National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) is a network of labor unions and labor advocacy nonprofits. The network exists to advise its member groups on strategy and on the mobilization and organization of day laborers and their supporters within the wider organized labor movement. ¹ It also engages in litigation against state and federal governments and businesses and forms initiatives to expand worker centers for day laborers across the United States. ^{2 3}

Background

NDLON was formally founded in July 2001 at a gathering of organizations representing day laborers in Northridge, California. Originally a grouping of 12 community-centered organizations in the movement, NDLON over time became a national force with an added location in Washington, D.C. ⁴

NDLON includes among its stated “Principles & Values” diversity, peace and nonviolence, gender equality, adherence to “the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” and commitment to “green values and practices.” ⁵

Activities

On its website’s historical timeline, NDLON cites an October 2000 decision of a federal court judge to strike down as unconstitutional an anti-day-laborer-solicitation ordinance from Los Angeles County as a major moment in day-laborer organizing history. It was the major legal precedent that led other similar ordinances across the country being struck down, legitimizing the day-laborer movement and granting more freedom to NDLON’s practices and activists “regardless of their immigration status.” ⁴

In March 2006, in response to the Sensenbrenner Bill of 2006 (HR 4437), a piece of legislation that would have enhanced immigration law enforcement and expanded border security, NDLON created the ceremonial Day Laborer Run for Peace and Dignity, a cross-nation run from Santa Monica, California, to Coney Island, New York. The run was modeled after a Native American spiritual journey, and its participants included twelve day laborers and labor activists that connected with immigration rights centers along the way. ⁴

In August 2006, NDLON and the AFL-CIO signed a landmark partnership agreement. NDLON soon after became formal partners with Change to Win, another federation of labor unions. ⁴

NDLON launched the “Turning the Tide” campaign to brand the 2010 Arizona immigration restriction legislation SB 1070 as legislation in violation of human rights. ⁴

NDLON runs the Day Laborer Workforce Initiative (DLWI), a New York-based collaboration between La Colmena, NICE, Coalition for Immigrant Freedom, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, and the Justice Workers Project to expand and improve the day laborer worker centers of New York’s five boroughs. The Initiative seeks to improve workplace conditions, regulate currently unregulated industries, litigate the civil rights of day laborers, and end “wage theft.” ³

NDLON is continuously engaged in litigation cases on behalf of day laborers, which it tracks on its website. ²

Leadership

Pablo Alvarado and Nadia Marin-Molina are co-executive directors of NDLON. Alvarado co-founded the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California in 1991 and the Los Jornaleros del Norte day laborer band in 1996. He was instrumental in founding NDLON in 2001. He has been recognized for his activist work by the Rockefeller Foundation, which awarded him the Next Generation Leadership Fellowship, and by the Ford Foundation, which in 2004 included him in its “Leadership for a Changing World” program. In 2005, TIME included Alvarado in its “25 most influential Hispanics in the U.S.” list. ⁶ In 2021, the American Prospect interviewed Alvarado on his personal life and the American organized labor movement as part of its “Alt-Labor Chronicles” series, funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. ⁷

Marin-Molina, in addition to working as co-executive director, leads NDLON’s Workers Centers and Workers Rights programs. In the past, she was responsible for NDLON’s disaster response initiative which trained “thousands” of day laborers in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and for developing NDLON’s member organizations. At the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, her previous place of employment, she led a fight to protect the health of nail salon workers and a campaign to prosecute construction contractors who were in violation of legal codes. She also previously worked as the executive director of the Workplace Project, an immigration rights and hate speech watchdog group based in Long Island, New York. ⁶

NDLON’s board of directors includes Marisol Aguilar, who is also on the board of Adelante! Alabama Worker Center; Fernando Garavito of We Are Casa; Maria Marroquín of Day Worker Center of Mountain View; Fancisco Aguirre; Martha Arevalo of CARECEN-LA; and Yessenia Alfaro of Chealsea Collaborative. ⁸

1. “National Day Laborer Organizing Network.” The Action Network. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://actionnetwork.org/groups/ndlon.
2. “Our Litigation.” NDLON.org. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://ndlon.org/our-work/litigation/.
3. “Day Laborer Workforce Initiative.” NDLON.org. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://ndlon.org/day-laborer-workforce-initiative/.
4. “Our History.” NDLON.org. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://ndlon.org/about-us/our-history/.
5. “About NDLON – Our Principles & Values.” NDLON.org. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://ndlon.org/about-us/
6. “Meet Our Team.” NDLON.org. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://ndlon.org/about-us/staff/.
7. Meyerson, Harold. “Helping the Powerless Build Power – Pablo Alvarado: An oral history.” The American Prospect, 31 August 2021. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://prospect.org/labor/the-alt-labor-chronicles-america-s-worker-centers/helping-the-powerless-build-power-pablo-alvarado/.
8. “Our Board.” NDLON.org. Accessed 22 May 2022. https://ndlon.org/about-us/board-of-directors/.