Pros
You probably are taking this job because you care about people.
Cons
I worked as a staff member of The Chicago Workers' Collaborative (CWC) and am speaking from personal experience. I found out that CWC is currently hiring and wanted to warn the public and any prospective applicants: CWC has been run as a fraudulent non-profit since it was founded in 2000. CWC management hires staff to groom, manipulate, and pressure them along with vulnerable temp workers to support lawsuits against temp agencies and companies. These lawsuits are put forth by CWC's legal wing, Workers' Law Office P.C. Please search online at the Chicago Reporter and Reveal News for media reports that discuss examples of these lawsuits. CWC and Workers' Law Office P.C. helped to amend the Illinois Temporary Labor Services Act in 2006 and they use this law to bring forth lawsuits. If you work for CWC, be prepared to spend your time wanting to do your job to build power together with temp workers but instead finding yourself manipulated and lied to by CWC management. CWC started a program at UIC Public Health several years ago in which they train temp workers as Health Promoters to do worker-to-worker outreach and education. However, CWC management grooms and pressures these Health Promoters to take jobs at temp agencies and look for other temp workers to fill out "surveys" in order to find good cases for lawsuits. CWC staff, interns, health promoters, volunteers, and the temp workers who are a part of the organization all join because they believe in the written mission and values. However once invested and involved, they become subjected to CWC management's constant grooming, manipulation, and harassment. CWC management pressures staff, interns, volunteers, and temp workers to: a.) Look for more workers to contact who may have good cases for lawsuits; b.) Take part in press releases, media reports, surveys that CWC management organizes; c.) Use the information gathered from workers, media reports, and surveys to lobby politicians to create legislation that will make it easier to sue temp agencies for money; and d.) Use the information gathered and the reports to reach out to and groom funders and benefactors for more funding. If you work with CWC in any capacity, you won't be allowed to do your job or the mission which you believe in. And when you push back on the top-down pressure from CWC management, you will be gaslighted and eventually fired/laid off. Any strategic planning you ever engage in will be discarded and CWC management will continue to pressure you with their agenda of looking for lawsuits. The lawsuits go like this: 1.) CWC management will instruct you to pass out fliers, surveys, etc, that will prioritize information about possible or ongoing lawsuits or legal cases. 2.) They will tell you to reach out to Black temp workers for primarily discrimination cases and Latinx temp workers for injuries, wage theft, sexual harassment, etc. 3.) The temp workers with "good" cases will be groomed and pressured by CWC management to participate in lawsuits, often at their own expense and at great risk to their personal safety and mental health. They will be told over and over again that they are leaders. 4.) As soon as their cases gain traction, CWC management will isolate the workers in order to further groom and use them. 5.) When Workers' Law P.C. wins these lawsuits, CWC management will pretend to reach out to workers to distribute the awarded money, however they will claim that most of the workers cannot be found and the awarded money will be kept by Workers' Law P.C. and CWC management as personal gains. Again, if at any time you disagree or refuse to participate in this you will be isolated, gaslighted, harassed, threatened, and disparaged by CWC management. This is why I recommend you not get involved with CWC in any capacity. If you are, get out and report what you know and are experiencing. And seek support. CWC has been grooming and abusing workers for over 20 years, they are very good at it. The workers who are featured and quoted in CWC media and press releases for years on end most likely need serious intervention, support, and therapy. Get out or run away as fast as you can. If you insist on staying, I recommend you reach out to a good union to unionize your workspace. Please don't contact the UE, SEIU, or any other union that CWC's founders have very close relationships with. CWC founders and management ought to be audited by the IRS and investigated by law enforcement and government agencies for fraud, tax evasion, and more. They have created organizations such as CWC, Workers' Law Office P.C., Working Hands Legal Clinic, and Raise the Floor Alliance to hide fraudulent activities. You can view 4 years of CWC's tax filings at the IRS website.