Allies

On behalf of the UTWSD we would like to thank the following idividuals and organizations for all their hard work and dedication to equality.

San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council

The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council is the local central body affiliate of the AFL-CIO. The Labor Council offers an avenue for local unions to come together as a unified group to improve the lives of working families.

The San Diego Labor Council includes approximately 135 affiliated labor groups within San Diego and Imperial Counties with a membership of more than 250,000 local working families.

They are not a union, but a union of unions.

Employee Rights Center (ERC)

Founded in 1999 the Employee Rights Center’s (ERC) mission is to offer all San Diego area workers, especially disadvantaged workers without union representation, education and advocacy regarding their workplace issues.

Since day one after the strike we reached out to our community organizations for allies but Peter and the ERC have gone far beyond being allies to us here at the UTWSD. The legal and technical support, consulting and building of resource networks that Peter, Program and Founding Director of the ERX, has resulted in thousands of invaluable in-kind professional services for the UTWSD.

Peter and the ERC staff including Alor Calderon, Program Coordinator, have also contributed to dialog, fair treatment, policy analysis, and legal advocacy. Together Peter, Alor and the staff at the ERC have helped to ensure that we have a strong driver’s voice in the political arena and that driver’s legal rights are protected.

Center on Policy Initiatives

The Center on Policy Initiatives is a nonprofit research and advocacy center dedicated to the interests of working people in the San Diego region. Through research, community organizing and outreach, they seek policy change to promote economic justice and raise workers from poverty to the middle class.

Interfaith Committee of Worker Justice (ICWJ)

The Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice of San Diego County (ICWJ) is a membership organization, established in 1998, to bring the power and energy of the faith community’s moral authority to local struggles for worker justice. ICWJ represents clergy, synagogues, churches, mosques, faith and justice organizations, and many people of faith in the San Diego region who feel called by their respective religious traditions to work for justice and stand up for the poor and marginalized.

It is the mission of ICWJ to educate and mobilize the San Diego religious communities and people of faith to support issues and campaigns that will sustain lives with dignity for workers and their families by such means as improving wages, benefits and working conditions.

San Diego Labor Council

The mission of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council is to organize the community to promote social justice for all working people and improve the conditions for workers on the job, in their homes and in the community.  The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council is the local central body affiliate of the AFL-CIO founded in 1902. It includes 129 affiliated labor groups within San Diego and Imperial Counties with a membership of more than 189,000 working families.

ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we’ll be called a democracy.” Roger Baldwin, ACLU Founder

The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties fights for individual rights and fundamental freedoms for all through education, litigation, and policy advocacy. The ALCU envisions a society where fairness prevails and where liberty and justice exist for all. As a non-partisan organization committed to fulfilling the aspirations of the Bill of Rights, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties believes in:

• The dignity and equality of every human being
• Vigilance against abuse of power
• The principled approach rather than the convenient one when individuals’ rights are at stake
• Speaking truth to power even when it is unpopular to do so
• Fairness and respect in human and organizational interactions
• An educated and participatory public

Inner City Law Center (Los Angeles)

“The poorest among us should have the same access to justice as the richest and most powerful.”
– Nancy Mintie, founder of Inner City Law Center

Inner City Law Center is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, public interest law firm, which has been serving the poor since 1980, with an emphasis on housing and veterans issues.

Founded on the basic principle that every human being should be treated with dignity and respect at all times, ICLC, through its staff of 30 attorneys, advocates, tenant organizers, social workers, and other professionals, provides free legal representation and social service advocacy to over 2,000 homeless and working poor clients each year.

Urban League-San Diego Country

The mission of the Urban League of San Diego County is assisting African Americans and other underserved people in San Diego County to achieve social and economic equality through advocacy, bridge building, program services and research.  Among some of there accomplishments, the Urban League helps to empower their constituents in attaining economic self-sufficiency through job training, career planning, career fairs with empowerment zones, good jobs, homeownership, entrepreneurship and wealth accumulation as well as promote and ensure our civil rights by actively working to eradicate all barriers to equal participation in the all aspects of American society, whether political, economic, social, educational or cultural.

Los Angeles Taxi Workers Alliance (LATWA)

The Los Angeles Taxi Worker’s Alliance, LATWA, works to protect and advance the rights of taxi drivers in Los Angeles.  LATWA is a worker-led organization.

New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA)

Founded in 1998, NYTWA is a 15,000+ member strong union of NYC yellow taxicab drivers. They fight for justice, rights, respect and dignity for the over 49,000 licensed men and women-with 25,000 steady drivers-who labor 12-hour shifts with little pay and no benefits or protection in the city’s mobile sweatshop. Their members come from every community, garage, and neighborhood.

International Taxi Workers Alliance (ITWA)

The decision to create an international federation of taxi driver organizations came towards the end of a four day conference of taxi drivers/organizers hosted by the Taxi Workers Alliance of New York and Pennsylvania. The conference began with a call to “a common struggle that is historic and vital for our lives and for the American labor movement” from Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the NYTWA.