DAVENPORT, Iowa (November 24, 2014) - The Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice has announced that its first year grant award will go to the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa. The grant will be used to expand CWJ's Jobs with Dignity Campaign to the Quad City Area.
CWJ's Jobs with Dignity Campaign will build on existing relationships with labor and community leaders in the Quad Cities Area to offer education and organizing support for low-wage, immigrant, and young workers. CWJ's vision for worker justice includes:
1. Having a union
2. Being paid a livable wage
3. Being paid on time and receiving a paystub
4. Secure, predictable work schedules
5. Workplaces free of discrimination and racism
Since it was first established in Johnson County in 2012, CWJ has become a dynamic organization involving over 250 low-wage workers and members of 30 affiliated community organizations. Through education, direct action, and legal strategies, CWJ has successfully assisted low-wage workers in recovering thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, spurred policy makers to propose improved wage payment laws and reverse discriminatory policing practices, and built a strong base of worker members who now possess impressive organizing and leadership experience.
CWJ's leadership structure requires that low-wage worker members make up majorities in all of its organizational decision-making bodies, reflecting the group's core belief that low-wage workers themselves must lead any successful effort to address the root causes of poverty and oppression. For more information on past and current efforts of CWJ, please visit their website at http://www.cwjiowa.org/home/
About Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice
The Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice was established in 2013 to carry on the life work of Richard E. Fallow who fought for Labor and Economic Justice; Environmental Sustainability; and Democracy and Human Rights. Each year the Endowment will issue a grant in one of these three categories. The Endowment is administered by the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend and managed by Progressive Action for the Common Good - 563-676-7580.
