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Labor and Community Job Opportunities, Opportunities

MinKwon Center for Community Action Seeks Community Organizer

The MinKwon Center for Community Action invites applications for a Community Organizer. The Community Organizer would work in the Korean American, Asian American, and immigrant communities as part of the Civic Engagement Team to grow an informed, active base of community members who are fully engaged in the electoral process and in advocacy campaigns on issues such as comprehensive immigration reform, fairer allocation of city and state budgets, and housing rights. This is a full-time position.

Job Responsibilities The Community Organizer would have the following responsibilities: Organizing & Advocacy • Engage in different forms of community outreach and mobilization. • Develop community members’ leadership abilities. • Coordinate regular member meetings, workshops, and other community-building and educational forums. • Engage in advocacy campaigns on issues such as comprehensive immigration reform and tenants’ rights. • Represent MinKwon Center and participate in meetings with other coalition groups. • Coordinate media and publicity to raise awareness.

Job Requirements • Interest and experience in working on social justice and immigrants’ rights issues • Spoken fluency or proficiency in Korean • Excellent communications skills • Ability to work well both independently and in teams • Flexibility in working evenings and weekends

Organization History and Mission The MinKwon Center for Community Action was established in 1984 as the Young Korean American Service & Education Center (YKASEC) to meet the needs and concerns of the Korean American community. Since our founding, we have made a profound presence through various grassroots organizing, education, and advocacy initiatives that address important community issues, including immigration policies, voter rights, and cultural awareness. The MinKwon Center places a special emphasis on meeting the needs of our marginalized community members, including youth, elderly, recent immigrants, low-income residents, and limited-English-proficient residents.

The MinKwon Center will accept applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Please prepare a detailed cover letter and resume describing your interest in the organization and the position and email to: Hyun-Jung Kim, Community Engagement Manager hr@minkwon.org NOTE: Make subject line of email “Application to Position: Community Organizer – [YOUR NAME]”

How to apply

Please prepare a detailed cover letter and resume describing your interest in the organization and the position and email to: Hyun-Jung Kim, Community Engagement Manager hr@minkwon.org NOTE: Make subject line of email “Application to Position: Community Organizer – [YOUR NAME]”

Originally Posted: May 20, 2015

Labor and Community Job Opportunities, Opportunities

NY Communities for Change Seeks Housing Community Organizer – Neighborhood Organizing Department

Join the fight to take back our communities! New York Communities for Change is seeking a Community Organizer to build power to fight for social and economic change in New York State.

Our neighborhoods have been under attack by financial institutions foreclosing on homes statewide, hedge funds privatizing our schools, and especially the losses of affordable housing and the increase in rent that has spurred gentrification displacing longtime residents out of their homes.

As a community organizer with New York Communities for Change, you will have the opportunity to work with community members in strengthening and developing the local NYCC chapters and work with members fighting around issues on a Local, City, State and the National level.

About New York Communities for Change:

New York Communities for Change is a community – base, member run organization that fights for social and economic justice for low and moderate income families. NYCC is a multi-issue organization that integrates labor and community issues together. Our members organize their neighborhoods and workplaces to take action against the toughest problems facing working families throughout New York – affordable housing, good schools, well-paying jobs, climate change, Police reform, and Wall St. Accountability. Through meetings with elected officials, community events, and protest and rallies, New York Communities for Change takes a power in numbers approach to fight for real change for hard working New Yorkers.

Applicants must have:

  • At least1year of organizing experience in labor, community, student or political organizations or campaigns.
  • At least one year of experience with Housing organizing(buildings, multi-family homes, single family homes or public housing.
  • Excellent communication interpersonal skills (Listening, speaking, and writing)
  • Commitment to the social justice movement and passion for winning change for low income people
  • Ability to organize and build neighborhood groups
  • Ability to move community members to take action on multiple issues for local campaigns as well as state wide campaigns.
  • Must be able to work independently and manage a team
  • Ability to work under pressure in a fast pace, ever changing environment and be detailed orientated.
  • Willingness to work long and irregular hours, including nights and weekends
  • Ability to fundraise and sign up members to engage in the local chapter
  • Bilingual (Spanish) is a preferred.
  • People of Color strongly encourage to apply.

    How to apply: please send a 5 page cover letter and your resume. Send to: wstarke@nycommunities.org

Original posting: April 27, 2015

Home

News Roundup 7/1/15

What a couple of weeks. Civil rights tragedies and victories, both. Marriage equality, a supreme court upholding of the Affordable Care Act, direct action against the confederate flag. In the wake of the South Carolina tragedy, we want to celebrate and mourn, both. And yet, we can’t help sense the march of progress moving inexorably forward. In brief:

  • Tired of waiting for the South Carolina State Representatives to get with the program, activist Bree Newsome (she of #freebree) took direct action by climbing the flag pole in front of the State House to take the confederate flag down.
  • The Supreme Court’s been an active one. In addition to same-sex marriage becoming the law of the land, sections of the Affordable Care Act have been further upheld. In less uplifting news, the EPA’s limits on power plant emissions were deemed to be in violation of the Clean Air Act, and states have been given latitude to use questionable drugs in executions. Still coming up: Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a high-stakes case that could transform public sector unions for the worse.
  • Over at Al Jazeera, Amy B. Dean draws connections between the labor movement and #BlackLivesMatter, asking: Is the fight for $15 the next civil rights movement?
  • Despite earlier setbacks and a strong opposition, after a 60-38 Senate vote in favor of the TPA, President Obama signed the bill into law — granting himself fast track authority to negotiate the forthcoming (and persistently opaque) Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
  • In These Times ran an interview by David Moberg of exiting CWA President Larry Cohen about the past and future of the labor movement. According to Cohen, “If labor is going to be just a group of unions with different strategies, it’s not going to be a movement. We need to be organizing other people.”
  • In a welcome act of common sense and dignity, New York City is banning “poor doors” — that is, developers will no longer be allowed to built separate entrances for rich and poor tenants in buildings constructed using tax breaks granted in exchange for low-income units.
  • Janitors from eight companies across the Twin Cities, representing 50 retail locations, participated in a one-day strike on July 1st, raising the profile of organizing efforts within the difficult-to-organize cleaning sector.
  • NYC is set to receive expanded wi-fi coverage with the arrival of LinkNYC, which will turn converted pay phones into wireless hubs. Three cheers for digital access and connectivity! The downside? This means the arrival of “tall, thin pillars with digital tablet interfaces and large ads slapped on the sides.” So long to the psychic environment. We hardly knew ye.
  • It’s anybody’s guess what’s going to happen in Greece and Puerto Rico in the face of un-payable national debts. Stay tuned.

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker via flickr (CC-BY).

Home, International Program for Labor, Climate and Environment, Labor Studies

Power to the People: Toward Democratic Control of Electricity Generation

A new working paper from Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) titled Power to the People: Toward Democratic Control of Electricity Generation shows how “another energy is possible, and absolutely necessary.” The paper documents how and where energy democracy is expressing itself — and argues that public renewable power can drive the energy revolution the world needs. Union leaders from different sectors have welcomed the report.

Check it out.

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy is a multi-partner initiative coordinated by the International Program for Labor, Climate and Environment (IPLCE), based out of the Murphy Institute, in cooperation with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – New York Office. 

Photo by Bert Kaufmann via flickr (CC-BY).

Labor and Community Job Opportunities, Opportunities

Faculty Position in Labor Education at Penn State

The School of Labor and Employment Relations at The Pennsylvania State University invites applications for a non-tenure track faculty appointment at the Lecturer rank. The position will be a twelve-month appointment and will include a three-year renewable contract. Start date is negotiable. The School of LER is committed to providing union members and leaders with opportunities to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees, both online and through traditional resident instruction. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to help the School aggressively move forward in this area.

The position will include some combination of responsibilities in several areas related to the School’s labor education mission. Among these are: promoting the School’s online undergraduate and graduate degree programs to unions and union members; developing experiential learning assessment policies and practices for the School; working with union apprenticeship programs to develop pathways to Penn State’s online degree programs; working with community colleges to facilitate the transfer of credits to Penn State degree programs through articulation agreements and transfer guides; teaching in Penn State’s online degree program; and planning, administering, and teaching non-credit labor education programs.

Candidates should have experience working with unions on labor education programs and some expertise in the area of experiential learning assessment and a general understanding of best practices and trends in the field. Candidates should also be able to teach in the School’s undergraduate Labor and Employment Relations degree program. Applicants should possess a minimum of a Master’s degree in a relevant field.

The School of Labor and Employment Relations is a multidisciplinary program with large residential and online Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, strong research programs, and growing outreach initiatives.

Candidates must electronically submit a letter of application and a curriculum vita. All candidates should request letters from three references to be sent directly to Trisha Everhart, pxm205@psu.edu. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Faculty Writing, Home, Labor Studies, Media

Prof. Stephanie Luce on the Uber Ruling

In a potentially striking blow to the Uber-ization of the state’s economy, the California Labor Commission declared this week that a San Francisco-based Uber driver is an employee, and not an independent contractor, of the company. The implications of this ruling could be far-reaching, requiring the company to start offering benefits and protections to its drivers — which it has, until now, managed to skirt.

In an article by Amy Langfield on CBSMoneyWatch, Murphy Institute Prof. Stephanie Luce explains:

“Employers have been increasingly shifting the risks of the employment relationship onto workers – whether in the form of classification as independent contractor, or moving to on-call scheduling, shifting from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions (or to no pension at all), and so on […] Workers and worker organizations have been resisting and fighting back – not just in the U.S., but in other parts of the world (similar issues are happening in Europe – and Uber is also engaged in similar legal battles in many other countries).”

“I think the ruling is significant both because of its impact on such a large and growing global company (Uber), but also for the possible spillover effects to so many other industries that have been moving in the same direction of attempting to evade the legal responsibility of the employer/employee relationship[…]”

For the full article, visit CBSMoneyWatch.

Photo by noeltock via flickr (CC-BY-NC).