PowerSwitch Action, formerly known as 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. PowerSwitch Action is led and funded by numerous powerful labor unions, particularly the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). ¹

PowerSwitch has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ²

Policy Goals

Community Benefits Agreements

PowerSwitch Action 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. ^{3 4}

Supporting Municipal Government Authority

PowerSwitch Action 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. ^{5 6}

PowerSeitch Action 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. ^{7 8}

Racial Interests

After the death of George Floyd in May 2020, the organization 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. ⁹

In August 2020, 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. ¹⁰

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. ¹¹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In May of 2021, PowerSwitch was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹²

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ¹³ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ¹⁴

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. ¹⁵

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. ¹⁶

Funding

PowerSwitch Action 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. ^{17 18}

Grants

PowerSwitch Action gives grants to its affiliate members. In 2018, PowerSwitch Action, when it was still 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). ¹⁹

In 2018, the organization had also given grants to several non-members including $160,000 to Community Labor United, $110,000 to United for a New Economy, and $25,000 to the Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council. ²⁰

Leadership

As of 2023, Lauren Jacobs is the Executive Director of PowerSwitch Action. Serving as an activist and community organizer for more than two decades, Jacobs began her career as a labor organizer for service industry union UNITE HERE. 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. ²¹

Jeff Barrera is the Communications Director for PowerSwitch Action. Prior to PowerSwitch Action, Barrera worked at community labor organization Working Partnerships USA. In addition, Barrera previously worked for the Center on Policy Initiatives, the Center for American Progress (CAP), and local ballot initiative Opportunity to Work. ²²

As of 2023, Mariah Montgomery is the National Campaign Director for PowerSwitch Action. She 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. ²³

Edgar Beltran is the Campaign Manager for PowerSwitch Action. He 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. ²⁴

Senior California Campaign Manager Kathy 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. ²⁵

Member Organizations

As of July 2023, PowerSwitch Action consists of twenty-one organizations across fourteen states: ²⁶

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

1. “The Partnership for Working Families is now PowerSwitch Action.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/partnership-for-working-families-is-now-powerswitch-action
2. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
3. “Community Benefits.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/campaigns/CBA.
4. “The Partnership for Working Families is now PowerSwitch Action.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/partnership-for-working-families-is-now-powerswitch-action
5. “State Interference.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/campaigns/state-interference.
6. “The Partnership for Working Families is now PowerSwitch Action.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/partnership-for-working-families-is-now-powerswitch-action
7. “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.
8. “The Partnership for Working Families is now PowerSwitch Action.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/partnership-for-working-families-is-now-powerswitch-action
9. “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.
10. “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.
11. “Affordable Housing.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/campaigns/affordable-housing.
12. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
13. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
14. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
15. “Community Benefits Law Center.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/cblc.
16. “About Us.” In the Public Interest. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/about-us/.
17. “Supporters.” Partnership for Working Families. Accessed December 31, 2020. https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/about/supporters.
18. “The Partnership for Working Families is now PowerSwitch Action.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/partnership-for-working-families-is-now-powerswitch-action
19. “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.
20. “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.
21. “Our Team.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/about/team
22. “Jeff Barrera.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/about/team/jeff-barrera
23. “Our Team.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/about/team
24. “Our Team.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/about/team
25. “Our Team.” PowerSwitch Action, Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/about/team
26. “Affiliates.” PowerSwitch Action. Accessed July 18, 2023. https://www.powerswitchaction.org/affiliates