Michael Dale

2003

Michael Dale

Northwest Workers' Justice Project

http://www.nwjp.org

Portland, Oregon, United States

Civil and Human Rights, Legal Advocacy

The Bold Idea:

Protecting the rights of low-wage, immigrant and contingent workers in the pacific northwest by providing trainings, organizing assistance, and legal services.

In this current time, when relative minimum wages are falling, international trade is depressing wages and welfare reform is pushing women into low-wage jobs, employers have adopted subcontracting and temporary employment strategies, often hiring immigrant workers. In response to these shifting economic and employment trends, there is a critical need for immigrant workers to protect themselves. Northwest Workers' Justice Project ("NWJP") is dedicated to improving enforcement of the workplace and organizing rights of low-wage, contingent, and immigrant workers in the Northwest, and especially in metropolitan Portland, Oregon. They provide high-quality legal services, organizing assistance and trainings to protect the rights of low-wage, immigrant and contingent workers; mitigate the effects of international trade; and build partnerships with labor unions and other non-traditional funders of legal services.

Biography:

Michael Dale graduated from Berkeley Law School. During this time he volunteered with the United Farm Workers Union and worked for a public interest law firm, Public Advocates in San Francisco. He worked for migrant legal service for 25 years before starting the Northwest Workers' Justice Project with Mia Butzbaugh.