We congratulate our partners—Junta for Progress Action, SEIU Local 32BJ, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance and many others—on the passage of the Connecticut TRUST Act (HB6659) in the state legislature on May 22, 2013. The state’s House and Senate unanimously supported this historic legislation, which prohibits all local and state law enforcement and the state’s judicial marshals from detaining immigrants at the request of federal immigration authorities, with some exceptions. When the Governor signs this legislation, Connecticut will become the first state in the country to adopt the TRUST Act, protecting thousands of Connecticut families from being torn apart by needless detentions and deportations.

CPD worked closely with partners in Connecticut to develop the campaign strategy and policy, and to create advocacy materials to help move the bill through committee and to passage. This victory comes at a time when, at the federal level, lawmakers are arguing for heightened border security and increased enforcement as a precursor to creating a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people. With the passage of the TRUST Act, Connecticut is rejecting this approach and showing the country that aggressive, punitive enforcement strategies have no place in a just and humane reform of immigration policy.

The national movement to guarantee paid sick days to workers won a major victory yesterday, when the New York City Council overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto in a 47-4 vote and enacted the Earned Sick Time Act. The legislation, passed with what the New York Times called “a raw display of political muscle” by a broad coalition of labor, community and advocacy organizations, gives 3.4 million private sector workers in New York City the legal right to take 5 sick days every year to care for themselves or their ailing family members. Of these workers, 1.4 million were not previously entitled to any sick time by the terms of their employment agreements – and for them this law will represent a meaningful improvement in their quality of life.

Center for Popular Democracy played a central role in the victory, helping to negotiate the compromise that ensured sufficient political support for passage and then working with City Council attorneys to draft the final bill. As part of a broad and robust political coalition, CPD helped mobilize pressure on the City Council, designed key elements of the legislation to ensure that workers will actually be able to exercise their right to sick time off without fear of retaliation, and helped advance a procedural strategy to free the bill from committee purgatory and bring it to the floor for a vote.

As a result of the coalition’s persistence, 1 million workers will now, for the first time, be able to take paid time off when they need it. Another 400,000 will, for the first time, be able to take (unpaid) time off without fear of losing their jobs. And 2 million other workers who already had sick time will benefit from a new labor standard that gives them security and additional bargaining power in their workplace.

Last month, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed historic legislation providing Maryland workers a critical new legal tool—a wage lien—to recover their wages when they have not been paid what they earned. Maryland joins a handful of states to provide workers this key provision.

The Public Justice Center and key allies drove the campaign to draft and win passage of this historic bill—a victory that will serve as a model for states across the country. Early technical and strategy support from the Center for Popular Democracy helped ensure the bill’s passage this year.

The victory is critical for the hundreds of thousands of low-income workers in Maryland who do not receive minimum wage or overtime and lose about 15% of their annual earnings to wage theft by unscrupulous employers. The new wage lien provides workers the option of “freezing” the employer’s assets before filing a court action—a step that dramatically increases the likelihood the worker will actually recover what she or he is owed. Congratulations to the PJC and thank you to all the partner organization that helped make this victory happen.

Earlier this month, National Domestic Workers Alliance and CPD held a weeklong retreat that kicked off an 18 month program called the Basebuilders Innovation Group (Get BIG!) to bolster the organizing capacity and internal infrastructure of NDWA affiliates and create the foundation from which they can increase the scale of their organizing.

Throughout the week, CPD and NDWA guided selected NDWA affiliates through a variety of organizing models, brought together organizers for training and to learn with one another, and provided critical resources and technology infrastructure such as a text message alert system and database to support affiliates. CPD led discussions around the pending immigration reform and how groups could use this moment to not only provide information and services but also to increase the size of their base.  CPD also helped the groups think about how they could use technology to help them manage and organize the large numbers of people that could be seeking their assistance once immigration reform passes. 

CPD will continue to be a core partner on the project in the coming months, working with NDWA and its affiliates to evaluate the base-building opportunities emerging from immigration reform and develop the technological capacity and internal workflows to serve the thousands of new individuals who will be coming to affiliates’ doors seeking assistance related to legalization; and, ultimately, leverage new technologies and systems to connect thousands of immigrants and workers to the NDWA membership, wrap-around services and advocacy efforts.