The Chicago Workers Collaborative (CWC) is a left-of-center advocacy group promoting pro-union policies and  encouraging unionization at facilities within the greater Chicago area. The group was founded in 2000 and advocates for day laborers, immigrant workers, and temporary workers employed at factories. The CWC provides legal assistance, assists with public benefit applications, and conducts labor organizing. The group also founded Chicago Community and Workers Rights, another left-of-center workers center that spun off from the organization into a standalone organization. The group is funded by several left-of-center organizations and foundations in Chicago including the Lake County Community Foundation, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and the Chicago Foundation for Women. ^{1 2 3}

Background

The Chicago Workers Collaborative (CWC) was founded in 2000 to provide services and conduct labor organizing for low-wage workers, temporary workers at staffing agencies assigned to food manufacturing facilities, immigrant workers, and day laborers. The group’s four programming areas include advocacy, public health, community resources and public benefits, and the Working Families Legal Clinic. ⁴

The Chicago Workers Collaborative’s Working Families Legal Clinic was also founded in 2020 to provide free legal services to low-wage and immigrant employees. The legal clinic covers topics including immigration, labor, and family law. The legal clinic also helps individuals apply for the federal government’s Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE) program, which allows illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and earn a temporary work permit for reporting labor violations. ⁵

The Chicago Workers Collaborative previously founded a “Vigilantes Laborales” program, a program promoting labor organizing among illegal immigrant workers to advocate against alleged workplace-law violations. In 2009, the organization was spun off into an independent organization called Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights (CCWR) when, as CCWR stated, the CWC “shifted to working primarily with day laborers.” ⁶

Activities

In 2023, the Chicago Workers Collaborative (CWC) supported the passage of the Illinois Temp Worker Fairness and Safety Act (TWFSA) by the state legislature, which requires employers to pay temporary workers the same pay as full-time employees if they are on-site for more than 90 days and prohibits retaliation against temporary workers supporting union strike activities. ⁷

The group previously represented temporary workers employed by a staffing agency at Ferrara Pan Candy, and issued a list of demands which included that “workers fired from Elite Staffing are hired as direct-hires with Ferrara Candy, [that] Ferrara Candy institutes adequate safety training, and [that] Equal treatment of direct-hires and temporary staffing agency workers as to pay, breaks and workloads.” ⁸

In 2024 the group led protests on behalf of the Raise the Floor Alliance to “urge the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and the Biden administration to renew protections for immigrant workers as part of the Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE) program.” ⁹

1. “Full Text Search: Chicago Workers Collaborative.” Propublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed October 16, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?sort=best&form%5B%5D=IRS990PF&form%5B%5D=IRS990ScheduleI&q=%22chicago+workers+collaborative%22&submit=Apply
2. “Organizing.” Chicago Workers Collaborative Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.workers-collaborative.org/organizing
3. “Mission.” Chicago Workers Collaborative Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.workers-collaborative.org/mission
4. “Chicago Workers Collaborative Presentation.” Chicago Workers Collaborative, Accessed November 22, 2024. https://www.lakecountycf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CWC-Presentation.pdf
5. “Legal.” Chicago Workers Collaborative Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.chicagoworkerscollaborative.org/legal
6. “History.” Chicago Workers Collaborative Accessed October 17, 2024. https://chicagoworkersrights.org/history-mission/
7. “Governor Pritzker Signs Historic Temp Worker Bill Into Law.” Chicago Workers Collaborative. August 6, 2023. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.workers-collaborative.org/news/new-temp-law-takes-effect-in-illinois
8. “Unjustly Fired Workers Demand Reinstatement.” Chicago Workers Collaborative. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.workers-collaborative.org/news/ferrara-workers-demand-reinstatement
9. ^[1] “Hundreds of Immigrant Workers and Advocates Rally to Urge DHS to Renew Labor Protections.” Chicago Workers Collaborative. January 11, 2024. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.workers-collaborative.org/news/hundreds-of-immigrant-workers-and-advocates-rally-to-urge-dhs-to-renew-labor-protections