Justice at Work

Boston, MA

This is the 2024 fellowship description for this mentor organization. This position has been filled.

Justice at Work is a multilingual legal nonprofit founded in 2011 to provide strategic legal and technical support to organizations of workers in low-paying jobs and their members, to strengthen their organizing efforts. Over our history we have served more than ten immigrant worker centers by providing legal services, access to justice, training and education, and strategic support for workers taking collective action.

We are based in Boston and serve workers in Eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Eastern Connecticut. The majority of the workers and worker center staff Justice at Work serves are Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking immigrants from Latin American, from a range of racial and ethnic backgrounds. We also have a relationship with the Brockton Workers Alliance, which serves workers from Haiti and Cape Verde. The workers we serve are employed in low-paying jobs in industries where illegal mistreatment is widespread. The vast majority are immigrants, many of whom are undocumented.

The Peggy Browning Fellow will support Justice at Work staff in training worker center members and staff on workplace-related laws and providing advice, referral and representation for worker center members with workplace legal issues.

Responsibilities will include:
a. Helping perform know-your-workplace-rights presentations.

b. Performing legal intakes, in person and over the phone, of worker grievances specific to workplace-related abuses, and providing ongoing case support.

c. Executing the above tasks in English, and Spanish and/or Portuguese, as capable.

d. Ensuring that data reporting on training and legal services is complete, including information on worker clients, employers and industries.

e. Drafting and filing complaints with government agencies and courts.

f. Performing research on employment, labor and immigration law/policy.

g. Accompanying supervising attorney and workers to court.

The ideal candidate will:
a. Share a commitment to social, racial, and economic justice and an understanding of Justice at Work's mission and theory of change.

b. Be organized and self-motivated, with:
-experience or direct knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing immigrant workers in low-paying jobs; and
- understanding of and experience with community-based labor organizations.

c. Have strong oral and written communications skills, including attention to detail, in English, Spanish (highly recommended), and Portuguese (beneficial).

The total ten-week stipend for this position will be $7,000.

Address cover letter to:

Pablo Carrasco, Senior Staff Attorney
Justice at Work
33 Harrison Avenue, Suite 501
Boston, MA 02111