Since 2007, mostly immigrant specialty food manufacturing workers have organized with Brandworkers to challenge employer impunity and pursue an industry with dignified jobs for all. Today, Brandworkers members lead a resilient and deeply rooted organization of food factory workers which is well-positioned to build increasing levels of power. We’re building an industry-wide labor union – specifically one that is led and operated by workers and centered on racial and gender justice.

In 2020, Brandworkers founder and executive director Daniel Gross, announced that he’ll be transitioning from the staff this year. We are pleased to announce the commencement of a nationwide search for the organization’s next staff leader to carry out the direction of Brandworkers members. The job announcement follows. Please email your candidate nominations to edsearch@brandworkers.org and share the announcement with your contacts. Thank you.

– Bulmaro Cruz and Anne Clark on behalf of the Brandworkers Board of Directors

 

The Organization

Brandworkers is an organization of food factory workers building a solidarity union with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Founded in 2007, we believe that marginalized workers have the unique right and unique power to determine their destiny at work and contribute to transforming the larger society.

Brandworkers members are employed in the fast-growing local food manufacturing industry making a diverse array of specialty food products including artisan bread, seafood products, dumplings, hummus, and more. We organize by centering the leadership and prioritizing the demands of workers of color, particularly women including trans women, indigenous people, and immigrants.

The Role

Brandworkers is seeking an experienced, principled, and community-oriented Executive Director to carry out member vision, contribute to staff leadership, and advance the overall forward-thinking direction from members. The Executive Director is responsible for the fidelity to and work on behalf of Brandworkers’ vision, mission, strategies, culture, and goals. This is a full-time position located in Queens, New York with some travel to New Jersey.

Vision, Mission, and Strategy

• Support Brandworkers members as well as staff and allies to express, share, and pursue a vision of a local food manufacturing industry controlled by workers
• Cultivate “mission leadership” among Brandworkers members, staff, and core allies to retain focus on and steady advancement of the work to build a worker-led-and-operated union in local food manufacturing that centers racial and gender justice
• Facilitate collaborative, iterative, and dynamic strategy formulation and refinement to win
• Serve as staff point person to safeguard strong centering and leadership of Brandworkers people of color membership in governance, direction, strategy, and activities of the organization, with a special attention to obstacles facing Black workers
• Meet needs of department leaders to advance the work including membership organizing, campaign strategy and execution, factory organizing drives, gender justice initiative, and coalition building

Constituent Safety and Effectiveness 

• Serve as staff lead co-creating an anti-oppressive Brandworkers, particularly for Black and brown women and other POC members, staff, and allies
• Ensure Brandworkers programmatic, development, administrative, and organizational development work is carried out with an explicit racial and gender justice lens
• Integrate language justice in the fabric of all Brandworkers’ work
• Create a safe and inclusive environment for trans constituents and other gender non-conforming constituents
• Sustain transparency and equity in all of Brandworkers’ financial and organizational systems, tools, and processes
• Champion Brandworkers’ dedicated spaces for marginalized groups and dedicated groups for allies
• Model a safe environment for dissent, creativity, sharing, and questions, especially from Brandworkers’ people of color constituents

Culture, Operating System, and Learning

• Champion, model, and communicate Brandworkers’ overall culture and pillars of Member First-Always, Commitment to Victory, and Prioritization of the Most Marginalized
• Facilitate Brandworkers’ annual goal-setting process, quarterly goal review, and use of qualitative and quantitative learning metrics
• Draw lines in the sand to learn from, agree on metics, debrief results, incorporate insights earned so they’re actually acted on in the future
• Protect new ideas, encourage experimentation, create a safe environment for trying to new things, institutionalize learning and action on those learnings

Fundraising

• Work with the development team to grow sustainable mission dollars for Brandworkers, defined as resources fully aligned with the work we’ve set out to do
• Serve as a key leader in cultivating, inviting, and stewarding gifts and grants in Brandworkers’ grassroots, foundation, and individual donor fundraising including monthly donation fundraising
• Identify and build relationships to benefit Brandworkers’ resource base
• Partner with the development team on strategy formulation and contribute external awareness

Board of Directors

• Report to and work with the Board of Directors, and participate in deliberations of the Board
• Carry out decisions and direction from the Members’ Committee of the Board
• Work with board in identifying, recruiting, and orienting new Board members from Brandworkers membership and ally community
• Identify or provide trainings to Board members as needed in fundraising, board governance, or any other needed areas
• Work with the Board to develop an annual resource development plan, including identifying new donors, soliciting donations, maintaining relationship with major donors
• Prepare all necessary materials, financial reports for Board meetings

Operations and Personnel 

• Serve as point person for Brandworkers’ administrative work
• Liaison with building manager, ensuring maintenance of office, and negotiating terms of lease
• Serve as point person for financial consultants’ work on compliance with liability insurance, workers compensation, and employment safety laws, payroll, and benefits

Financial Management

• With financial team, develop and track annual budgets, making modifications as necessary, and conduct cash flow forecasting to project fundraising needs for annual work and multi-year strategic plans
• Be responsible for developing and maintaining sound financial practices
• Be responsible for the team in bookkeeping, tracking accounting and expenses
• Be responsible for timely completion of audits, financial reviews, 990, and tax filings in compliance with the IRS and other 501c3 requirements

Qualifications 

• Demonstrated track record of marginalized worker power building with an emphasis on creative worker self-activity
• Have thrived in highly collaborative, transparent, and equitable work environments
• Deeply felt and realized commitment to everyday anti-racism and anti-sexism within organizations and in campaigns
• 5 years of senior leadership experience in community or labor organizing
• Demonstrated ability to lead a mission-driven and learning-oriented team fostering a healthy and collaborative work environment
• Demonstrated ability to take direction from marginalized community members

Desired Qualifications

• Have a track record of leading fundraising efforts with individual donors and foundations
• Leadership poise and equanimity amid crisis and inevitable attacks against marginalized membership
• Ability to communicate effectively in English and Spanish strongly preferred

Working at Brandworkers

Brandworkers works to foster an intersectional, anti-oppressive work environment including in race and gender-equitable allocation of workload, dedicated spaces for staff members with marginalized identities, direction on issues from staffers directly impacted, a culture that promotes safety for dissent, challenges to privilege, and more.

Starting salary for the Executive Director role ranges from $70,000 to $85,000 depending on experience. The organization provides fully-paid health and dental benefits, as well as participation in Brandworkers’ retirement program. Among other benefits, we offer generous vacation and professional development policies, a pre-tax commuter and health savings benefit, cell phone reimbursement, and a sabbatical policy.

To apply, please send a meaningful cover letter and your resume to jobs [at] brandworkers.org. Please include your pronouns. We welcome learning about any needs you have to feel safe in the application process. Applications are considered as they arrive so please apply promptly if interested and no later than March 31, 2021. If you have any questions, please email edsearch@brandworkers.org. 

Brandworkers strongly encourages applications from people of color, women, immigrants, indigenous people, LGBT people, and other traditionally oppressed communities.