The Washtenaw County Worker Center focuses on identifying people with work-related problems and providing ongoing training for workers regarding workplace and immigration issues.  Our accomplishments include the following:

• Developed an ESL curriculum that uses workers' rights as a medium for teaching English to recent immigrants (Summer 2006); and supported Centro Obrero in Detroit and First United Methodist Church (Ypsilanti) as as they put this curriculum into practice (July-Dec 2006).
• Sponsored and organized a 2-day conference, "Crossing Borders: Immigration, Worker Centers, and Universities," involving workers' rights leaders and activists and academics from across the U.S. to share strategies and identify directions for future actions and research (Nov. 2006).
• Secured funding from the Sociological Initiatives Foundation (SIF) for community-based participatory research to document the local labor market patterns and working conditions and began to undertake this research. 218 surveys collected and detailed report plus short overviews written and reported to members and community allies. (See our SIF Project page) (Jan. 2007 to July 2008
• Provided training for over 150 workers on basic workers’ rights: FLSA and wage and hour laws and violations, health and safety, and laws forbidding discrimination, harassment, and abuse (September 2006-April 2007).
• Conducted intensive leadership development training for 12 worker members (July-August 2007).
• Sent delegation of 11 members to first annual national convening of restaurant workers, sponsored by the Restaurant Opportunities Center, in Chicago (August 2007).
• Facilitated monthly training sessions for over 80 individuals on immigrant and civil rights (January—April 2008).
  
• Referred over 50 individuals to legal services and community resources.  (September 2006-June 2008).
• Trained and supported over 80 student and community member volunteers (June 2006-Present).
• Since ROC-MI’s formation in June 2008, have supported ROC-MI’s growth in myriad ways: financial support for ROC-MI organizing in Washtenaw County, sharing community contacts and connections, sending an organizer and a  member to the ROC-U convening in New Orleans, participation in ROC-MI’s Advisory Board and in events and campaigns it has organized (June 2008-Present).
  
• WCWC organizers have been supporting and implementing restaurant worker organizing and training programs in Washtenaw County in partnership with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michgan.  The WCWC has sponsored fine dining and bartending classes in Washtenaw County for approximately 60 low-wage restaurant workers seeking to advance to higher-paying jobs in the industry, organized restaurant workers to attend a panel on low-wage work at the Michigan Policy Summit in Detroit in May 2009, and organized over 100 community supporters to participate in workplace justice campaigns for restaurant workers in Southeast Michigan.
• WCWC sent two organizers to three-day West Coast Congress of the National Domestic Workers Alliance for networking and training with other workers’ centers organizing household workers (Nov 2009).