THE WORKERS’ CENTER OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Through community organizing, leadership development, education and policy advocacy, the Workers’ Center of Central New York empowers low-wage workers to combat workplace abuses and improve wages and working conditions throughout the community.
About Us
A grassroots organization focused on workplace and economic justice. WCCNY is part of a nation-wide network of innovative workers’ centers affiliated with the Chicago-based Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). It operates in and around the city of Syracuse, a city with one of the highest rates of poverty in the country, driven by deindustrialization and deunionization, the entrenchment of widespread joblessness and the proliferation of low-wage jobs. The Workers’ Center facilitates worker empowerment and leadership development through trainings related to workers’ rights and occupational health and safety, orchestrates campaigns to combat wage theft and to promote employer compliance with the law, and engages in organizing and coalition-building to push for policies that will increase wages and workplace standards and promote human rights.
Our History
In 2005, the CNY Labor-Religion Coalition was exploring how it might undertake a project that would embody its values in the larger community, especially its concerns for economic justice. Many of us drew inspiration from the work of scholar/activist Janice Fine, author of Workers’ Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream and the practical work of Jose Oliva, the talented Worker Center Coordinator for Interfaith Worker Justice. Both visited Syracuse and met with us, and the LRC decided to make the creation of a Workers Center its major project. In 2006, it opened its doors on a limited basis, staffed by a half-time organizer, with a focus on the issues facing low-wage and immigrant workers.
MEET OUR STAFF
Jessica Maxwell
Executive Director
Jessica Maxwell grew up on a small family farm in Herkimer County. For the past 20 years, she has been an activist and community organizer in Syracuse, NY, working on economic and social justice campaigns, including immigrant rights, justice for incarcerated individuals and their families, community gardening and urban agriculture projects, and a safe, clean energy system. Jessica currently provides organizing trainings with RiseUp for Social Action, serves on the board of the Alliance for a Green Economy and Cooperative Federal community development credit union, and is the Executive Director of the Workers Center of CNY.
Fernanda Uribe
Farmworker Organizer
Fernanda Uribe has worked as an organizer across New York State in multiple capacities that span the public health arena and include outreach and advocacy for agricultural workers in the Finger Lakes region. Frenanda joined the staff of The Workers Center of Central New York in mid-2020, during the peak of the COVID-19, global pandemic. Fernanda is originally from Mexico.
Victor Hernandez
Writer in Residence
Victor Hernandez first became involved with the Worker’s Center as a volunteer interpreter. He has also worked with and volunteered with several central New York non-profits, including the Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network (SIRDN). His activism against the War on Drugs earned him the prestigious Elie Wiesel Essay Prize in Ethics and the City of San Antonio’s Man of the Year accolade in 2012. He is originally from Torreón, México, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Syracuse University.
Mina Aguilar
Campaigns & Membership Development Organizer
Mina is a Mexican-American who grew up in Central NY. She has been an organizer with the Workers’ Center since July 2022. She has deep connections with workers and families in the North Country Region. During her time with the Center, she has supported in mapping dairy farms and planning outreach efforts, leading workers in advocacy trips to Albany, facilitating workshops on organizing and gender equity, and advocating for immigrants and better farmworker conditions.
We come together to make change.
Our Dedicated Executive Board
Gretchen Purser
Chair & secretary
She has been involved in building this organization since 2010. She is a Professor of Sociology and the Research Director on Activism and Advocacy at PARCC, where she coordinates the Labor Studies working group, at Syracuse University.
Jim Williams
Treasurer
He is an attorney with Legal Services of Central New York, an adjunct professor of employment law at the SU Law School, and the former executive director of the National Employment Law Project.
Andres Mendoza
membership liason
Andres is a Mexican immigrant who has been living in Syracuse since 2003. He was a restaurant worker until he was injured roughly 7 years ago. He has long been an active member of the organization, participating in trainings, marches, and collective actions in support of other members.
Adelso Bravo
member
Adelso is a long time member of WCCNY and works as a painter in Syracuse.
Amy Sugimori
Director of Policy & Legislation for 32BJ SEIU
With 145,000 members throughout 11 states and Washington, DC, 32BJ is the largest property service workers union in the country. 32BJ members work in building services, keeping the offices, apartments, schools and other major buildings in our states clean, secure and operating smoothly.
Dolores BustamantE
member
Dolores is a Mexican farmworker currently employed in the apple industry. She is on the board of Alianza de Mujeres Agricolas.
Beatriz Gatica
member
Beatrice has been working as a farmworker in the apple orchards for over 10 years. Originally from Mexico, she is not only on the board of WCCNY but is active in Mujeres Divinas
Past and Present Funders
We are very grateful to our funders, including:
Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, The Abelard Foundation, Berger Marks Foundation, Sparkplug Foundation, RESIST INC, Presbyterian Hunger Program, UCC Neighbors in Need Program, the New York Immigration Coalition, The Hispanic Federation, the Sociological Initiatives Foundation, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the Worker Justice Center and the Occupational Health Clinical Center.
