The Consortium for Worker Education (CWE) is a private, non-profit agency that provides a continuum of workforce preparation, industry-specific training and employment services to over 70,000 New York City workers annually, including dislocated workers, New Americans, incumbent union members and those approaching the workforce for the first time.

The CWE is the workforce development arm of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, whose affiliated unions represent over 1.2 million workers in the metropolitan region. Through our community-based partnerships and initiatives, CWE partners provide tens of thousands of New Yorkers with access to quality, dignified careers in varied economic sectors including healthcare, construction, transportation, civil service, education and childcare, and retail and tourism.

Our goals have typically emphasized accelerating job opportunities for workers by providing skills and education which supplement their professional or educational knowledge base. Yet as the nature of both work and a worker’s relationship to their employment evolves, we recognize our role extends beyond the traditional need to simply “advance” workers.

We are a worker center that will meld CWE's proven workforce development programming with forward-thinking services that can be responsive to our evolving economy. This will include education to empower undocumented New Yorkers and misclassified 1099 workers, create worker cooperatives and organize new-work places.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate impact on the health and economic security of low-income New Yorkers and communities of color has underscored the need for reimagining CWE’s work.

In order to ascertain the scale of the challenge, CWE sponsored a survey produced by James Parrott and L.K. Moe on the effects of COVID-19 on the working families of Astoria. An overwhelming majority (67%) reported that their economic status had been negatively impacted during the pandemic.

The survey results led to the formation of four working groups to advise on the initial programming that the AWP will administer. The working groups are comprised of elected officials, non-profit organizations, unions, university researchers and professors, and community groups, and serve the purpose of outlining the resources that currently exist within the community and how we can best partner with and complement existing services.

The working groups include:

• Workforce Development and Workers’ Rights

• Mental Health

• Immigrant Rights and Services

• Worker Cooperatives

We are currently collocating with the Astoria Food Pantry, where we will be rolling out initial programs and services for the community.

Above all, the Astoria Worker Project is a community space. Programming will be responsive to the needs of the community as we seek to improve the financial and emotional well-being of the neighborhood.