centro de trabajadores unidos
What We D0
community paralegals
Community navigators at Centro de Trabajadores Unidos provide resources to community members and advocate with them before lawyers and politicians.
Pro se Legal Clinic
In partnership with Beyond Legal Aid, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos offers a free pro se legal clinic every Thursday in southeast Chicago to educate community members about their legal rights, empower community members to exercise their self-determination in the legal process, and organize for more permanent, far-reaching legal and non-legal victories.
Our Story
Founded in 2008 by low-wage immigrant workers, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos (CTU, United Workers’ Center) is a grassroots member-led community organizing group and worker center that wants to build a healthy local economy in southeast Chicago in which workers’ rights are respected. Working at the intersection of immigration and labor, it strives to build immigrant and worker power by advancing systemic change that promotes social justice for low-income immigrant communities and communities of color. CTU serves as a resource for workers to be leaders and organize against labor exploitation.
CTU works in coalition. It is a co-founder and member of the Raise the Floor Alliance, the Illinois Coalition for Cooperative Advancement, and the Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance; and co-convenes the Southeast Chicago Rapid Response Team, composed of local nonprofits, schools, and churches to address ICE raids, deportation, and enforcement. CTU is a longstanding member of numerous policy and organizing coalitions working at the city and state level, including: Campaign to End the Gang Database, Chicago Immigration Working Group, Coalition Against Workplace Sexual Violence, Healing to Action, Healthy Illinois Coalition, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), and Raise Chicago.
Visit the CTU homepage.