In the last ten to fifteen years, Portland's low-wage workforce has transformed from mostly white to a mixture of African American, Romanian, South East Asian, Chinese, Laotian, Filipino and Latino. Though building a multicultural workers' center means working harder to build trust, the Worker's Organizing Committee (WOC) sees it as an opportunity for workers to become aware of their common struggles.

WOC envisions a labor organization that extends past the workplace - and into the community to unite low-wage workers across industries. Established in 1993, WOC's first success was a multi-cultural campaign among hotel employees. With a permanent and visible place from which to organize, workers have created programs including classes around safety issues at their worksites and family-oriented programs on parenting.

In 1996, WOC joined with local labor and community organizations to address day labor issues. WOC conducted a year and a half long survey in which day laborers stated over and over again their need for a safe place to build a support network. The workers then agreed on a series of demands including: day laborers' recognition as workers, a right to representation, and a safe, worker-run facility where day laborers can wait for work away from harassment by police or local merchants. The support network they envision would include education on immigrant rights, safety and ESL classes, medical and legal assistance and more.

WOC's work with day laborers moved the organization to respond to a series of large INS sweeps in the summer and fall of 1997. Through WOC's "migra watch" project, witnesses photographed and documented plainclothes INS officers grabbing and harassing workers. Its extensive publicity about the abuses garnered attention in both English and Spanish language press.

WOC can be reached at PO Box 12292, Portland, OR 97212; 503-284-3856; email: woc@aracnet.com

The Workplace Project, Long Island, NY

The Workplace Project is a member-based organization that grew out of the struggle of Central and South American immigrants to respond to non-payment and underpayment of wages, high rates of injury on the job, and other labor abuses. Governed by a board elected from the membership, the Project emphasizes organizing and education through its programs.

Over 370 workers have graduated from the Project's nine-week class in immigrant and labor history, labor law, and organizing techniques. Members learn to defend themselves at hearings, launch campaigns for enforcement of existing labor laws, and organize others in their workplace and community. Some graduates recently initiated their own cooperative landscaping business.

The Project won a significant legal victory with the 1997 "Unpaid Wages Prohibition Act," signed by New York Governor Pataki following lobbying efforts coordinated with the Chinese Staff and Workers' Association and the Latino Workers' Center. The law makes repeat or willful nonpayment or underpayment of wages a felony. It also levies the toughest penalty in the nation against employers owing wages, increasing fines against them by 800%. Much of the momentum behind the bill came from the Project's analysis of its 900-person database, which documented the Department of Labor's lack of attention to claims brought by low-wage workers. Only 3% of cases filed by the Project over three years had resulted in even partial payment.

The Workplace Project can be reached at 91 N. Franklin St., Suite 207, Hempstead, NY 1150-3003; 516-565-5377; email: workplace@igc.org