Non-profit

New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice

Website:

nowcrj.org/

Location:

NEW ORLEANS, LA

Tax ID:

33-1167415

Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2017):

Revenue: $2,817,462
Expenses: $3,056,608
Assets: $439,758

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The New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice is a left-of-center advocacy and political organizing group based in New Orleans, Louisiana that works on ethnic interest issues and labor-union-aligned employment policy. The organization was formed in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina strike in 2005 which flooded and depopulated New Orleans for some time afterwards.

The organization has emerged as a supporter of immigration reform that seeks to legalize illegal immigrants already in the United States. It was the former fiscal sponsor of the National Guestworker Alliance.

Organization structure

The New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice is organized with three affiliate organizations targeting selected demographic groups. One of those affiliates is Stand with Dignity. Stand with Dignity is targeted towards African-American workers and their families in New Orleans. It campaigns for higher employment and higher wages for black workers in New Orleans. 1 It has also been involved in protesting excessive fines for traffic offenses. 2

Another affiliate is the Congress of Day Workers. The organization represents Hispanic day workers who largely came to the New Orleans area to work on Hurricane Katrina recovery projects. Its membership has since spread all over the Southeastern U.S. 3

Yet another affiliate is the Seafood Workers Alliance. The affiliate is targeted towards the mostly guest workers of Louisiana’s seafood industry. The organization is based upon the work of the National Guestworker Alliance in the industry. The Seafood Workers Alliance works on issues related to improving working conditions in the industry. The organization formed in 2017 and as of 2018, it claimed hundreds of members in 15 seafood plants in Louisiana. The alliance has successfully won the reinstatement of workers who could have lost their work visas because their employers were planning on firing them. 4

The New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice works against what it sees is dividing African-American and Hispanic workers. One Stand for Dignity activist has compared deportation, to the high rates of incarceration and outstanding warrants among the African-American population. 5

Leadership

Ursula Price is the executive director of New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice. She became executive director in 2018. Previously, she was the deputy police monitor in New Orleans. Before she joined the monitor’s office in 2010, was a community organizer for Safe Streets/Strong Communities. 6

LaToya Lewis is an organizer for Stand with Dignity. In 2015, she told the Huffington Post that black people were “left to die” during the Hurricane Katrina response. 7

Chloe Sigal is the lead organizer for the Congress of Day Workers. In 2018, she appeared a podcast produced by Indivisible NOLA that had the hashtag “Abolish ICE.” 8

Danilo Balladares is the lead organizer for the Seafood Workers Alliance. In 2018, he led a protest of agreements that local law enforcement have with ICE to detain illegal immigrants. 9

Immigration activism

New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice has been involved largely on immigration-related issues. It supports immigration reform that would legalize nearly all immigrants here in the U.S. illegally.

In 2014, the organization filed an amicus brief in support of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans order that exempted certain illegal immigrants from deportation and gave them work permits. Louisiana, along with 23 other states, sued to end the program. 10

In 2018, the organization protested then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he address a national sheriffs’ convention in New Orleans. It protested enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. 11

Funding

According to its 2017 tax returns, New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice raised $2.8 million and spent $3 million.

Notable funders of New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice include labor unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers (which provided six-figure payments to NOWCRJ in 2015, 2016, and 2017); the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union; and the Service Employees International Union. 12 Prominent liberal foundations that have funded NOWCRJ include the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Foundation to Promote Open Society of George Soros, and the Marguerite Casey Foundation. 13

References

  1. “Stand With Dignity”. 2019. NOWCRJ. Accessed July 8. http://nowcrj.org/stand-with-dignity/.
  2. “$23,000 In Traffic Fines Reduced To $9 For Man As Stand With Dignity And Other Partnering Organizations Pilot Program Takes On New Orleans’ Court System”. 2019. National Black Worker Center Project. Accessed July 8. https://nationalblackworkercenters.org/stories/23000-in-traffic-fines-reduced-to-9-for-man-as-stand-with-dignitys-and-other-partnering-organizations-pilot-program-takes-on-new-orleans-court-system/.
  3. “Congress Of Day Laborers/Congreso De Jornaleros – NOWCRJ”. 2019. NOWCRJ. Accessed July 8. http://nowcrj.org/our-work/congress-day-laborerscongreso-de-journaleros/.
  4. Elk, Mike. 2018. “Louisiana’s Undocumented Seafood Workers Unite To Fight Workplace Abuses”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/12/louisiana-seafood-workers-union-undocumented-abuse.
  5. Elk, Mike. 2018. “Louisiana’s Undocumented Seafood Workers Unite To Fight Workplace Abuses”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/12/louisiana-seafood-workers-union-undocumented-abuse.
  6. “Introducing Our Next Executive Director: Ursula Price – NOWCRJ”. 2018. NOWCRJ. http://nowcrj.org/2018/06/04/introducing-next-executive-director-ursula-price/.
  7. Finley, Taryn. 2015. “Organizer Says Black Residents Were ‘Left To Die’ After Hurricane Katrina”. Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/organizer-says-black-residents-were-left-to-die-after-hurricane-katrina_n_55dc805be4b04ae497046f9c.
  8. “Resistance Radio – #Abolishice”. 2018. Indivisible New Orleans. https://www.indivisiblenola.com/resistance-radio/2018/6/26/resistance-radio-abolishice.
  9. DeSantis, John. 2018. “Vigil Targets Sheriff’s Immigration Agreement”. Houma Times. https://www.houmatimes.com/news/vigil-targets-sheriff-s-immigration-agreement/article_30acc8a4-033b-11e9-adba-c3f167eb48d3.html.
  10. Alexander-Bloch, Benjamin. 2014. “New Orleans Racial Justice Center Joins Others In Filing Brief Supporting Obama’s Immigration Plan”. The Times-Picayune. https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_27335e3a-4743-514c-a272-de46b46070b1.html.
  11. Roberts, Amanda. 2018. “Immigrant Advocates Protest Outside Convention Center”. Fox 8. https://www.fox8live.com/story/38452584/immigrant-advocates-protest-outside-convention-center/.
  12. Data compiled from reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards by various labor organizations. Queries conducted July 11, 2019. https://olms.dol-esa.gov/olpdr/#Union%20Reports/Payer/Payee%20Search/
  13. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the IRS. Queries conducted July 11, 2019.

Directors, Employees & Supporters

  1. John Cavanagh
    Board Member
  2. Saket Soni
    Co-Founder
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: June - May
  • Tax Exemption Received: June 1, 2010

  • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2017 Jun Form 990 $2,817,462 $3,056,608 $439,758 $1,548 N $2,817,462 $0 $0 $85,000
    2016 Jun Form 990 $2,949,025 $2,606,636 $680,230 $2,874 N $2,949,025 $0 $0 $69,500 PDF
    2015 Jun Form 990 $2,026,072 $2,045,221 $335,869 $902 N $2,026,072 $0 $0 $100,000
    2014 Jun Form 990 $1,879,979 $2,300,194 $372,913 $18,797 N $1,879,979 $0 $0 $100,000
    2013 Jun Form 990 $1,768,900 $1,730,439 $777,150 $2,819 N $1,768,900 $0 $0 $86,184
    2012 Jun Form 990 $1,117,008 $1,116,541 $739,859 $3,989 N $1,117,008 $0 $0 $86,184
    2011 Jun Form 990 $1,470,591 $781,671 $720,388 $13,848 N $1,470,591 $0 $0 $70,099

    New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice

    217 N PRIEUR ST
    NEW ORLEANS, LA 70112-3343