During the COVID-19 pandemic, our work shifted to providing immediate relief for our low-income worker-members while still carrying out our workplace justice campaigns and organizing our members. Our members did not have the luxury of working from home; many were left out of federal stimulus reliefs. It was essential for us to participate, mobilize, and raise awareness both to our community members and the public of the importance of the work in coalition on the New York Excluded Workers Fund. LWC members and leadership participated in the majority of the events. 

LWC conducted outreach sessions and reached over 1,300 workers and community members to inform them about the New York Excluded Workers. During the outreach, our team distributed informative flyers. We talked about the Fund with diverse low-wage workers and community members, including laundry workers, street vendors, restaurant workers, domestic workers, nannies, cleaning industry workers, construction workers, and others.

Many workers registered with LWC to apply for the Excluded Workers Fund. We helped them to fill out their applications and conducted informative sessions.

Our work does not end. In the coming years, our coalition is building to continue the struggle for a permanent solution, an alternative to unemployment insurance for excluded workers. We are calling for a platform to ensure that working families can access the safety net support they need when crises strike.