UUSC Programs: Economic Justice living wage campaigns

Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center (NWAWJC), established in 2002 in Springdale and Fayetteville, Ark, seeks to improve the wages, benefits, and working conditions of low wage and immigrant workers through rights education, building local and regional partnerships to involve the broader community in the workers’ struggles, and empowering workers to be effective advocates.

The center is located in Arkansas, the second largest producer of poultry products in the United States and home to Tyson Chicken headquarters. It was created because low wage workers, the majority of whom are immigrants, are being abused and exploited by employers but do not know their legal rights in the workplace.

UUSC is supporting NWAWJC to:

Adapt and implement a leadership development program for women in the poultry industry.

Promote leadership development for the center, including a bilingual workers’ rights advocate to extend outreach to a wider portion of the immigrant community, especially focused on organizing women workers.

Build partnerships with labor unions present in the area, as well as with other regional workers’ centers within the poultry industry.

Extend workers’ rights education and organizing (currently offered in English and Spanish) to include the Vietnamese community in Forth Smith and the Marshallese community in northwest Arkansas.