The Tompkins County Workers' Center, formerly the Living Wage Coalition, was founded in 1995. Today, the Workers' Center is made up of hundreds of individuals and over fifty organizations (unions, religious and community groups, etc).

The Mission of the Tompkins County Workers' Center is to stand up with all people treated unfairly at work or faced with critical poverty, racial, housing, health care, or other social and economic issues. We will support, advocate for, and seek to empower each other to create a more just community and world.

Support. We will provide information, referrals to appropriate government or private agencies, and emotional support Advocacy. We will advocate with employers, agencies and government officials for and alongside workers who are being treated unfairly, in order to correct problems, end worker rights violations and improve conditions.

Empowerment. We will seek to create and nourish community-based economic justice organizations that include a majority of low-income people in leadership and activist roles.

Social Change. We will also seek to inform, educate and shape community values and standards of employer behavior with respect to workplace rights and the treatment of low-income people. We support the use of diverse strategies to achieve social change, such as popular education, public testimony (telling what is really happening in our workplaces and in the lives of low-income people), public protests, direct action and legislative campaigns.