CRC's Workers Center is more than a place to look for work in a dignified and safe space. The Worker's Center itself was started as a response to the need to defend low-wage immigrant worker rights for those that are most vulnerable to workplace exploitation, discrimination, wage theft and hazardous working conditions. Our Worker's Center directly advocates on their behalf.

While we can recount many success stories, there are also thousands of workers in the region that need our support.  Fighting for worker justice in not a one size fits all strategy. Our Worker's Center conducts direct case work but we also are proactive on the administrative and legislative advocacy front to improve labor conditions throughout Westchester and greater New York.  We engage the community to look for creative, accessible solutions that advance labor rights and social justice. At our Worker's Center, workers have power and the community has a voice.

CRC believes that direct organizing is a fundamental dimension to achieving labor justice. We are founding members of the Westchester Labor Alliance (La Alianza Laboral de Westchester). As part of the alliance, we work strategically to tackle looming issues of wage theft and worker exploitation in Westchester.  Recently, CRC has enhanced our collaboration with the National Domestic Worker Alliance through a funding partnership that has enabled us to train domestic worker leaders to do direct outreach and organizing of other domestic workers. We call them “Groundbreakers” because they are breaking new ground in domestic worker leadership and community organizing for the Community Resource Center.  It is a great place to be part of a community and a movement.

A day at the Worker's Center might start off with a few local homeowners hiring skilled day laborers to finish a home project. Those that did not get hired or domestic workers who are looking to improve their English can take an ESL class that they registered for. Later in the day, workers who are having a problem with wage theft can learn about their rights and file a claim. Some people might come in use our computers to fill out applications online or learn how to build a resume. A friendly game of checkers among friends or a few minutes in the children’s corner while their mothers and fathers get information about the next construction class or Know Your Rights session are all part of an the life of our Worker’s Center.

For any information about services that the Worker's Center Provides, please contact Rocio Lopez at (914) 630-7022 or Bettina Aguilar at baguilar@crcny.org. 

Worker's Rights Issues:

• Wage Theft Prevention and Recovery
• Workplace Safety
• Fair Wage and Stable Work Conditions
• Dignified and Valued Work

 
Programs for Building up the Immigrant Worker Community:

• Day Labor Hiring Site
• Domestic Worker Committee

 
Workforce Development Trainings:

• Basic Construction
• Restaurant Professional Opportunity Training
• OSHA and Workplace Safety
• Professional Housekeeping and Nanny Workshops and Trainings
• English Classes

​Partner Agencies:

La Alianza Laboral de Westchester comprised of:

Neighbors Link 

Neighbors Link recently merged Pace Community Law Practice (PCLP) into the organization. Lead attorneys, Karin Anderson Ponzer, Esq. and Elizabeth Mastropolo, Esq. will become Neighbors Link staff and their legal services will be provided under the new name Neighbors Link Community Law Practice. Neighbors Link has partnered with PCLP since 2014, with PCLP completing applications for US naturalization and deferred action as well as a variety of other immigration services during the legal clinics offered every week at Neighbors Link. The partnership between Neighbors Link and PCLP has been very successful: over the past 2 ½ years, PCLP conducted initial consultations at Neighbors Link with over 250 people seeking legal assistance; most of those cases were immigration matters, including family based petitions, visas, travel documents, asylum, and renewal of Legal Permanent Resident Cards (LPR). The merging of PCLP into Neighbors Link will allow the center to expand legal services to integrate and support Neighbors Link's overall operations and mission to strengthen the whole community by actively enhancing the healthy integration of immigrants.

United Community Center 

Catholic Charities-Obreros Unidos 

Worker Justice Center 

The Worker Justice Center of New York's mission is to pursue justice for those denied human rights with a focus on agricultural and other low wage workers, through legal representation, community empowerment and advocacy for institutional change.
WJCNY was created in 2011 through the merger of Farmworker Legal Services of New York and the Workers’ Rights Law Center. We are now the leading provider of non-profit legal assistance in employment law matters for low-wage workers in the Hudson Valley and Upstate New York, serving over 5,000 low-wage workers annually from our offices in Rochester, Kingston, and Hawthorne. Our clients are primarily farmworkers and immigrant workers in the food processing, construction, landscaping, restaurant, janitorial, hospitality, and domestic service industries who are disproportionately affected by labor abuses such as wage theft, discrimination, labor trafficking, and unsafe working conditions. We prioritize impact-oriented legal assistance by which we can help the greatest number of individuals and families. Our lawyers, paralegals, and workers rights advocates seek to identify company-wide and egregious legal violations that warrant intensive investigation, worker outreach, organizing, and aggressive legal advocacy to effectively achieve justice for workers. Each year, our worker rights' advocates reach thousands of workers on farms and in communities throughout the Hudson Valley and Upstate New York, providing essential information and training to workers who are otherwise largely isolated from service providers and access to legal assistance. Recognized internationally as a leader in fight to combat human trafficking, WJCNY works to identify and dismantle human trafficking schemes while helping survivors access services to help them regain control of their lives. Our trafficking specialists routinely train governmental, human service, and community agencies (both domestically and internationally) on the topic of trafficking prevention and investigation, as well as leading regional anti-trafficking task forces across the state.  With support from our survivor services case management team, our immigration legal practice specializes in assisting survivors of labor trafficking, sexual abuse, and domestic violence and is growing to include representation on a broad variety of immigration matters affecting immigrant workers in agriculture and other low-wage industries. In addition to providing direct services, WJCNY confronts systemic injustices by supporting worker organizing and advocating for policy changes at the local, state, and federal levels. We partner with grassroots community-based organizations and worker centers to support collective action and empowerment across the state.

Don Bosco 

​​Don Bosco Worker’s, Inc. is a grassroots community-organizing group led by Latino immigrant day laborers and other low-income workers in Port Chester, New York. We advocate for full and fair participation in the labor market through workplace rights education, leadership development and popular education methods for identifying social change goals from within the worker community. As part of our goal for full integration of our worker members into the labor force and society, we are committed to English language instruction and civic participation. Our principal concern is to maximize the number of workers hired daily at a fair wage and in safe working environments, while also advocating to end the exploitation of Latino immigrant workers (e.g. wage theft, etc.) by holding employers responsible. A key tenet of our mission is collaboration with other groups on the local and national levels that offer us shared resources, support, and the experience of being part of a larger social movement to advance the dignity of the worker. We are also proud to be a part of the Village of Port Chester and give back to the community through service days, actions on behalf of early childhood education, and other civic causes.