What is the garment worker center?
The Center is a place for garment workers to organize. There are monthly educational workshops that explain issues such as wage and hour laws, health and safety regulations and discrimination. Garment workers also come to find help with their work problems - if they have not gotten paid, if they were fired unfairly or if the factory is engaging in unfair and unsafe practices. The center also provides a space to centralize all the efforts happening against sweatshops and to help garment workers.

How did the Center get started?
The Center was started by a coalition of immigrant rights groups who have been helping workers for many years. The groups received calls from garment workers occasionally and helped them one by one.But none could ever focus on the garment industry because they focus on other low wage industries that include restaurant workers, gardeners, day laborers, etc. Because the garment industry is so huge here - everyone felt like there should be a place that solely focuses on organizing garment workers and fighting the garment industry.

Where do you get your funding from? How large is your budget and how many staff do you have?

The Center is funded entirely by grants from non-profit foundations. Our budget is roughly $380,000 a year and we have six people on staff.

What does the center do? What type of services do you provide?

The Center is a place for workers to stop by to pick up information or ask questions. The Center sponsors workshops and intake clinics- where workers can come and speak to staff or worker peer counselors. We have information available about issues facing workers such as health care, domestic violence and housing problems. The Center assists workers file claims when they don’t get paid. We also support workers who want to take actions against unfair employers, manufacturers and retailers and organize with other garment workers.