Garment Worker Center Seeks Field Organizer (Los Angeles, CA)

About GWC: Founded in 2001, the Garment Worker Center is a worker rights organization leading an anti-sweatshop movement to improve conditions for tens of thousands of Los Angeles garment workers. Through direct organizing, GWC develops leaders who demand enforcement of strong labor laws and accountability from factory owners, manufacturers, and fashion brands. We center immigrant workers, women of color, and their families who are impacted by exploitation in the fashion industry.

Position description: GWC seeks a dynamic, motivated individual to join our garment worker organizing efforts. The primary focus of this position will be organizing garment workers to effectively engage in campaigns in order to improve wages, working conditions, and corporate accountability across the industry. This organizer will recruit, develop, and sustain a strong base of engaged garment workers who can drive campaigns by working to develop their skills, political consciousness and increase their involvement in campaign efforts. This individual’s secondary focus will be mobilization. We are looking for an energetic individual with the ability to work both independently and in teams to deliver high quality work in a fast-paced environment. This is an ideal position for an individual with previous organizing experience, who is interested in being part of innovative campaigns in the anti-sweatshop movement.

Duties:

Outreach

  • Build relationships with faith, labor, immigrant, community, fashion, and educational institutions and individuals to connect their membership/base to GWC
  • Schedule, plan and hold workshops twice a month throughout Los Angeles County
  • Conduct biweekly strategic street outreach efforts with members and staff

Membership Development

  • Conduct house visits and one to one meetings to identify and recruit prospective members
  • Support development of popular education curriculum
  • Lead political education and leadership development trainings with garment workers
  • Recruit and retain garment worker members to participate in GWC events and actions
  • Develop informed, confident worker-leaders who themselves can recruit, mobilize, and organize workers and community for our campaign work
  • Engage members and member-leaders in the development of campaign strategies

Mobilization

  • Mobilize members, individual allies, and organizations for campaign events and actions
  • Ensure participation of members and prospective members at general membership meetings and campaign activities through one to one meetings and phone banking

Data

  • Lead an annual survey effort to create a report on the conditions within garment factories
  • Update tracking system of member engagement in organizational activities, trainings, and ongoing leadership development
  • Support campaign research needs

Media & Communications

  • Prepare members to tell their stories and experiences at hearings, rallies, press events, and other grassroots events
  • Publish a monthly GWC newsletter with membership and campaign updates

Qualifications and Skills:

  • Track record of effective base-building
  • Previous labor or community organizing experience. (2-3 years)
  • Demonstrated success implementing campaign-based work. (2-3 years)
  • Demonstrated success with leadership development in a social justice setting. (2-3 years)
  • Strong commitment to social, racial, gender, and economic justice and their intersections
  • A desire to grow democratic base-building organizations and build worker power
  • Motivating, Dynamic, Positive, and Inspirational
  • A hunger to learn and experiment in a campaign setting
  • Self-motivated but also works well in collective settings
  • Able to prioritize and set goals
  • Organized and detail-oriented, while able to multitask
  • Experience with door-knocking and phone-banking
  • Able to work flexible hours, including early mornings, evenings and weekends.
  • Must be proficient with LA’s public transportation system, or able to drive their own car or GWC’s van.

Proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel; Google Calendar, Google Drive

Benefits

  • Paid sick time and holidays
  • Health, dental, and retirement benefits

Level of Language Proficiency

  • Fluency in English and Spanish – both written and oral skills
  • Fluency in Korean, Chinese, and/or a Mayan dialect is useful but not required

How To Apply

Send cover letter, resume, three work references, and a sample outreach document you developed to Marissa Nuncio, Director.

Location

1250 S. Los Angeles St., #213, Los Angeles, CA 90015