The Partnership for Working Families (PWF) is a national coalition of left-of-center nonprofits which support policies that redistribute wealth and grant preferential treatment to workers. The organization focuses its efforts on municipal governments which are most sympathetic to its policy goals and actively opposes state and federal jurisdiction over economic matters. The PWF is led and funded by numerous powerful labor unions, particularly the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Policy Goals

Community Benefits Agreements

The Partnership for Working Families supports the establishment of community benefits agreements (CBAs), legally binding contracts between private developers and local nonprofits or governments to generate particular benefits for communities in which the developer is operating, including job creation, charitable spending, and future project commitments. The PWF uses its member network to increase the bargaining power of local groups to enforce better CBA terms. ¹

Supporting Municipal Government Authority

The PFA works to systematically empower municipal governments at the expense of state governments, since municipal governments are more likely to be run by liberal politicians and support labor union-favoring economic policies. For instance, the PFA has run campaigns in many cities to create minimum wage laws which supersede state laws. ²

The PFA has also accused state governments of enacting racist policies at the behest of white-dominated state legislatures which enforce their authority over minority-run municipal governments. ³

Racial Interests

After the death of George Floyd in May 2020, the PFA released a statement blaming white supremacy for the ongoing oppression of African Americans. The statement accused American police departments of being descended from escaped slave hunters, and vowed that the PFA would work to end white supremacy in the U.S. ⁴

In August 2020, PFA executive director Lauren Jacobs issued an open statement condemning President Donald Trump and the federal government for deploying U.S. National Guard troops to numerous cities to contain ongoing protests and riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Jacobs accused Trump of running an “oppressive campaign resembling martial law” designed to intimidate city governments and populations consisting primarily of ethnic and racial minorities. ⁵

Low-income housing

The PFA supports regulations to provide and maintain more low-income housing through Our Homes, Our Health, a left-progressive group which supports the housing policies of the Housing Justice National Platform. ⁶

Projects

Community Benefits Law Center

The Community Benefits Law Center is a legal assistance fund which oversees a national network of attorneys that support the PWF’s member groups. ⁷

In the Public Interest

In the Public Interest is a national policy research project which lobbies for left-of-center political goals, including opposing charter schools, opposing private prisons, and supporting a government-run healthcare system. ⁸

Funding

The Partnership for Working Families lists fifteen major donors which provide most of its funding. These donors include three major labor unions: the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. The rest of the donors are left-of-center foundations which support a wide variety of left-of-center policies: the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Arca Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the General Service Foundation, the Hidden Leaf Foundation, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, the James Irvine Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Peggy Browning Fund, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ⁹

Grants

The Partnership for Working Families gives grants to its affiliate members. In 2018, the PWF gave $300,000 to Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), $260,000 to Working Partnerships USA, $260,000 to East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), $258,000 to Center on Policy Initiatives, $160,000 to Puget Sound SAGE, $150,000 to Orange County Communities for Responsible Development (OCCORD), $150,000 to Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN), $150,000 to Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), $100,000 to Georgia STAND-UP, and $50,000 to Philadelphia Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild (POWER). ¹⁰

In 2018, the OWF also gave grants to a few non-members. It gave $160,000 to Community Labor United, $110,000 to United for a New Economy, and $25,000 to the Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council. ¹¹

Leadership

Executive director Lauren Jacobs has been an activist and community organizer for more than two decades. Jacobs began her career as a labor organizer for UNITE HERE, a service industry union. She then joined the Service Employees International Union, where she recruited thousands of new members, led contract negotiations for thousands of workers in San Francisco and Boston, and rose from an organizer to first vice president over seventeen years. Jacobs also served as a board member of Community Labor United in Boston. ¹²

Communications director Heather Appel is a former union executive. She previously worked as the communications director of the Committee of Interns and Residents, which is a member of the SEIU. ¹³

National campaign director Mariah Montgomery formerly worked as a deputy campaign director for Change to Win, a federation of unions closely associated with the SEIU and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). She also developed research and strategy for the SEIU for five years. ¹⁴Senior campaign lead Edgar Beltran was formerly a strategic researcher for the SEIU, and later the policy and campaign development manager at California Calls, a state-level advocate for higher taxes and other left-of-center policy goals. ¹⁵

Senior California Campaign Manager Cathy Hoang has worked for major unions for almost two decades. She served as a labor representative for UNITED HERE in New York City for seven years. Then, Hoang became the director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles for five years where she actively campaigned for a $15 minimum wage in Los Angeles. Next, Hoang worked as a coach at Rhize, a labor activist training organization. Prior to joining the PWF, Hoang was a training fellow at the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, and she continues to volunteer at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, which is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. ¹⁶

Member Organizations

As of December 2020, the Partnership for Working Families consists of twenty-one organizations across fourteen states:¹⁷

• Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy (CASE)
• Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE)
• Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI)
• East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE)
• Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)
• Orange County Communities for Responsible Development (OCCORD)
• Warehouse Worker Resource Center
• Working Partnerships USA
• United for a New Economy (UNE)
• Georgia STAND UP
• Grassroots Collaborative
• Community Labor United
• Detroit Action
• Faith in Democracy
• Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN)
• Unions and Neighborhoods Invested in Transforming Economic Development (Pittsburgh United)
• Philadelphia Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild (POWER)
• Stand Up Nashville
• Puget Sound Sage
• Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund

1. “Community Benefits.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/campaigns/CBA.
2. “State Interference.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/campaigns/state-interference.
3. “States Preempting Local Laws are an Extension of Jim Crow Laws.” Partnership for Working Families. August 29, 2017. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/blog/states-preempting-local-laws-are-extension-jim-crow.
4. “On George Floyd’s Killing and What We Must Do Now.” Partnership for Working Families. May 29, 2020. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/article/george-floyd%E2%80%99s-killing-and-what-we-must-do-now-0.
5. “We Reject Trump’s Federal Forces in Our Cities.” Partnership for Working Families. August 3, 2020. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/article/we-reject-trump%E2%80%99s-federal-forces-our-cities.
6. “Affordable Housing.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/campaigns/affordable-housing.
7. “Community Benefits Law Center.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/cblc.
8. “About Us.” In the Public Interest. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/about-us/.
9. “Supporters.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/about/supporters.
10. “Partnership for Working Families Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/710914032/10_2019_prefixes_64-73%2F710914032_201812_990_2019101116743393.
11. “Partnership for Working Families Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/710914032/10_2019_prefixes_64-73%2F710914032_201812_990_2019101116743393.
12. “Staff.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/leadership/staff.
13. “Staff.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/leadership/staff.
14. “Staff.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/leadership/staff.
15. “Staff.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/leadership/staff.
16. “Staff.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/leadership/staff.
17. “National Network of Affiliates.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020, https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/about/affiliates.