Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL)

CTUL’s Core Values + Work

At CTUL we believe in the dignity of all work and in the leadership potential of all people. A donation to Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (the Center for Workers United in Struggle) supports our Know Your Rights outreach and our worker leadership development programs, equipping more low-wage workers with the knowledge and confidence to make change in their own workplaces as well as at the systemic level. 

Through CTUL, workers have recovered more than $2.7 million in stolen wages since 2008 and played key roles in campaigns for paid sick days and a higher minimum wage in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. 

Defensores Lead Organizer Indira Garmendia Alfaro (left) and CTUL member Shenda Kazee (right) lead a popular education activity at our 2020 Juneteenth event outside our building at 3715 Chicago Avenue.

 

CTUL During the Pandemic

CTUL is a multiracial worker center focused on developing the leadership of Black and brown low-wage workers throughout the Twin Cities. Our communities were hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many newly-dubbed ‘Essential Workers’ in industries like food service and construction being praised publicly but then denied adequate PPE and sick leave. Workers like Brandon, who has had to push to have masking taken seriously at the deli where he works, without support from management. Workers like Anthony, who had to stay home unpaid after a COVID outbreak at his job and who saw no path for standing up for the paid time off owed to him and his coworkers -- until he connected with CTUL.

CTUL’s Campaign Organizing + Next Steps

Through CTUL, we come together across differences in language, background, and industry to learn about our workplace rights and the systemic forces that perpetuate the injustices we experience on the job. We map power, foster Black-brown solidarity, and build campaigns for transformative change. 

Currently we are focused on assuring a seat at the table for low-wage workers in all the spaces where decisions are being made about how the Twin Cities is recovering and rebuilding in the wake of the pandemic and the George Floyd Uprising. 

We will not just rebuild but reimagine -- replacing harmful and exploitative models for work, housing, and public safety with new options that build community wealth and assure a just and thriving economy that works for everyone.