National Day Laborer Organizing Network

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) is an American organization dedicated to improving the lives of day laborers. It was founded in Northridge, California in July 2001 and is based in Los Angeles, California. NDLON functions in a form of direct democracy where day laborers who are in member organizations vote directly for the policies at NDLON's biannual assemblies. NDLON’s vision is to live in a diverse world where day laborers have full rights in an enticement with peace, harmony, justice and mutual respect. National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) was founded at the first national gathering of day laborer organizations. It started with 12 community-based-organizations and has grown to 36 member organizations.

NDLON has been an influence in the rise of workers rights campaigns since 2000. These include the wage theft laws passed in multiple states including Illinois, New York, Ohio, Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Day laborer organizing dates back to the mid-1980s with efforts from the community to organize and educate day laborers about their rights as workers and also educate them on their civil liberties. These continued efforts in the late 1980s led to pilot programs that helped create worker centers. Around the 1990s the government became more involved in certain cities. Some supported the worker centers while others tried to get rid of the day laborer sites. During this time organizers developed a two-step approach. The first step was a litigation strategy in the courts that challenged the solicitation ordinances. The second approach was an organizing strategy that allowed day laborers to come together to have more political inclusion and be able to represent themselves in front of governmental officials, law enforcement, and local stake holders. In this time period, marked one of the first efforts to discuss day laborer rights through all the trainings and retreats. It helped develop the day laborers as leaders in their communities. In the late 1990s organizers from the different centers were all exchanging strategies and organizing practices like “libretas” that were books that were distributed to the whole country eventually. Towards the end of the decade more formal attempts were made to create a formal organization with the collaboration of all the worker centers. In 1999 a national coordinator was added and a national agenda was created which led to the creation of the NDLON.

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