Worker centers have sprung up around the country in a variety of ways. But they have all begin with some basic first steps:

• Contact and develop relationships with local religious institutions where workers worship
• Build partnerships with local labor and employment attorneys who can serve on steering committees, advise workers and donate $ to the center.
• Build partnerships with labor enforcement agencies, such as Department of Labor, EEOC and OSHA – organizations that can enforce complaints
• Build partnership with organized labor, who can help organize workers and donate $ to the center.

Once these four basic foundations are laid, decide how and when the center will open. Here are the most common models:

The Study

Workers and academics partner to produce a study outlining the sweatshop working conditions in that community, workplace or sector of the industry. This study is made public at a press event in which there is also an announcement that a worker center will be opened to address the problems outlined in the study. The study should use scientific methodology, but should primarily be a tool to reach out to workers and build a leadership team for the worker center.

Centers that were started in this manner:

• Madison Workers' Rights Center
• Restaurant Opportunities Center

The Community Coalition

Religious leaders, workers and others in the community interested in starting a workers' center create a coalition of organizations on the ground who work with the target population. This coalition might include social service agencies, community organizing groups, religious institutions and employment attorneys. These organizations then create a strategic plan for the creation of the worker center. Key leaders from each of the organizations form a steering committee that leads the creation of the worker center.

Some centers that were started in this manner:

• Cincinnati Interfaith Workers' Center
• Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center

The Worker Rights Manual

Community leaders and workers produce a manual (or other education materials) that outlines the rights of all workers in their workplaces. An outreach plan is then devised in which the manual is distributed to the target population.

Some centers that were started in this manner:

• Arise Chicago
• Western North Carolina Workers Center

Worker self-determination is a central principle of the IWJ Worker Center Network, so regardless of which path people in your community choose, the key decision-making body of the worker center should always be composed of workers or at least have a majority of workers.

In this pathbreaking book, Janice Fine identifies 137 worker centers in more than 80 cities, suburbs, and rural areas in 31 states. These centers, which attract workers in industries that are difficult to organize, have emerged as especially useful components of any program intended to assist immigrants and low-wage workers of color. Worker centers serve not only as organizing laboratories but also as places where immigrants and other low-wage workers can participate in civil society, tell their stories to the larger community, resist racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, and work to improve their political and economic standing.