Jobs With Justice is a nationally linked network of about 40 local coalitions throughout the United States that bring together labor unions, community organizations, religious groups, and student groups to fight for workers' rights.
Founded in 1987, JwJ's mission is to improve working people's standard of living, fight for job security, and protect workers' right to organize. JwJ's core belief is that in order to be successful, workers' rights struggles have to be part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice. To that end, JwJ has created a network of local coalitions that connect labor, faith-based, community, and student organizations to work together on workplace and community social justice campaigns.
Like a barnraising, Jobs with Justice works from the ground up; in more than 40 cities around the country, local coalitions are organized for solidarity and mobilization. Coalitions are autonomous and each has a steering committee composed of representatives of the organizations that are members of the coalition. Through the Jobs with Justice Board local coalitions, along with members of the National Board and national staff, set priorities for the Jobs with Justice network.
Jobs With Justice reaches working people through the organizations that represent them—unions, congregations, community organizations—and directly as JwJ activists. Nearly 100,000 people have signed the Jobs with Justice pledge to Be There at least five times a year for someone else’s struggle as well as their own.
In more than 40 cities in 25 states across the country, Jobs With Justice is building coalitions of labor, religious, student and community organizations that are committed to each other for the long haul. Jobs With Justice's campaigns make a difference for workers facing hostile bosses, knowing they are not alone in their struggle. At JwJ, solidarity is a two-way street: when communities come out for unions, they can expect unions to come out for them. Union victories are crucial, but they are not enough. We must maintain a strong commitment that our coalitions will weigh in on community fights.
In 2005 alone, Jobs with Justice coalitions worked on 197 workplace justice campaigns affecting more than 243,400 workers . JwJ Coalitions supported more than 135,000 workers in 107 organizing and first contract campaigns, JwJ denounced employer harassment of immigrant workers, and Jwj resisted cost-shifting of health care benefits. Local coalitions also worked on 169 social justice campaigns on critical issues, supporting community organizations’ efforts to secure affordable housing and defend public services, and leading proactive campaigns that can only be won when we fight together – such as economic development policies, living wage ordinances, and statewide fights to win health care for all.
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Projects of Jobs With Justice include:
Workers' rights are under attack. More than 41 million workers say they want a union, yet workers who attempt to organize face vicious employer opposition. Over the past nineteen years, Jobs with Justice coalitions have proven again and again that when enough of us stand together, we all start winning.
Health care costs are soaring and the system is out of control. The widespread failure of the private sector to provide essential services for working families means that the time is increasingly ripe for a national health care reform movement. We have a real opportunity to “connect the dots” between different campaigns within our network in order to draw a compelling picture of the health care crisis we face and the need for meaningful reform for health care for all.
Historically, U.S. and foreign workers have often been pitted against each other, and racism and immigrant bashing have divided workers domestically to the advantage of corporations. Now, Jobs with Justice, along with many others, is bridging the gap between the labor movement and immigrant rights groups as we explore strategies to fight for better living and working conditions for all workers, regardless of their legal status.
It is clear that domestic struggles for workers’ rights are inextricably linked to international economic activity and the respect for workers’ rights abroad. JwJ is engaged in a variety of projects to fight for fairness in the global economy, including a collaboration with Indian trade unions, global trade, engagement in the U.S. and World Social Forums, and membership in the group Grassroots Global Justice.
JwJ coalitions are fighting for people’s power against corporations; fighting to ensure that community members have a say in what kind of development happens in their neighborhood; fighting for accountable economic development; fighting for not just jobs, but Jobs with Justice.
Corporations wield enormous power in our global economy. They manage economies larger than many countries. Jobs with Justice is working to ensure that corporate power is balanced by the human needs of working families and our communities. Corporate power unchecked creates economic tyranny and threatens the core of democracy.
Jobs with Justice coalitions engage in many other campaigns for social and economic justice in their communities, including: minimum wage, living wage, voter registration, housing justice, criminal justice, environmental projects, and much more.
The website "Charity Navigator" gave JwJ a moderately good overall rating of 58 (3 stars) for 2007, but very poor scores for 2006 (zero stars) and 2006 (one star), because administrative expenses dominated their total expenses. Charity Navigator does not give data for 2008. In 2007, the executive director, Sarita Gupta, received compensation of $77,750, which was 5.7% of the charity's total expenses.