Northeast Ohio Worker Center

10/09/2026

“I think he realized how skillful I was,” Polanco recalled. “I remember him saying, “We’re gonna get rich, like, working together.’”

What happened instead was a headache for Polanco that would last four years. Despite days of laboring up to 13 hours at a time, and of repeated text messages, Polanco said he was never paid fully for his work over that four-year span.”

We were proud to have our work featured in this story about the city’s Fair Employment Wage Board and its first staff person — Alfie Walters!!

Please take a read to learn more about a worker named Eddy who has been fighting to get the money he has been owed for years (!!).

📷: Mark Oprea Cleveland Scene Magazine
🔗: https://www.clevescene.com/news/clevelands-new-wage-theft-czar-is-targeting-bad-employers-standing-with-workers/

10/09/2026

“I think he realized how skillful I was,” Polanco recalled. “I remember him saying, “We’re gonna get rich, like, working together.’”

What happened instead was a headache for Polanco that would last four years. Despite days of laboring up to 13 hours at a time, and of repeated text messages, Polanco said he was never paid fully for his work over that four-year span.

We were proud to have our work featured in this story about the city's Fair Employment Wage Board and its first staff person -- Alfie Walters!!

Please take a read to learn more about a worker named Eddy who has been fighting to get the money he has been owed for years (!!).

Cleveland's New Wage Theft Czar Is Targeting Bad Employers and Standing With Workers - Cleveland Scene

10/06/2026

Solidarity Session: AI & Surveillance Are Already at Work
October 28th
Happy Dog
7PM Doors, 7:30 Event Start
RSVP at link in the bio

Join the NEOWC Labor + Education Committee on October 28th at Happy Dog for a Solidarity Session exploring how AI and surveillance are reshaping not just our communities, but our workplaces and day-to-day lives on the job.

Hear from organizers and union members about what these technologies mean for workers — and what we can do about it.

Featuring: Cleveland Ward 12 Councilman Tanmay Shah, Bryn Adams (Flock NO), Akshai Singh (Starbucks Workers United), and Dominic DeNunzio (Carpenters Union & CRAFT)

09/29/2026

UPDATE!

We are SO thankful to those of yall who have stepped up to join the Worker Center as a Solidarity Supporter in the month of September! We are looking for 8 more individuals to join us as monthly supporters of our work!

Will you be one? Link in the bio!

09/16/2026

We’re launching the Solidarity Supporters – a community of people who sustain the Worker Center through regular, monthly donations.

The Worker Center is built on a simple idea: by workers, for workers. Our committees are run by workers who volunteer their precious free time, our board is made up of workers who’ve fought for change, and the struggle for a more just economy is at the heart of everything we do.

We want our funding to reflect that same principle. By building a base of individual monthly supporters, we get can build a movement that is resilient and can sustain itself into the future.

Even a small monthly gift can make a real difference:

- $10/month for a year can help cover the cost of filing a wage theft claim in small claims court.

- $50/month can help cover the cost of food and supplies for a high school collective bargaining program.

- Every recurring gift helps us maintain consistent funding for bilingual wage theft clinics, collective bargaining programs, and workplace organizing campaigns.

You deserve to have a worker center that is building a powerful movement for working people. We can’t do it without you.

Will you become a Solidarity Supporter today? Donate at the link in our bio or by visiting our website.

09/14/2026

You cannot and will not find bigger fans of Phil Corfman, anywhere! From our very first wage theft clinic to a recent book club on "Confessions of a Union Buster", Phil has been with the Worker Center every step of the way. One of Phil's many talents -- in addition to being a labor attorney and a Misny tribute bandmember-- is that of labor historian!

He's featured this week in Jacobin magazine with a piece about Cleveland, Max Hayes, and our region's role in socialist labor history in the early 20th century!

"The record of the Socialist Three was impressive. Under socialist leadership, the labor council grew from a clique of around a half-dozen unions in 1887 to a federation of over one hundred locals by 1902. Hayes led an audacious typo strike in 1905 that won an eight-hour workday. The Citizen uncovered a corporate spying ring, then caused a scandal by exposing the union-busters running William McKinley’s 1896 presidential campaign. Cleveland’s radical working class was a key source of support and leftward pressure for Mayor Tom Johnson, a progressive Democrat who championed union labor and vastly expanded public services during his “nine years’ war with privilege” from 1901 to 1910. Hayes and Thomas drafted Ohio’s workman’s compensation law in the Citizen office."

Though little remembered now, at the turn of the 20th century Cleveland’s socialists heroically fought Samuel Gompers for leadership of the American Federation of Labor — putting forward a revolutionary alternative to Gompers’s conservative unionism.

09/10/2026

Wage theft clinic and training this Saturday September 12th in collaboration with CH4IR and Avanzamos Unidos! Come in to learn about how we support workers who have been victims of wage theft or sign up to receive help if you have been the victim of wage theft. Use the link in bio. Clínica de robo de salarios y capacitación en colaboración con CH4IR y Avanzamos Unidos! Ven a aprender acerca de cómo apoyamos a trabajadores que han sido victimas de robo de salarios o si tú has sido victima del robo de salarios, ven a recibir nuestra ayuda y trabajar juntos para recuperar lo que s te debe. Utiliza el link en nuestra biografía para regístrate. La hora y ubicación exacta serán reveladas después de registrarte.

09/09/2026

Grilled foods ✅

Yard games ✅

Building community solidarity ✅

Best times with the best people ✅✅

Our labor and education committee did a great job pulling this night together! If you want to get more involved with the worker center— DM us to find out more about upcoming meetings!

09/04/2026

It’s a big day over here at the Worker Center! We are delighted to recognize our staff union, Workers of the Worker Center, Unite!

Way back in 2019, when we were dreaming up the worker center, it was beyond our wildest dreams to think we’d become “real” enough to have a staff union. Shout out to the staff who’ve decided to organize and thank you to our beautiful community who has helped us get to this point.

Solidarity forever yall!