Organizing for Change
This program engages economically disadvantaged community members in organizing campaigns that encourage leadership development and seek to effect positive social change. Through this program WDP develops committees of low-income families to advocate for community improvements such as increased protections for workers in dangerous occupations and access to public services. In 2009, WDP constituents won a federal investigation into Texas’ deadly construction industry by OSHA, after WDP released a study with the University of Texas about working conditions in the industry in our state. The study found that every 2.5 days a construction worker dies in Texas. The investigation resulted in a 60% increase in construction safety inspections throughout the state, saving countless lives.

Industry Research:
For the last six years, WDP has helped thousands of Austin workers win dignified treatment in the workplace. Though we help workers across industries, 80% of our workplace justice cases are from construction workers, who endure some of the most egregious types of abuse: no breaks, no pay, serious injury and even death on the job. Nationally, construction workers experience the second highest rate of injury and illness on the job, and construction workers are one of the top ten occupations with high fatality rates (1). In 2004, Texas was ranked second in the nation for workplace fatalities among Latina/o workers (2). In Travis County, foreign-born workers make up 70% of the labor force in the construction industry.

To address the systemic abuse in the construction industry, WDP has teamed up with the University of Texas and the Building Trades Unions to undertake one of the most comprehensive studies on the industry in the country, entitled Building Austin, Building Justice. To read the full report and learn more visit buildaustin.org
1 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2 AFL-CIO. “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect—A National and State-by-State Profile of Worker Safety and Health in the United States.”