Thank You for Joining Us to Celebrate 50 Years Advancing Dignity & Justice at Work

In 2019, National Employment Law Project (NELP) celebrated our 50th year advocating for the rights, protections and collective power of working people.

View video of the We're All In! Conference remarks and Plenaries:

 

Our Impact

In the past year, NELP welcomed our new executive director, Rebecca Dixon, and her vision for economic, racial, and gender justice for workers – and we celebrated 51 years. Read more in our Impact report: Resiliency & Purpose

NELP at 50: Advancing Dignity and Justice at Work

Throughout our 50-year history, NELP’s ability to constantly assess, refine, and improve our priorities has allowed us to respond to significant and at times devastating shifts in our political and economic environment.

This video features workers’ rights leaders Mary Kay Henry, Chris Owens, Naomi Walker and Tom Perez who celebrate the work we’ve accomplished together, and offer a shared vision for a future that values of fairness, justice, and dignity for all of America’s workers.

NELP's Leadership Transition

As we bid her farewell and wish her the best in her travels ahead, the NELP staff would like to express our gratitude for the tremendous contributions of Christine Owens, our Executive Director for the past twelve years. Chris’s inspiring leadership has been an essential ingredient in enabling NELP to become one of the nation’s preeminent workers’ rights and economic justice organizations —one that Chris says she “always knew it could be.” 

Read more on our blog »

 

Crowning its 50th year, NELP welcomes its new Executive Director, Rebecca Dixon  who previously served on NELP’s Executive Management team as chief of programs, with responsibility for overseeing all of NELP’s substantive program areas. Rebecca shares the personal and political narrative of her history beginning in rural Mississippi, what drives her, why she does this work, and her vision for NELP and its continuing contribution to our movement.

Read more on our blog »

NELP staff gathered at the 2019 We’re All In Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Blog Series


As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, we will continue to showcase NELP’s history with features and opportunities for our supporters and allies to engage with us celebrating our history and creating a shared vision for our future.

NELP Celebrates 50 Years of Advancing Dignity and Justice at Work

Since our founding in 1969, the National Employment Law Project has fought to secure the rights of workers and unemployed people across the country.


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A Legacy of Fighting Back: Taking on the Exploitative “Workfare” System

When a new congressional majority rode to power in the 1990s on an agenda that demonized civil legal services and defunded NELP and groups like it, NELP stood strong.


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NELP Honors Young Leaders of Make the Road New Jersey

The young members of Make the Road: NJ helped New Jersey become the fourth to adopt a $15 minimum wage.


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Ford Foundation’s Anna Wadia Honored as NELP Beth Shulman Fellow

NELP is honored to recognize Wadia for her work advancing dignity and justice on the job.


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NELP: A History of Advancing Workplace Protections

Since 1969, the National Employment Law Project has worked through the ebbs and flows of laws regulating worker protections in the United States.


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Honoring AFSCME President Lee Saunders

At the core of Saunders’ leadership is the connection between public service and building collective power.


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Meet the Warehouse Workers Challenging Amazon and Walmart

WWRC is a leader in confronting the trend of subcontracting and use of staffing agencies in the logistics sector.


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Previous Events:

NELP 50 Gala

View photos from the event on Facebook

Monday, May 6, 2019
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. EST

The Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC

Celebrating the work and leadership of our honorees May 6, 2019

Honoring:

  • Lee Saunders, President, AFSCME

  • Anna Wadia, Senior Program Officer, Ford Foundation, NELP’s 2019 Beth Shulman Fellow

  • Warehouse Worker Resource Center

  • Make the Road –New Jersey

 

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We’re All In

We’re All In is NELP’s two-day invitation-only strategy conference that connects policy discussions to the real change we need to bring about for working people. Our goal is for attendees to leave with concrete tools, ideas, and relationships to carry on the fight, individually and collectively. If you have questions about the event, email events@nelp.org.

When we closed out our We’re All In! conference on Thursday, our decks were full: With new friendships, stronger connections, deep learning, and ever-clearer paths forward in our movement for workers’ rights.

But there was no call more urgent than the need for our movement and our organizations to center Black workers.

As we reflect on our time together, we especially want to thank everyone who made We’re All In! such a success, including our internal team: NELP Strategic Partnerships Director Nayantara Mehta, along with Kim Diehl, Heather McGrew, Erin Hawkins, Yasmin John, consultants Mei Zheng and Cynthia Greenberg, Mónica Novoa, Eleanor Cooney, Bukola Ashaolu, Frank Gattie, Norman Eng, Mitchell Hirsch, Rachel Nass, Anastasia Christman, Caitlin Connolly, Charlotte Noss, Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, Rebecca Dixon, and all of our session leads; our amazing speakers; the staff of the Sahara Las Vegas, and all conference attendees.

We know that nothing we learned on this trip to Las Vegas will stay behind—instead, we’ll carry our learnings and connections with us for years to come.

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2017 Rising to the Moment awards reception

Meet the honorees, co-chairs and sponsors of Rising to the Moment and view the event journal, video, and photos.

 

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2016 Milepost 15 awards reception

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Help us ensure that every person has a fair chance to work.

Michelle Natividad Rodriguez

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