Learning Their Rights, Building Their Power: CATA Trains New Workers’ Rights Ambassadors

CATA recently hosted its fifth cohort for the Workers' Rights Ambassadors program. The cohort included seven participants who successfully completed three intensive, day-long workshops. During these learning sessions, attendees studied essential topics such as human rights, current New Jersey labor laws, wage and hour regulations, workplace discrimination, and workplace health and safety.

One participant shared, “I liked all the sessions because I learned many things that I didn’t know before, especially about CATA’s work. I didn’t know that they helped us and shared information about the rights we have as immigrants.”

Along with learning about the laws, participants found out how government agencies enforce compliance of New Jersey labor laws and policies. They learned how to identify the correct regulatory institutions and the official channels to submit formal complaints in cases of labor law violations. The program also included a key focus on community organizing, providing participants with strategic tools to educate, mobilize, and support their coworkers. This part of the class gave them clear ideas on how to help people identify abuses and violations in their workplaces and strategize on how to address those issues.

Another participant reflected, “I learned that if you want change, you have to organize in order to achieve a common goal with your coworkers.”

The main purpose of this initiative is to prepare trained local leaders to be able to share this information within their own networks, neighborhoods, and workplaces. By educating these new ambassadors, CATA aims to spread this knowledge and guarantee that labor protection laws directly reach the people who need to know them most. In this way, the program strengthens community autonomy and creates a mutual support network to combat workplace abuses.

One participant added, “Now, I want to invite more people so they can learn about their rights and invite them to come together. Sometimes, because of a lack of information, we stay silent or simply do nothing.”

If you would like to support immigrant workers’ rights in South Jersey or learn more about CATA’s workers’ rights education and organizing programs, please get in touch with Meghan Hurley, Policy and Advocacy Organizer at CATA. You can contact her at mhurley@cata-farmworkers.org or call 856-881-2507.

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