Worker Committees

We are a group of workers and immigrants fighting for our rights.

We identify solutions to the challenges that we face on the job and get emotional support from other workers experiencing similar issues. We help recover stolen wages and mediate workplace problems. When necessary, we file complaints or take collective action to stop abusive behavior. The worker facing the problem makes all decisions about what kind of support they want.

We are an immigrant and worker led group focused on building power through organizing, using both offensive and defensive strategies. We organize food system workers in the most marginalized industries. Our organization is lead democratically by two Worker Committees who set organizational and campaign priorities.

The Northampton-Great Falls Committee began with front- and back-of-the-house restaurant workers fighting against wage theft, resulting in the first municipal wage theft ordinance in Western Massachusetts. It has advocated for innovative municipal inclusion of immigrants, renewal of DACA and TPS status, and worker protections at the state level.

The Springfield Committee was launched in 2016 by Central American farmworkers, landscapers and construction workers. The Committee has graduated 18 Know Your Rights community trainers. They started a monthly food share in partnership with the Western Massachusetts food bank and local farms to provide food in the winter months while farmworkers are out of work that has been expanded to year round food distributions that have served over 10,000 individuals since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2019 the committee in coalition with other groups and unions won a Sanctuary City Ordinance in Springfield and in 2022 won the Work and Family Mobility Act as part of the Driving Families Forward Coalition to achieve the right to apply for drivers licences as undocumented community members.  Current campaigns include advocating to end 287g agreements and other ICE collaborations in Massachusetts and a statewide campaign to raise the farmworker minimum wage and win overtime protections.

Currently, our Workers Committee meets monthly at Brightwood Clinic in Springfield.