The New England Joint Board UNITE HERE is a union representing workers in the textile, garment, manufacturing, warehousing, laundry, human service, and hospitality industries in New England and New York. Our thousands of members are as diverse as the industries they work in. Women make up a large portion of our membership as do new immigrants and people of color. A large portion of our current membership was originally organized by our predecessor unions the ILGWU (International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union) and ACTWU (Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers). We carry the tradition of organizing workers in traditionally low-wage industries, bringing them and their families into well-paying middle class jobs. Our members work in cafeterias, factories, retail stores, distribution centers, laundries, coffee shops, offices, group homes, casinos, and mills. We are proud of our heritage and of our current status as an evolving union fighting for the rights of ALL workers.
The NEJB is organized as a joint board of dozens of local unions representing workers at specific workplaces or “shops”. Each local union sends elected delegates to the biannual joint board delegates’ conventions. We are governed by a constitution and an elected executive board of rank-and-file members in charge of focusing the direction of the union. The Manager and Secretary-Treasurer are two full-time elected positions charged with the overseeing of staff and the day-to-day operations of the union. We are an affiliate of UNITE HERE international union and the AFL-CIO.
UNITE HERE is the union of workers in North America’s hotel, gaming, restaurant, food service, laundry, and textile industries. It was formed in 2004 from the merger of UNITE! (formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textiles Employees) and HERE (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees), and represents more than 250,000 workers in the US and Canada. Learn more at www.unitehere.org.