Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha

CTUL has been accused of engaging in organizing on unions’ behalf in ways that those unions would be prohibited from doing under federal labor laws, and during the first Trump administration, it was the subject of a U.S. Labor Department review of its legal status that was widely viewed as a test case for regulating worker centers as labor unions.  ^{2  3}

During the Operation Metro Surge federal immigration law enforcement campaign in 2026, CTUL organized opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts to identify unauthorized workers in Minneapolis-area workplaces. ⁴

Background

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha is a worker center that trains and organizes workers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, with a focus on janitorial, fast food, and hospitality workers.  ¹ Founded in 2011, its name translates roughly in English to “Center for Workers United in Struggle.” ⁵

It is an avowedly left-of-center organization, and its communications have frequently employed socialist rhetoric such as celebrating “workers who are leading the fight against the 1%,” asserting “we too have a stake in ending racial capitalism for the freedom of all peoples,” and declaring “our liberation is bound up with the liberation of all workers.” ⁶

Coordination with Labor Unions

In 2014 and 2017, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha was one of five worker centers featured in reports by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that laid out the close coordination between labor unions, worker centers, and left-of-center foundations.  ² The Chamber report characterized worker centers, especially those within the Jobs With Justice (JWJ) coalition, as “for the most part, formed and incubated by well-established and well-funded labor unions and foundations.”  ⁷

The report alleged that labor unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) used worker centers as arms-length organizers to avoid restrictions on union organizing in federal labor law.  ⁷ In one example, it claimed that CTUL had received $300,000 from the SEIU to obtain a card-check neutrality agreement with a janitorial contractor that did work at big-box retailers, with an ultimate goal of obtaining a similar agreement with Target Corporation.  ²

The Chamber’s investigation identified $92,000 in Jobs With Justice-aligned foundation support for CTUL (led by $67,000 from the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation) and $300,000 in donations from the SEIU’s Fast Food Workers Committee (FFWC) affiliate from 2013 to 2016.  ² In total, CTUL reported $2,455,331 in total revenues across those years. ⁸

In the first Trump Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) reviewed CTUL’s operations to determine whether it was acting as a “labor organization” within the meaning of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LRMDA), and therefore subject to some federal laws regulating labor unions. ^{9  3} The investigation was widely seen as a test case for other potential federal efforts to apply labor union regulations to worker centers.  ^{3  10}

In an August 2019 letter, an OLMS district director informed CTUL’s co-director that “based on available evidence, OLMS has reason to believe that CTUL is a labor organization,” citing among other factors its organizing of pickets and other pressure actions at employers such as Target, Macy’s, and Best Buy “in an effort to secure better working conditions for its members.” ¹¹

During the Biden administration, OLMS revised its interpretation of LRMDA in a manner that largely exempted worker centers such as CTUL from labor-union disclosure requirements. ¹²

Programs

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) reported $2.2 million in program expenses in its 2024 tax return across three program service areas providing “workers’ rights education and other educational content regarding civic engagement, public speaking, and organizing for equitable change.”  ¹³

It claimed to have provided those services to a total of 792 people, “all of them low-wage workers from underserved communities.”  ¹³

Advocacy Campaigns

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL)  promoted pro-labor union and left-of-center public policies in Minnesota, including a $15 minimum wage, rent control, opposition to federal immigration law, and other policies. ¹⁴

It has organized strikes by non-union workers who clean “big box” retail stores, supermarkets, and other large retailers. ^{15  16  17}

One of CTUL’s early campaigns was the attempted organization in 2011 of cleaning workers at the Supervalu grocery chain. ¹⁸ The campaign included a hunger strike by four workers and four “community allies” that lasted 12 days and ended when local religious leaders and elected officials promised to push the company to come to terms with the workers. ¹⁹

In 2017, CTUL organized strikes of Minneapolis-area janitors and other workers on President Donald Trump’s first inauguration day. ²⁰

In 2018, CTUL protested the Super Bowl when it was held at Minneapolis’s US Bank Stadium, criticizing the public subsidies the stadium had received from state and local governments. ²¹

CTUL supports the Service Employees International Union-led “Fight for $15” campaign to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and organize unions at quick-service restaurants. ^{22 23}

2026 Minneapolis ICE Operation

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha was involved in organizing opposition to the federal government’s Operation Metro Surge immigration-enforcement campaign in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region in early 2026. ²⁴

CTUL launched a “Workers’ Resistance to Federal Occupation” campaign that attempted to pressure Minneapolis-area homebuilders, restaurants, hospitality businesses, and other businesses with immigrant workforces to publicly denounce the federal operation and deny U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents access to their workplaces without warrants. ^{4  25}

A February 2026 investigation by the right-of-center Daily Caller identified the left-of-center Minneapolis-based grantmaker Headwaters Foundation for Justice as a coordinator and funder of anti-ICE protests and activism in Minneapolis.  ²⁶ The Daily Caller’s analysis of various tax filings and public statements identified CTUL as an organization that had received funding from Headwaters to support anti-ICE activism. ²⁶ It also noted that Headwaters had previously received significant funding from left-of-center billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.  ²⁶

Previously, Headwaters had announced that four donor-advised funds it operated had made grants of unspecified amounts to CTUL in FY25. ²⁷

Funding

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha has received significant funding from labor unions and labor union-aligned or controlled organizations. From 2019 to 2026, it received grants from international or local unions of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA), United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC), Fast Food Workers Committee (FFWC), Education Minnesota, and Minnesota Nurses Association.  ²⁸ It has also received grants from labor union-funded or controlled organizations such as the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, National Employment Law Project, United for Respect Education Fund, and Jobs With Justice Education Fund.  ²⁸

CTUL has also received funding from private foundations including the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, Tides Foundation, New Venture Fund, Voqal Twin Cities, TakeAction Minnesota Education Fund, Nexus Community Partners, Tending The Soil Minnesota, Solidago Foundation, St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, Equal Justice Works, Common Counsel Foundation, American Endowment Foundation, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, and Donor Advised Charitable Giving (DAFgiving360). ²⁸

In its 2024 annual report to supporters, CTUL said that 74 percent of its revenue was from “contributions from private institutions, individuals, and allied organizations,” 22 percent was from “government grants contracted for outreach and education on workplace standards,” and four percent was from other sources such as events and rent. ²⁹