Congress of Day Laborers

The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice is a multi-racial organization dedicated to building the power and participation of poor people in order to expand democracy and transform the economy. We organize directly affected people, and couple their courage with strategic legal, policy, and communications work to build campaigns that advance racial justice, immigrant rights, and a fair economy. Our members are African American and immigrant workers and families in New Orleans, as well as guestworkers across the country. The Center anchors three grassroots membership organizations: the Congress of Day Laborers, Stand With Dignity, and the National Guestworker Alliance, as well as a strategic legal department that innovates law and policy strategies that build grassroots power. In the last five years, the Center’s organizing and policy victories have been highlighted in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek. For more information go to www.nowcrj.org and www.guestworkeralliance.org

The Congress of Day Laborers (the “Congreso”) is a project of the New Orleans Workers' Center. The Congreso is a rapidly growing membership organization of immigrant workers and families in New Orleans and beyond. The Congreso was founded by the day laborers who rebuilt New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Today, the Congreso’s members are at the cutting-edge of the movement for equal justice in the South, where the political season of hate that started with Arizona’s SB 1070 continues to undercut the human rights of immigrants. Our members have a vision of permanent community in the changing South – and are building it through their campaigns. In the last five years, the Congreso has won back unpaid wages, in post-Katrina New Orleans, exposed human rights abuses in jails and detention centers in; defeated back anti-immigrant policy; and advanced campaigns for the right to remain and the right to organize in the new economy. Our members and campaigns have been highlighted in the New York Times, Associated Press, the L.A. Times, and the Times Picayune.