In March of 2020, JwJ co-founded Undocufund San Francisco with allied SF immigrant and worker rights organizations to provide critical aid to undocumented immigrants who were cut out of the social safety net. Many of our undocumented community members work in temporary or low-wage jobs, without access to sick leave, unemployment or the ability to work remotely. National and state relief plans do not include undocumented people in their plans for support.

Undocufund-SF raised 4.5 million dollars to support undocumented children, families, and communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic who live, work or lost work in San Francisco during the pandemic.

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After the pandemic hit, JwJ helped pass critical legislation in SF establishing a public health emergency leave, providing 200,000 workers up to two weeks of paid leave. The ordinance provided among the most extensive emergency leave coverage for coronavirus related reasons, including needing to self-quarantine, being a senior or medically vulnerable worker, caring for someone who needed to quarantine or seek care, or parenting kids whose schools closed.

In 2019, together with a strong coalition of community, housing and labor partners, JwJ scored a major victory for the city’s low and middle income workers when we pushed for and won SF’s “Housing our Workers” legislation. Introduced by Supervisor Haney, the legislation will generate over $400 million in funding in under a decade for affordable housing for workers and transitional housing for homeless people—all paid for by developers building large offices in the city.

JwJ helped build an exciting coalition of labor, community and student organizations who campaigned to make City College of SF tuition-free, as it was before 1983. In 2017, San Francisco became the first city in the nation offering tuition-free higher education for all residents. This important victory has expanded access to college for thousands of diverse students and boosted City College enrollment by 15%. Our subsequent work through 2019 succeeded in making Free City permanent and securing ten years of guaranteed funding. Our victory serves as a model for similar efforts nationally to address the college affordability and student debt crises.

On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, Jobs with Justice alongside Bay Rising and San Francisco Rising founded Bay Resistance, a broad and diverse network of 50 organizations ready to defend our communities, our movements, and our planet.

The BR rapid response system of over 16,000 people mobilizes around immigrant rights, healthcare, gender and climate justice and more. We’ve trained over 1000 people in skills to become activists and organizers

SF Green New Deal

In collaboration with SF-based environmental justice group PODER, and community and labor partners, JwJ is organizing for a SF Green New Deal that will create a just plan for SF to meet climate goals and timelines, and provide good green jobs that benefit our communities, especially people of color.

CA Green New Deal

JwJ is part of the California Green New Deal Coalition, where we are engaging labor and worker organizations in efforts to build a strong statewide movement to pass a state-wide Green New Deal.

 In 2020 we completed the first representative and large scale study of app-based work with the University of California and national Jobs with Justice. The central findings were simple and clear—for a large portion of this workforce, despite this being full-time work, they were financially vulnerable before the outbreak, and the current crisis is pushing many of them to the brink.

78% are workers of color and the majority are immigrants. And 71% are people working more than 30 hours a week, an important difference from the portrayal of “gig” work promoted by companies.

Health and safety, along with income loss during the pandemic are major concerns. Over a fifth do not have health insurance, and workers do not receive the paid sick leave required by law.

The results of the study were featured in the official Prop 22 ballot arguments and covered in the NY Times, SF Chronicle and numerous media outlets.

JwJ worked with Gig Workers Rising, We Drive Progress and other unions and worker centers to drive innovative organizing and policy to address new forms of worker exploitation in the “gig” economy. We were relentless in our fight against billion dollar app-based companies to ensure basic rights for app workers.

JwJ worked with Gig Workers Rising, We Drive Progress and other unions and worker centers to drive innovative organizing and policy to address new forms of worker exploitation in the “gig” economy. We were relentless in our fight against billion dollar app-based companies to ensure basic rights for app workers.

In 2019, we organized a hearing at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors where a hundred workers spoke out, and passed a unanimous Board resolution in support of Assembly Bill 5 and gig worker rights. AB 5 passed last year, supporting basic rights like minimum wage and overtime for millions of California workers. When the pandemic hit, we helped pass an ordinance protecting health and safety for app-based delivery drivers and the public they serve.