January - April 2006

• Conference on challenges faced by immigrant workers, and strategies for responding to those challenges is organized by two University of Michigan student organizations -- Migrant Immigrant Rights Awareness (MIRA) and the Labor Law Round Table -- and Residential College Faculty, with financial support from multiple UM units.  Workers’ centers are one option explored.
• The Worker Center Initiative (WCI) is formed at the conclusion of this conference to explore the possibility of a workers’ center in our county.
• Students in Residential College course, as a class project, do first interviews with workers to identify most important workplace problems facing immigrant workers.
• WCI secures start-up funding for a workers’ center from National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID), University of Michigan.
• Three AmeriCorps interns hired for summer.

May – August 2006      

• WCI members attend Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) training on workers’ centers in Chicago. (See their website at: www.iwj.org/)
• WCI forms an interim Board of Directors and renames itself the Washtenaw County Worker Center (WCWC).
• Centro Obrero opens in SW Detroit, with support of WCWC and NCID.
• Americorps interns develop “Know Your Rights” trainings and brochures, visit worksites, meet one-on-one with workers, and build relationships with community organizations serving immigrant community.
• A University of Michigan staff attorney joins the WCWC’s Interim Board  and begins to support efforts to provide legal services through the WCWC.
• UM faculty volunteers with ESL and popular education expertise develop curriculum that uses workers’ rights as a medium for teaching English to recent immigrants.  This curriculum is incorporated into the ESL programs of the Centro Obrero in southwest Detroit (Mexicantown) and the First United Methodist Church in Ypsilanti.

 September – December 2006

• WCWC shifts to one half-time AmeriCorps intern. 
• WCWC initiates a membership-building campaign through door-to-door house calls.
• WCWC staff and volunteers meet with workers with specific problems, and connect with UM legal clinic and community organizations that can help.
• Workers’ Rights Committee formed -- responsible for planning and leading monthly WCWC meetings that provide training and promote awareness of specific workplace issues.
• Monthly meeting workshop
• WCWC co-sponsors 2-day conference, “Crossing Borders: Immigration, Worker Centers, and Universities,” involving workers’ rights activists and academics from across the U.S. to bring worker center experts to Ann Arbor.  Keynote address  by Janice Fine (see Volunteer Resources page).

January – April 2007

• Two part-time work-study students hired through the Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations, to supplement AmeriCorps staffer.
• WCWC granted 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit status by IRS.
• Elections held at membership meeting result in a multiracial, economically diverse Executive Board. WCWC’s First Board of Directors
• Sociological Initiatives Foundation (SIF) grant for community-based participatory research enables WCWC to begin documenting local labor market patterns and working conditions.
• WCWC becomes the 15th workers’ center to join Interfaith Workers’ Justice network.
• WCWC Board member who is an alumna of Grinnell College gets grant to create leadership development and exchange program for WCWC

May - August 2007

• Participate in May 1 rally for immigrant rights at Clark Park in SW Detroit.
• Leadership development trainings conducted for 12 WCWC worker members.
• SIF labor market survey work continues throughout summer – 128 usable surveys by end of summer.
• Based on these results, clear that a majority of those interviewed have worked in restaurant sector over last three years; it is decided to focus our future organizing efforts on that sector.
• Existing ties (through one Board member) with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) are strengthened so that WCWC can learn how ROC-NY organizes.
• In June, ROC-NY leaders Saru Jayaraman and Fekkak Mamdouh come to Ann Arbor to discuss possibility of siting a ROC in Detroit.ROC-NY and WCWC Board members meet in Ann Arbor.
• Eleven WCWC members participate in first annual national convening of restaurant workers in Chicago, giving birth to a national organization of restaurant-focused worker centers and its national coordinating organization, the Restaurant Opportunities Center-United.

September - December 2007

• Focus of SIF surveys shifts to targeting restaurant workers only – by end of November, 187 usable surveys.  
• Preliminary results presented to WCWC members at that time

January - April 2008

• Anti-immigrant arrests and other forms of harassment increase in Washtenaw County, leading WCWC to develop monthly training sessions on immigrant and civil rights for over 80 individuals (See Workshops page).
• Restaurant worker surveys continue – by end of this period, with 218 usable surveys, process is completed.
• ROC-United decides that one of the new ROCs will be located in Metro Detroit, and WCWC vows to support this effort in whatever ways seem most promising.  

May - August 2008

• Restaurant Opportunities Center-Michigan (ROC-MI) center opens office in Detroit in June.
• WCWC wins grant award from Ben & Jerry’s Foundation to support hiring of full-time organizer to help build restaurant membership and develop a worker justice campaign in Washtenaw County.
• WCWC report on Washtenaw low-wage labor market is completed.  (See SIF Project page for results of this research)
• Results of WCWC SIF survey are reported to members and supportive community organizations, including the Huron Valley Central Labor Council.
• WCWC summer staff (two UM MSW students) support ROC-MI survey collection in Metro Detroit.

September - December 2008

• WCWC secures enough additional funding to hire our first full-time organizer for one year; the search for this organizer begins; we find someone, to begin in January 2009.
• WCWC negotiates memorandum of understanding with ROC-United under which WCWC’s full-time organizer, supervised by their Coordinator, will devote most of her time to organizing restaurant workers in Washtenaw County.
• WCWC website is developed with support of Board member and three student volunteers.

January – August 2009

• WCWC website launched. 
• WCWC’s full-time organizer begins work in Washtenaw County in January.
• WCWC signs agreement with two University of Michigan unions -- the Lecturer Employees’ Organization (LEO) and the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) – in which they agree to donate office space for WCWC and ROC-MI meetings and trainings to end of August. 
• WCWC organizer coordinates two free fine dining service trainings and two bartending trainings; together, these trainings reach approximately 60 workers.
• WCWC sends full-time organizer and one restaurant worker to ROC-United convening in New Orleans.
• In May, WCWC helps ROC-MI generate large turnout for Michigan Policy Summit panel on low-wage work.
• In July, our full-time organizer leaves and it becomes necessary to reassess both our focus on restaurant organizing and what to do about staffing.
• WCWC Board decides to support a ROC-MI organizer to work with Washtenaw County restaurant workers, on part-time basis, to end of September, while thinking through larger questions. 

September - December 2009

• After discussions with Domestic Workers United, the Data Center and organizers for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, WCWC Board decides to shift its own organizing focus to household workers.
• LEO and GEO renew office space agreement with WCWC to end of December.
• WCWC hires two part-time organizers and recruits one UM School of Social Work Masters intern (total hours: 33 per week) to work on the Domestic Worker Organizing Project; work is well under way by mid-October.
• Restaurant worker organizing in Washtenaw County will henceforth be left exclusively to ROC-MI, though the WCWC will continue to support those efforts financially and in other ways.
• WCWC Board decides to continue the support for ROC-MI organizers (10 hrs per week) through the end of December 2009.
• In early November, WCWC sends its two part-time organizers to Oakland, CA for the West Coast Congress of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. 
• In late November, over 100 community supporters from Washtenaw County were mobilized to support ROC-MI’s first workplace justice campaign.
• In early December, WCWC holds first meeting of household workers, which includes a workshop on “green cleaning."

January - April 2010

• The WCWC collaborates with the Red Cross on an Infant and Child CRP training in Junuary.
• In February 2010 the WCWC begins its Household Worker Organizing Project (HOP) survey.
• In March the WCWC successfully runs a Negotiation Training.

May 2010 - Present

• In May ran a "Know-Your-Rights" Training following several raids in Ypsilanti.
• In June the US Social Forum came to Detroit along with the National Domestic Workers Alliance congress.
• In July, the WCWC collaborated with the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (WICIR) on a community social event where community members danced, ate a delicious pot-luck dinner, and participated in an open forum on community needs related to immigration and labor.
• In August the WCWC kicked off its newest part of HOP: household worker meetings every other Thursday night. The meetings are safe spaces for household workers to discuss their work. Every meeting also includes a mini-presentation related to household workers. Topics include: "Non-Toxic Cleaning," Negotiation, and Know-Your-Rights.
• In addition to the household worker meetings, August also saw a picnic in the park where members learned tips on how to negotiate!