The Tompkins County Workers' Center, formerly the Living Wage Coalition, was founded in 1995. Today, the Workers' Center is made up of hundreds of individuals and
over fifty organizations (unions, religious and community groups, etc).
» View our Workers' Center Coalition Partners
Download our Organizational Signup Sheet if your
organization
would like to
partner with the Workers' Center
Our mission
The Mission of the Tompkins County Workers' Center is to stand up with all
people treated unfairly at work or faced with critical poverty, racial,
housing, health care or other social and economic issues.
We will
support,
advocate for, and seek to empower each other to create a more just community
and
world.
Support. We will provide information, referrals to appropriate government or private agencies,
and
emotional support
Advocacy. We will advocate with employers, agencies and government officials for and alongside
workers who
are being
treated unfairly, in order to correct problems, end worker rights violations and improve conditions.
Empowerment. We will seek to create and nourish community-based economic justice organizations
that include
a majority
of low-income people in leadership and activist roles.
Social Change. We will also seek to inform, educate and shape community values and standards of
employer
behavior with
respect to workplace rights and the treatment of low-income people. We support the use of diverse strategies to
achieve social change, such as popular education, public testimony (telling what is really happening in our workplaces
and in the lives of low-income people), public protests, direct action and legislative campaigns.
Religious Task Force
The Religious Task Force of the Tompkins County Workers' Center brings a moral, ethical, and spiritual component to our work. Contact Laurie Konwinski for more information at (607) 272-5062 x12 or by
e-mail here.
Everyone who works full-time should earn a living wage. This is a simple matter of justice. Because poverty is
unnecessary in the United States, it is unjust and shameful. Justice does not mean simply providing assistance so that
poor people can get by. it means constructing an economic system of sustainable sufficiency for all.
-Reverend William E. Gibson, Presbyterian
Campaigns
|
Justice for Hotel Workers Campaign
The hotel industry in Ithaca employs over 600 workers. Each hotel sets its own pay scale but
the general wage is in the $7.15-8.00 range. This is well below a living wage in Tompkins County.
|
Health Care for All Campaign
The Workers' Center is committed to the principle that everyone has the right to comprehensive health care (in fact,
this right is guaranteed to us by U.S signature, in 1948, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Too many
people are dying, put into bankruptcy, and are suffering due to a health care system that puts profits first.
» Sign our petition
» Contact us to learn more or get
involved
|
Wal-Mart Living Wage Campaign
This campaign is about fair wages, strong families and corporate accountability. It is about ensuring that Wal-Mart's
new Ithaca store pays workers a living wage -- enough to meet their basic needs and to help them support their
families decently.
We look forward to the wide selection, quality merchandise and low prices that Wal-Mart promises. But we expect more
from large and profitable companies like Wal-Mart.
|
Service Learning in Social Justice
This program provides service learning opportunities about social justice for hundreds of university, college, and secondary schools students in
Tompkins Cou$
provide internships and volunteer experiences, and deliver programs about social justice both in classrooms and in the community.
» Contact us for more information
Wage Theft Campaign
This campaign is about fighting the nationwide problem of wage theft and getting workers the wages they legally deserve. It is about raising awareness of wage laws and changing the way we do business in Tompkins County. It has become too common for business owners to cheat their workers of wages and tips, taking the low road to economic success. We need to stand up and demand that the law be upheld in Tompkins County and that workers receive legal pay for the work that they do.
» Click here for the Wage Theft Info Page
» Contact us for more information
