Organizing Director

Latino Union of Chicago is seeking a strategic and visionary Organizing Director to lead our dedicated team of organizers, coordinators, and volunteers in advancing the rights and dignity of day laborers, domestic workers, and other contracted workers. This role offers a unique opportunity for an experienced and grounded leader to strengthen worker power through education, organizing, advocacy, and coalition building. The ideal candidate will be a skilled communicator and relationship-builder, capable of managing diverse teams with empathy, clarity, and purpose. As a key member of our leadership team, the Organizing Director will play a central role in driving long-term organizational growth and sustainability while ensuring that our programs and campaigns reflect the values and mission of the Latino Union—to build a more just and equitable Chicago for all workers.

Who we are: The Latino Union of Chicago builds power with Day Laborers, Household Workers, and other contracted workers to fight for social and economic justice through education, organizing, advocacy, and coalition building.

RESPONSIBILITIES

ORGANIZING TEAM MANAGEMENT (60%):

Staff management:

• Supervise our team of organizers, including the domestic worker and day laborer organizers, the Albany Park Workers Center coordinator, the labor and migrant workers organizers among others.
• Facilitate weekly planning and reporting meetings with the organizing team.
• Conduct regular check-ins with individual organizers to review progress, challenges and opportunities
• Conduct check-ins with individual organizers in collaboration with the Executive Director (ED) and the Institutional Advancement Director (AD) as needed.
• Maintaining up-to-date records on organizational activities.
• Ensuring organizers submit timely reports to the AD.
• Submit regular reports to ED and AD on organizing team efforts.
• Check in weekly with ED to discuss staff needs, challenges, and opportunities as well as inform staffing decisions including hiring/firing and other relevant activities.

Train and develop the organizing team capacity to effectively execute the following:

• Grassroots Member Recruitment with our working class member base and volunteers including: recruiting new worker members through outreach at corner hiring sites, site visits, house meetings, etc; planning outreach and organizing activities;
• Leadership Development of worker members on a variety of organizing topics including: facilitating educational workshops, public speaking, issue analysis, member recruitment, and campaign strategy;
• Political Education of grassroot leaders, members, and community on Latino Union’s Theory of Change including: our values and organizing principles, power analysis, legislative and electoral policy, and other relevant topics that merit a deeper understanding of social, political, and economic conditions;
• Campaign Development and Action Planning in collaboration with the organizing team: developing campaign strategy and tactical plans, coordinating campaign activities, and organizing campaign actions and other needs.

Time and task management

• Create regular work plans with organizers that include specific goals and benchmarks.
• Establish realistic goals given available resources, time, and knowledge.
• Identify additional resources needed in support of these goals;
• Support organizers in shifting work plans as needed when conditions require it.
• Explore different forms of autonomous and collaborative time and task management that adapt to the different needs and learning styles of organizers.

Campaign and Programming Development:

• Collaborate with the organizing team in developing campaign strategies and tactical plans, coordinating campaign activities, and organizing campaign actions.
• Ensure the organization is represented in all relevant coalition and alliance spaces and is purposefully engaged in these efforts.
• represent the organization in meetings with policy makers, allies, and coalitions as needed.
• Check in weekly as part of the Director’s Group to discuss programming, campaign, and broader organization needs and goals.
• Identify relevant fundraising opportunities that support staff development and skill learning which align with organization mission and vision.

ORGANIZING STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT (30%):

Strategic Planning:

• Develop, implement and evaluate an organizing strategic plan in collaboration with all staff. Including:
• Understanding of needed organizers, resources, and allies;
• Identifying types of training needed to accomplish these different campaigns.
• Develop and improve processes that integrate worker leaders and volunteers in meaningful decision-making and implementation of organizing efforts.

Worker-member involvement and empowerment

• Support and improve upon existing worker leadership structures such as the domestic worker leadership team and the Albany Park Worker’s Center Committees ensuring that:
• organizers effectively facilitate these spaces and keep accurate records of meetings;
• Workers gain ownership over these leadership structures;
• Leadership structures develop plans of action for both internal and external efforts.
• Develop and cultivate worker members in their ability to share personal narratives as part of a campaign.
• Support staff in relationship building and management with worker members and the general public.
• Provide guidance and inform best practices around community engagement as needed.
• Co-lead, support, and facilitate as needed membership events/meetings.

Communications

• Work closely with AD and communications team on effective communication strategies for campaigns, including:
• Co-developing communications timelines that follow strategic campaign benchmarks;
• Identifying and supporting the creation of relevant public education materials;
• Creating campaign communications materials.

Coalition work

• Engage withallied organizations in labor coalition spaces to create systemic change.
• Support and lead relevant campaigns and coalition efforts in policy change.
• Attend regular coalition meetings.
• Liaisonfor ongoing campaigns including but not limited to:
• Safe hiring sites for day laborers
• Just Cause (ending at-will employment)
• Work Without Fear (protections for migrant workers facing labor violations)
• The National Domestic Worker Bill of Rights
• DALE (Deferred Action Legal Enforcement), and others.
• Create and manage a referral system for wage theft cases and other resources in collaboration with other workers centers.
• Support wage theft specialist with case management.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES (10%):

• Write up and maintain up-to-date records of relevant information, including: (agenda minutes, activities, campaigns, trainings, etc.)
• Attend Latino Union’s bi-weekly staff meetings, weekly organizers meetings, and other staff retreats and organizational meetings as needed.
• Support other organizational tasks as needed.
• Support with translation and interpretation as needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications:

• Commitment to LU’s mission and vision, especially in collaborating with workers in developing the tools necessary to improve social and economic conditions
• 3+ years of experience training, directing, and supervising organizing staff
• Extensive experience developing planning materials, including annual and quarter plans, and executing these plans with various staff teams
• Knowledge of the issues affecting low-income communities and the Chicagoland organizing landscape
• Ability to coordinate, present at and facilitate meetings
• Ability to work varied hours depending on community needs, including evenings and weekends
• Exceptional relationship-builder.
• Excellent communication and organization skills
• Good attention to detail and well-organized with consistency in follow-up.
• Self-motivated and collectively minded
• Proven ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Knowledge of use and management of Google Suite and Office Suite, among other tools for documentation, communication, and planning.
• Passion and commitment to collaborate with diverse stakeholders in a way that prioritizes worker-member development and builds organizational capacity.
• Fluent bilingual in English and Spanish
• Commitment to challenging the assumptions of Latinidad and advocating for plurinationalism and international solidarity.

Favored Qualifications:

• 5+ years of organizing experience
• Previous experience with worker centers or similar grassroots organizing non-profits
• Familiarity with policy change and advocacy
• Maintains positive relationships with other advocacy groups, elected officials, and institutions aligned with our mission and vision
• Familiarity with Popular Education methods
• Additional language fluency