LABWC
Los Angeles Black Worker Center

Organizing Director

Based in Los Angeles, CA

 

Job Description
The Los Angeles Black Worker Center (LABWC) is a growing organization at the forefront of LA’s racial justice and worker rights movements since 2011. The LABWC is recognized as a national leader in the effort to address the challenges of the Black jobs’ crisis of unemployment and underemployment and the growing inequality in the labor market. The LABWC works towards economic justice in low-income communities of color by building power among Black workers and their communities to expand access to quality employment and promote public policies and corporate practices that foster sustainable economic development in South LA neighborhoods.

The Organizing Director will lead the vision, strategy, and execution of LABWC’s organizing work, ensuring the integration of community-based and labor-based organizing models that build durable power for Black workers across industries. The Organizing Director will oversee robust Organizing and Campaigns Departments, develop and execute winning campaigns, and steward leadership development pipelines that strengthen both LABWC and the broader movement ecosystem. Ideal candidates bring deep experience in both community and labor organizing, including managing complex organizing universes, navigating internal disagreement, and supporting workers through grievance processes, claims, or other labor law–adjacent pathways to resolution.

This position reports to the Co-Executive Director of Organizing & Programs and works in close partnership with senior leadership. Candidates must be able to empathize with, organize alongside, and develop Black workers across varied employment sectors and political contexts.

Duties and Key Responsibilities:
Organizational Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership for LABWC’s organizing vision, including long-term power-building strategies that integrate community organizing, workplace organizing, and policy-adjacent campaigns.
• Lead the development, implementation, and evaluation of organizing campaigns, projects, and power-building initiatives across multiple industries and constituencies.
• Guide the Campaigns and Organizing Teams in deploying a full range of organizing tactics to win worker-centered policy and enforcement campaigns in partnership with the Policy Advocacy Director. Work closely with partner organizations (e.g. California Black Power Network, Working Families Party, ACT-LA, to advance shared worker demands through leadership development, base-building, direct action, negotiations, and coalition work.
• Communicate organizing strategy, campaign goals, and political analysis clearly to staff, member leaders, board members, and external partners.
• Represent LABWC at external meetings, coalitions, and public forums, and serve as a strategic spokesperson for organizing campaigns when appropriate.
• Participate in cross-departmental planning, hiring, and organizational strategy teams, ensuring alignment between organizing, leadership development, policy, and communications.
• Design and facilitate organization-wide training, political education, and leadership development spaces for staff and member leaders.
• Serve as a senior thought partner to the organization by contributing analysis, mentorship, and leadership to organization-wide projects and strategic moments.

Supervision

• Directly supervise the Organizing Manager and Campaigns and Coalition Manager, providing coaching, mentorship, and accountability.
• Oversee team structures, workflows, and organizing plans to ensure clarity, alignment, and measurable progress toward goals. Lead performance management and professional development processes, including goal setting, feedback, and progressive discipline when necessary.
• Support organizers in managing and growing a complex organizing universe (500+ workers), including navigating dissent, opposition, and internal contradictions within the base.
• Cultivate a strong leadership development culture within the department, including supporting staff to mentor emerging organizers and develop protégés who contribute to the broader movement beyond LABWC.

Planning

• Collaborate with senior leadership to align organizing strategy with organizational goals, funding priorities, and long-term sustainability.
• Oversee organizing department planning, administration, and reporting, including tracking outcomes, maintaining data integrity, and ensuring compliance with internal systems.
• Develop and refine organizing work plans, accountability systems, and evaluation frameworks that reflect both quantitative growth and qualitative leadership development.
• Ensure effective use of databases and organizing tools to manage large universes, track engagement, and assess organizing strength—including surfacing dissent and areas of challenge.

Qualifications and Experience:
The ideal candidate demonstrates a deep commitment to social and economic justice, has experience with the Black jobs crisis, values Black worker self-determination, and builds collective power through organizing. This role requires strategic leadership, political clarity, and the ability to develop workers’ leadership within campaigns.

• Minimum of 5–7 years of organizing experience, including significant leadership experience in both community and labor organizing contexts.
• Minimum of 3–5 years of supervisory experience, including managing managers or lead organizers.
• Demonstrated experience organizing or overseeing campaigns with large universes (500+ workers or members), including navigating dissent, opposition, or internal disagreement.
• Working knowledge of labor law, worker rights, or grievance processes; experience supporting workers through claims, investigations, negotiations, or resolutions is a strong plus.
• Strong strategic thinking, political analysis, and campaign planning skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, and facilitation skills; ability to communicate across staff, members, and external audiences.
• Proven ability to coach, mentor, and develop organizers, including supporting protégés who advance in the broader movement ecosystem.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work under pressure, and lead through complex and fast-moving political environments.
• Knowledge of issues affecting unemployed and underemployed Black workers, poor and working-class communities, and the Los Angeles labor movement strongly preferred.
• Strong commitment to racial justice, workers’ rights, and Black community empowerment.
• Flexible work schedule, including evenings and weekends as needed.
• Valid CA driver’s license and access to a car for work-related travel.

Compensation and Benefits:
Full-time, exempt position; salary commensurate with experience and scope of responsibility up to $95,000 a year. Plus, a generous benefit package of health and dental insurance, retirement plan, sick, vacation, and floating holidays. We are committed to our employees' health, safety, and well-being by providing flexible work hours and wellness opportunities. We are temporarily working a hybrid schedule. 

Application Process: 
This position will remain open until filled. Email résumé and cover letter to careers@labwc.org, add “Organizing Director” in the subject line. The LABWC welcomes applicants' use of AI as a tool for preparation - such as researching, organizing ideas, or refining their résumé and cover letter. However, we kindly ask that AI not be used to create original content related to the performance-based parts of our recruitment process, such as application question responses, interviews, and the completion of performance tasks. It is important to us that those reflect your own authentic perspective, ideas, and experiences. We are excited to get to know the real you and believe your genuine voice is your greatest strength. No phone calls, please.

LABWC is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. In addition, the organization will consider for employment, qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring. The LABWC is also an affirmative action employer. Members of the African Diaspora, including Men, Women, LGBTQ, Returning Citizens, and Afro-Latino, ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.