Organized Power in Numbers, formerly known as Unemployed Workers United, is a left-of-center to far-left labor organizing group that operates a variety of campaigns in the southern and southwestern U.S. states, with a particular emphasis on activities in Texas. The group is a project of the Working Families Organization, a left-of-center advocacy and lobbying group that is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Working Families Party, a union-funded and union-aligned left-wing political party best known for its political party activities in New York. ^{1 2}

Organized Power in Numbers operates campaigns focused on promoting left-of-center stances on energy, climate, immigration, and labor issues with a focus on promoting labor union organizing. While the funders of the organization are largely unknown, groups listed as partners include the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation AFL-CIO, the Texas Organizing Project, and the Texas Climate Jobs Project. ^{3 4}

Background

Organized Power in Numbers was founded as Unemployed Workers United by executive director Neidi Dominguez Zamorano, who has led the group since its inception. The group is not a standalone organization but rather a fiscally sponsored project of the Working Families Organization. ⁵  

Founded in 2006, the Working Families Organization is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Working Families Party, a union-funded and union-aligned left-wing political party best known for its political party activities in New York with additional presences in other power centers of the political left such as Oregon. While the party only operates as an official political party in a handful of states, the Working  Families Organization has a budget of over $50 million in annual revenue and funds programs and projects throughout the United States such as Organized Power in Numbers to promote far left and pro-union policies including an employer mandate for paid sick leave, a $15 minimum wage, and broader left-of-center concerns like climate change and creating a “green economy.” ⁶

Activity

Organized Power in Numbers operates campaigns focused on promoting far-left stances on energy, climate, immigration, and labor issues with a focus on promoting union organizing. The group operates a “school of organizing” with an annual cohort in collaboration with On Point Studios that trains in areas including campaign strategy, distributed organizing, data and digital, and base building. ⁷

The group also promotes a “Labor Based Deferred Action” campaign in coordination with immigration law attorneys that has lobbied the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create “an affirmative process to provide deferred action and work authorization to immigrant workers who are involved in labor and employment agency investigations.” ⁸

The group also runs a campaign called PowerUp: Harris County that promotes far-left energy policies and labor policies for energy employees in Texas which is co-sponsored by the Texas Gulf Coast AFL-CIO, the Texas Climate Jobs Project, Workers Defense, New Houston, and the Texas Organizing Project. ⁹ The group operates a similar project, PowerUp: Bern County, in New Mexico. ¹⁰

Leadership

Neidi Dominguez Zamorano is the founding executive director of Organized Power in Numbers. Zamorano has been a Ford Global Fellow and an Aspen Job Quality Fellow. A former undocumented immigrant as a child, she was an active organizer in the campaign for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. Her former roles include deputy director of the community engagement department and coordinator of the National Worker Center Partnerships at the AFL-CIO, and special assistant to the general president and coordinator of the national strategic campaigns department for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT). ¹¹

In 2010, Zamorano co-wrote a piece promoting the DREAM Act and the DACA policy, citing a need for immediate protests and “Nonviolent direct action…to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” The piece further stated that a “barrier in achieving legalization was the Nonprofit Industrial Complex… a network of politicians, the elite, foundations and social justice organizations.” The piece also stated “We hold the right to self-determination of those most affected by the US empire’s oppression.” ¹²

1. “Issues.” Working Families. Accessed June 3, 2017. http://workingfamilies.org/issues/
2. “Issues.” Working Families. Accessed June 3, 2017. http://workingfamilies.org/issues/
3. “Power Up Harris County.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://powerinnumbers.us/campaigns/powerupharriscounty/
4. “About.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://powerinnumbers.us/about/
5. “Issues.” Working Families. Accessed June 3, 2017. http://workingfamilies.org/issues/
6. “Issues.” Working Families. Accessed June 3, 2017. http://workingfamilies.org/issues/
7. “School of Organizing.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://powerinnumbers.us/campaigns/school-of-organizing/
8. ^[1] “Labor Based Deferred Action.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://powerinnumbers.us/campaigns/labor-based-deferred-action/
9. “Labor Based Deferred Action.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://powerinnumbers.us/campaigns/labor-based-deferred-action/
10. “Power Up Bern County.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024.  https://powerinnumbers.us/campaigns/power-up-bernalillo-co/
11. “Neidi Dominguez Zamorano.” Organized Power in Numbers. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://powerinnumbers.us/about/staff-bio-neidi-dominguez/
12. “DREAM Activists: Rejecting the Passivity of the Nonprofit, Industrial Complex.: TruthOut. September 21, 2010. Accessed August 10, 2024. https://truthout.org/articles/dream-activists-rejecting-the-passivity-of-the-nonprofit-industrial-complex/