The mission of VOZ is to empower immigrant workers, particularly day laborers, to gain control over their working conditions and to exercise their collective power to address the issues they face. VOZ is a worker-led organization whose membership organizes to secure and promote their rights through organizing, leadership development, and community education.

The Day Laborer Project began in 1996 as a project of the Workers’ Organizing Committee in response to repressive tactics used by the INS and police to discourage workers from seeking work. As day laborers began to organize themselves they found that they experienced common incidences of discrimination and repression. A clear need for leadership development as well as local and national networking emerged. Workers and community members subsequently founded VOZ: Workers’ Rights Education Project in June 2000 to organize around day laborer and immigrant rights.

Some of our major accomplishments in the last year:

• The Mayor’s office invited VOZ to facilitate the participation of day laborers in the development of a vision for the City of Portland.
• Day laborers and volunteers created a popular education style street performance team called Teatro Popular Jornalero (day laborer popular theater) that demonstrated issues that effect urban immigrant rights.
• Celebrated a monthly cultural night for day laborers and local partners to share music, poetry and dance.
• Workers recovered wages and compensation benefits and established a minimum wage at the corner where they wait for work. They further exposed employers who abused workers’ rights in publications.
• Dialogues and cultural exchanges continued to dramatically improve relations between day laborers and the police.
• Conducting worker-led workshops that give them the capacity to respond to difficult local and national anti-immigrant issues this year.