Community Labor United

Executive Director

Based in Boston, MA

 

Community Labor United (CLU) seeks a seasoned grass-roots organizer who is a strategic, politically savvy leader and coalition builder to become the organization’s next Executive Director. This position is based in Boston, MA with potential for hybrid work.

Community Labor United (CLU) began in 2005 with a mission to unite power-building community organizations and labor unions through strategic campaigns led by working class people in the Greater Boston area. Organizing that supports the leadership of rank-and-file grassroots members has been the foundation of some of the most creative and successful campaigns for social change throughout our country’s history. Community organizing, activating people most affected by social and economic injustice to build power and advance effective policy solutions, has always been the heart of the social justice movement. At the same time, the strength of unions and workplace organizing through the Labor Movement has been instrumental in building economic power, creating greater economic equity, and countering corporate agendas. CLU was formed to connect and unite these two movements in the Greater Boston region and move campaigns that build worker and community power as a united front for change.

Our Ideal Candidate
CLU seeks a seasoned organizer with a demonstrated track-record in developing and advancing grassroots campaigns. The position requires someone with experience running strategic campaigns from start to finish–campaigns which involve recruiting and engaging a membership base of rank-and-file, grassroots leaders in identifying problems, developing solutions and taking action to win. The ideal candidate will be:

• an experienced leader with several years in a leadership position, such as as a director-level leader of a power-building community organization or labor union
• a skilled convener, facilitator and bridge builder
• capable of leading a diverse staff of researchers and organizers to build and grow a strong united front of grassroots organizations and labor unions.
• able to thrive in a fast-paced environment with the ability to make strategic pivots in the work when necessary and juggle multiple projects with tight deadlines.
• skilled with financial management and fundraising
• a skilled manager with a proven track record of building a strong, skilled and diverse team.

The required attributes, skills and competencies include:

• High commitment to building a united front of power-building community organizations and labor unions - The leader will be grounded in the appreciation that both labor and community organizations have made significant contributions to growing our social justice movement, but also will recognize the sobering reality that separately we do not have the power to move a shared, long-term agenda to win the systemic changes we envision. CLU needs a new executive director that is committed to the core value of building a united front that can amplify the power of community and labor, with the understanding that it will involve navigating different organizational self-interests and deep tensions within our different movements. Ideally, the leader will have a solid understanding of the organizing history and structure of both the community organizing and labor movements.
• High commitment to justice - The leader will hold as a core value centering the experiences and leadership of grassroots organizations and unions as critical for advancing a political agenda that advances economic, racial and gender justice.
• Campaign development - The leader will have experience and appreciation for developing strategic campaigns that engage and mobilize community and labor membership bases. This work will include:
  • Engaging CLU’s partner organizations in identifying potential campaigns their leaders and members care about and are invested in, and identifying campaign angles that cross both the community and labor sectors.
  • Conducting research that informs how to cut the issue into strategic and winnable campaigns.
  • Developing the campaign and taking it all the way from power mapping to membership trainings and leadership development, to communications and escalating tactics that engage and mobilize the bases of grass-roots organizations and labor unions.
• Facilitative Leadership - The ideal leader must be able to bridge the concerns, issues and political positions between a diverse group of community and labor leaders. The leader will be highly skilled in developing trusting relationships between labor and community leaders and in convening and facilitating tables that coalesce and align potentially varied organizational self-interests.
• Politically savvy - The leader will need to have or develop a pulse on the political context in Boston and Massachusetts and have a solid grasp of its particular power structures and dynamics.
• Strategic thinker- The leader will be tasked to set CLU’s strategic direction for its next evolutionary chapter. The ideal candidate will have a strategic mindset, able to maintain CLU’s core mission, while identifying challenges and opportunities in the overall political and economic context in which CLU is nested to adapt and evolve the organization in ways that ensure its integrity and growth.
• Fundraising Expertise - The leader must be able to raise about $1.5M a year, some of which is regranted to member community organizations that are key partners in CLU campaigns. The leader must have demonstrated comfort and ability to build relationships with philanthropy, including foundation program officers and individual donors. Ideally, though not required, the leader will bring creativity and innovation to expand CLU’s sources of revenue.
• Financial Acumen - The leader will have demonstrated experience in developing and monitoring budgets, and working with bookkeepers, accountants and auditors to ensure the financial well-being of the organization.
• Staff Management - The leader will need to be an inspirational and supportive supervisor that can establish clear expectations, boundaries and accountability processes while coaching staff with an eye towards developing their skills and leadership potential.

The leader will be accountable to CLU’s board of directors which includes representatives of our Labor and Community partners. The Chair of the Board, Darlene Lombos, is the President of the Greater Boston Labor Council. She brings over 25 years of organizing and coalition-building experience to the movement and will be an active partner with CLU’s new Executive Director.

Salary and Benefits
CLU’s board of directors has established a salary range of $120,000 - $145,000.

CLU offers a generous benefits package, including:

• Employer paid family health insurance
• Union retirement annuity
• Three weeks paid vacation to start
• 20 paid days of holidays and personal time

How To Apply
CLU has contracted Elena Letona to coordinate the leadership search. Interested candidates should send a résumé or CV and a cover letter to mariaelena.letona@gmail.com.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply promptly. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Interviews will happen on a rolling basis until the right candidate is found.

More about Community Labor United
CLU uses strategic research to frame problems and identify solutions, while actively organizing community and union members to collectively fight for change. Our campaigns are designed to expand the number of high-road union jobs and provide pathways for local residents into these career opportunities. Economic, racial and gender justice have been at the center of CLU’s successful campaigns, including the following important victories won and led by working class communities:

• A  5% cap on face increases, discounted senior fares, a new youth pass, and a new reduced fare for low-income transit riders.
• A $2.5 Billion investment to expand public transit with commitments to prevent privatization of public services.
• The passage of wage theft prevention ordinances in 13 cities and towns throughout Massachusetts.
• The creation of innovative micro-grid projects serving low-income housing and municipal buildings in Boston’s Chinatown and the City of Chelsea.
• The development and implementation of a weatherization pilot program focused on environmental justice communities that saved $59 million in fuel costs, increased workers pay, created a pipeline for union careers, and reduced 84,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
• A successful organizing campaign of thousands of mostly African American and immigrant security officers into a union that resulted in better wages, benefits and respect and dignity in the workplace.
• A partnership with the Painters Union that provided pathways for women and people of color into union careers while winning on-going contracts to paint Boston Public Schools with Boston residents.
• The creation of an innovative childcare pilot that matches unionized family childcare providers with community members seeking non-standard hour childcare in order to enter union apprenticeships in the construction, healthcare, transportation and public safety sectors

CLU is currently organizing to ensure the federal funds flowing into Massachusetts through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law create union career pathways and programs that provide “earn while you learn” opportunities vs the typical “train and pray” job training models that do not result in good jobs or any benefits. Our campaign is focused on a “triple win” framework of creating family sustaining union career pathways for women and people of color while advancing environmental programs and infrastructure projects.

CLU’s community and union partners are also organizing to disrupt the childcare industry by organizing around three common forms of childcare–licensed center based care, licensed family childcare and unlicensed Family, Friends & Neighbor care (FFN). We are organizing to increase pay rates for FFN care, have developed pilot programs in family and center-based care for parents working non-traditional hours, and are expanding training opportunities for all childcare providers. Specifically, we are exploring the development of a new union apprenticeship program in the childcare sector that would build career pathways for FFN, family childcare and center-based providers.

CLU is also working with the Greater Boston Labor Council and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO to develop and advance a Women’s Economic Justice agenda informed by women-led organizations in the Civil Rights Movement, the Labor Movement, the Reproductive Rights Movement and the Community Social Justice Movement. This cross-sector, cross-movement Women’s Alliance is developing a shared vision, common agenda and collective action plan that will strengthen our local movement and build power for our members.

CLU currently operates on a $1.4M annual budget and has a 7 person staff team that includes organizers and researchers. The crisis in our country politically, economically, and environmentally demonstrates  the urgent need for strategic, power-building campaigns that connect the strength of rank-and-file union members and community leaders. CLU is at a pivotal moment in our history and is poised to expand and strengthen our contribution to movements in Massachusetts that advance economic, racial and gender justice.  

Community Labor United is an equal opportunity employer and committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. We strongly encourage women, people of color and members from the LGBTQIA community to apply. We do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender/gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status.