We are excited and honored to announce the six organizations that will join us for the 2019 Transform Finance Cohort: The Future of Workers is Now! The Cohort will bring together worker justice organizations to explore and integrate a "capital flank" to their existent strategies and goals. Over the course of ten months, the six organizations will take part in in-person convenings and virtual gatherings to learn about key financial actors and their leverage points; right-size potential engagements with capital for their work; and develop partnerships and paths forward for integration and implementation.
CTUL, Jobs With Justice, National Domestic Workers Alliance, SEIU, Workers Defense Project, and Working Partnerships USA were selected for their deep commitment to worker justice and interest in integrating new engagements with capital into their existent work. From coordinating with public pension funds and foundation endowments to improve construction worker conditions, to developing methods and tools to ensure that investors prioritize deals willing to center and share power with workers, organizations come to the Cohort with a range of interests but voiced a shared belief: we need more ways to engage with capital for worker justice.
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL)
“For years I have heard people say that power comes from organized people and organized money. I don’t feel like the second half of that equation really sank in until participating in the cohort with Transform Finance. As a movement we have ceded too much of our power, often leaving our money for Wall Street to control through our pensions, home loans, student loans, insurance, university and foundation endowments, etc. Transform Finance has helped peel back the veil of power behind money to explore ways to reclaim our full power.”
— CTUL
CTUL is a worker-led organization where workers organize, educate and empower each other to fight for a voice in their workplaces and in their communities. It partners with other organizations and leaders to build a movement to win racial, gender and economic justice. CTUL identifies the root causes of injustice and works to shift the balance of power between those who have it and those who don’t to improve the lives of its communities for present and future generations.
COHORT FOCUS: Establish a worker-driven model of enforcement for non-union construction workers in the Twin Cities by leveraging emergent relationships with unlikely allies and capital providers behind developers of residential real estate projects.
BECKY TRUJILLO, Finance and Operations Director, CTUL
MERLE PAYNE, Co-Director and Co-Founder, CTUL
Jobs With Justice (JWJ)
Jobs With Justice believes that all workers should have collective bargaining rights, employment security and a decent standard of living within an economy that works for everyone. JWJ brings together labor, community, student, and faith voices at the national and local levels to win improvements in people’s lives and shape the public discourse on workers’ rights and the economy.
COHORT FOCUS: Create and sustain truly quality jobs for women and people of color in the construction industry by collaborating with foundation endowments and pension funds. Our goal is to get funds to adopt real estate portfolio investment policies and compliance monitoring practices that promote and protect diversity and quality jobs for women and people of color in construction trades. Read more here!
ERIN JOHANSSON, Research Director, JWJ
SCOTT KLINGER, Senior Equitable Development Specialist, JWJ
National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA)
NDWA works for respect, recognition, and inclusion in labor protections for domestic workers, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. NDWA is powered by over 60 affiliate organizations and local chapters and by thousands of members.
COHORT FOCUS: Improve worker benefits and labor standards for domestic workers with a focus on the gig economy by organizing venture capital firms to invest with impact on workers as a key variable, and demonstrating the business case to maintain that level of ‘high road employment’ management.
DAWN GEARHART, Future of Work[ers] Campaign Director, NDWA
TINA VU PHAM, Gig Economy Organizer, NDWA
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Florida Public Services Union (FPSU)
“We’ve been fighting without understanding capital. We’ve been fighting from the standpoint that it’s evil, that we need it, but we don’t know it. Whether we’re looking at political side or community side, the question is always about resources. We’re tired of losing. Unless we have the ownership of capital and use it the way we want to, we’re going to lose. The Transform Finance Cohort is helping streamline my strands of work around capital, finance and the economy on our path to win.”
— SEIU FPSU
As a statewide union, SEIU FPSU uses its collective voice and resources to face challenges such as improving the quality and reliability of the services we provide with constantly shrinking budgets, revenue cuts, privatization, downsizing and the rising cost of living and housing across the state.
COHORT FOCUS: Create more affordable housing in Florida for our members by building the blueprint for a socially just private equity fund that will build/acquire more housing.
AFIFA KHALIQ, Director of Programs, SEIU FPSU
ERIC BRAKKEN, Executive Director, SEIU Florida State Council
Workers Defense Project (WDP)
WDP is a membership-based organization that uses organizing, direct services, and policy change to empower low-income construction workers across Texas and achieve economic justice and fair employment.
COHORT FOCUS: Identifying opportunities to integrate our Better Builder Program (BBP) standards into commercial real estate investments in Texas through policy initiatives focused on the S in ESG investing.
CHAD GRAY, Research Coordinator, WDP
MAYRA HUERTA, Campaign Manager, WDP
Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA)
Based in Silicon Valley, Working Partnerships USA tackles the root causes of inequality and poverty by leading collaborative campaigns for quality jobs, healthy communities, equitable growth and a vibrant democracy. We are a community organization that brings together the power of grassroots organizing and public policy innovation to drive the movement for a just economy. We build the capacity of workers, low-income neighborhoods and communities of color to lead and govern.
COHORT FOCUS: Analyzing the real estate investment landscape in the Bay Area, from large-scale private developments in San Jose to the apartment building owners in small cities surrounding San Jose, to identify investors, their relationships, and potential leverage to:
- in San Jose development, move developers of major construction projects to strengthen job quality standards, worker protections, and access to high-road training and careers for under-represented communities; and
- in small cities, support stronger policies to protect and empower tenants at risk of displacement, and shift incentives for apartment owners away from profit models based on displacing working families from their homes.
JESSICA VOLLMER, Associate Director of Organizing, WPUSA
LOUISE AUERHAHN, Director of Economics and Workforce Policy, WPUSA
ABOUBACAR “ASN” NDIAYE, Housing and Transportation Policy Manager
About the Application and Selection Process:
We are thankful to all our partners who helped with outreach and spreading the word about the Cohort.
The six participating organizations, which were selected from a final pool of 18 organizations, share a commitment to worker justice, alignment of values, and need and ability to pursue a strategy around engagement with capital.
We received applications from across the United States, with no significant cluster of applications coming from a particular city or region. Applying organizations ranged across sizes, structures and approaches (e.g., local to national coalitions; organizing low-wage workers to trying to influence pension fund Trustees).
Applying organizations focused on a multitude of sectors, including food, apparel, construction, and domestic work. The majority of organizations explicitly named people of color, women of color, and immigrant workers as their main constituents.
Despite the heterogeneity of the applicant pool, organizations almost unanimously emphasized worker concerns around wage theft, lack of benefits, discrimination, workplace safety and the challenges that come with contracting and subcontracting. The consensus and overlap around these concerns provides a focus point for the Cohort, even as their work is distributed across sectors, geographies and organization types.
The application process confirmed the high level of interest and demand for knowledge and tools to engage in more ways with capital and financial actors.
