Giving Is Gorges: All Essential Workers Deserve a Living Wage & Right to Safety in the Workplace

Thank you for helping sustain our Tompkins County Workers’ Center (TCWC) over the years! You play a SIGNIFICANT role in our work, and we are writing to ask for your renewed support on Giving is Gorges Day 2020, which is TODAY, May 20th! If you would be willing to FUNDRAISE amongst your particular community of people for the TCWC, click here and look for the ‘fundraise’ button at the top.

The TCWC has been challenged for the past several months given the incredible societal crisis we’re in the midst of with COVID-19. To take one of many examples: we’ve been working with a woman laid off from her retail sales job with no income and about to become homeless. She has been frustrated beyond belief by the difficulty in getting unemployment benefits. We’ve been helping by advocating for her, and others like her, at the highest level of the NYSDOL.

Responding to this crisis, in recent months we have:

  • assisted a constant stream of desperate workers, mentioned above, who are contacting our Hotline about how to best access the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system;
  • dealt with a large number of inquiries from essential workers about their feeling unsafe in their workplaces;
  • become the Fiscal Sponsor and advisor for the Ithaca Tenants Union (ITU). ITU has become the major community force demanding a rent freeze and protections for tenants;
  • become the Fiscal Sponsor for Mutual Aid Tompkins, which has developed into an incredible community hub supporting the most vulnerable people in our midst;
  • spearheaded a community letter and petition pushing Cornell, Ithaca College, and Cayuga Medical Center to step up in a major way with regards to local needs;

And of course, the above takes place within our larger ongoing work that:

  • provides support and organizing skills to better their lives
  • works tirelessly to ensure a Living Wage for all, and
  • ensures they have the tools to fight unfair and illegal treatment at work;
  • supporting immigrants in our community and the work of the Tompkins County Immigrant Rights Coalition (which we also are the fiscal sponsor for).

YOU make our work possible. For 18 years, the generosity of our member allies, like yourself, has helped us guide and support the workers who make our community a good place to call home. This pandemic has impacted our community in profound ways, and we need your help now more than ever. If you are in a position to help, please support our work with a generous gift and keep our community at the forefront of labor organizing and workers’ rights. Your monthly/recurring gifts are also VERY MUCH welcomed!