hiring and racial segregation on the job in west side industrial districts. BWM has a proven record of: 1) organizing to dismantle Chicago's widespread, unlawful “segregationist employment model”; 2) racially integrating workforces of large, consumer brand companies; and 3) ending segregation-related abuses, such as wage suppression and theft. While BWM intentionally centers the struggle against pervasive anti-Blackness in industrial employment, it champions a solidarity power model, uniting workers of all races to fight exploitation based on racial division. BWM also works closely with Get to Work, Inc., a community-based job placement program, that replaces “perma-temp” jobs, through discriminatory agencies, with local, direct hiring.
 
The job of the contracted Campaign Organizer (CO) is to train and support west side industrial workers in collective action for power, organizing both within and outside of unions. These currently atomized workers compose a majority or plurality of working people on Chicago's west side. But—other than as social service clients—they are not currently “seen” or meaningfully engaged by and with west side nonprofits, unions, and elected officials, much less supported as agents in their own liberation. The CO will train workers to build collective power across employer-engineered workplace racialization by practicing solidarity and by teaching and using both time-tested and innovative labor organizing methods, while also making use of new technologies.

Job Duties
To help execute BWM's Annual Plan, the CO will:

• TALK daily to workers at regular, worksite shift change outreach, and by in-person/phone follow-up, in order to:
• identify widely/deeply felt, winnable issues & develop existing/potential worker-leaders;
• based on these common issues, train and support workers to strategize and plan campaigns and then organize collective actions to win justice;
• educate worker-leaders in labor law & rights, including union member rights, contracts, and grievance protocols;
• formally train workers in BWM's mission, its basic organizing tools, civics, & relevant laws and public policy;
• recruit workers to join BWM and support them to take leadership within BWM;
• integrate—without being distracted by or relying on—slower, legal approaches to redress violations of civil, worker and union rights;
• assist BWM to strengthen alliances with values-aligned unions and other west side and citywide economic justice groups;
• make formal, weekly report work activities and hours;
• make formal, quarterly reports to BWM on progress made toward the Annual Plan; and
• participate in grant writing, site visits, & grant reporting for funding that supports BWM & broader economic justice for westsiders.

Job Requirements/Qualifications

• have a minimum three (3) years of demonstrable union/labor organizing experience and success, including training workers to lead worksite collective actions and campaigns and/or to win union elections;
• possess demonstrable resilience and confidence to embrace very challenging organizing that fights multiple oppressions (by class, race, gender/identity, etc.) at once;
• be available to work majority-time in-person on the west side: This job is in-person & based out of BWM sites. Hours paid for days or hours of remote work will be considered complementary and will require prior agreement and clear, regular structure;
• have a car & active driver's license. The organizer is expected to be independently mobile. Hours paid for remote work because of lack of a car or mobility will be considered exceptional and on a case-by-case and temporary basis;
• be available to work mid-afternoon, late afternoon & early evening shift changes;
• be prepared and motivated to meet workers in person, both inside and outside, at or near work sites in all seasons and weather;
• demonstrate ability to clearly distinguish, prioritize, and teach the organizing method of relating to workers, as distinct from other, more typical modes of engaging workers such as, for example, as clients or constituents in advocacy, social service, and political work;
• experience in prioritizing TALKING TO WORKERS—and of regularly tracking organizing conversations;
• able to unite & embolden workers to take leadership and action despite rational fears based on existing, asymmetrical power structures and worker atomization. Possess patience, compassion, & creativity in engaging with, motivating, and developing individual workers/groups;
• able to learn, use, adapt, and teach both traditional and new labor organizing methods, tactics, technologies, and strategy;
• in the context of minimal organizational structure, be able to work independently and diligently and practice efficient/effective self-structuring of work without relying on close supervision and direction,* in order to complete tasks & advance campaigns. Able also to accept occasional close supervision & feedback;
• optimally, live in or near or be familiar with the west side of Chicago; and
• preferably, be able to organize, and train workers effectively in both English & Spanish.

Job Structure & Pay
*Black Workers Matters is governed by veteran worker-leaders who work industrial jobs. As such, BWM has not had a structure of regular, full-time staff. The CO would work on a contract basis, renewed annually, that pays $65,000 – $75,000, depending on experience. This salary is total compensation for the position, intended to reflect expenses that labor organizers typically incur, especially gas and vehicle maintenance. In addition, reasonable expenses are specified and reimbursed. The annual contract will specify time off as sick/personal days and vacation that exceeds the normal standard, recognizing that intensive organizing work must be balanced by a healthy amount of time to recover and rejuvenate.

To Apply:
In addition to a résumé, please include a cover letter that explains what specifically excites you about the work with BWM, as well as your relevant organizing experience and success. Please send your résumé and cover letter to: west2work@gmail.com, with the Subject Line: Campaign Organizer.