Check out the December 2023 RIM Newsletter here.
This December, NACCHO had the opportunity to speak with Tim Bell, José Frausto, and Rosalía Tenorio from the Chicago Workers Collaborative. Chicago Workers Collaborative’s mission is to “promote the creation of stable, living wage jobs with racial and gender equity through leadership development, advocacy, direct action and community resources.”
“We started empowering workers to know their rights, to defend their rights at work, but at the same time, they challenge immigration issues in their communities,” said Frausto.
He explained that right now they are focusing on providing basic necessities to asylum seekers as well as helping them through the immigration process.
Tim explained that most of the workers hold high-hazard jobs and have little to no line of defense. That’s where they come into play- by empowering workers to know and defend their rights, they are able to effectively advocate for themselves.
Rosalia started as a COVID-19 navigator. “People needed to be convinced to get vaccinated because not many people trusted the vaccine,” said Tenorio. “We started to do a lot of clinics in the community, maybe churches, maybe the park, we bring the service to the community.”
“The thing that we’ve really focused on is training people on occupational health and safety, how to protect themselves in the workplace, also from infectious diseases in the workplace,” said Bell These skills are invaluable to workers- knowing and advocating for your health and safety is crucial.
Frausto also talked about being the bridge between their community and local health departments.
“We’ve been working in the community for so long and people from the community trust us rather than trusting the health department directly,” said Frausto. “People come to us, and we direct them to the health departments.”
Chicago Workers Collaborative is a key organization in helping workers understand and advocate for their rights. To learn more about the amazing work they are doing, check out their website here.
