ABOUT US
Working Family Solidarity leaders and community members after a discussion on the history of racial oppression and how racial tension has been stoked to keep low-income working families from uniting to win our rights.
Working Family Solidarity
Working Family Solidarity strives to educate and unify working families in Chicago and Illinois to create a culture of labor rights education and inter-racial solidarity among low-wage and contingent workers, including unemployed and under-employed workers. We believe that worker rights must be advanced hand-in-hand with housing rights for low-wage workers and their families, in order to reach economic stability for working families. In order to build the power to attain these changes, we must build stronger racial alliances among low-wage workers to decrease racial tension and build mutual trust and support.
Our approach is two-pronged: provide workshops and trainings on various areas of worker rights and housing rights, while simultaneously intertwining Racial Unity Dialogues which include a historical analysis of racism in our society. We believe that in today’s economy of mostly contingent work, outreach and education with workers must include their families as well, to build a broad-based movement which takes into account the worker as a family member, a community member, as well as a home-owner or renter, or possibly homeless.
Leone Jose Bicchieri
Founder & Executive Director
The proud son of Mexican and Italian immigrants, Leone has worked for 30 years organizing workers and working families of all backgrounds for economic and racial justice, including farmworkers in the Northwest, poultry processing workers and chicken farmers in the Southeast, meatpacking workers in the Midwest & Plains states, janitors in Midwestern cities, & temp staffing workers in the greater Chicago area. He was national staff with the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride, and also worked as a long-term volunteer in Nicaragua during the Contra War. Leone was recently Executive Director of the Chicago Workers Collaborative, a Chicago-based worker center, where he founded the “Bringing Down Barriers” program to unite African American and Latino temp staffing workers to win more rights at work. Leone was also a Founding Board Member of Raise The Floor, the alliance of eight worker centers in Illinois.
“Through open dialogues, mutual respect and strategic action, we can all make a difference for working Americans. In today's climate, we need it now more than ever.”
— Leone Jose Bicchieri
Kevin Johnson, Jr
Community Organizer
At 24 years old, Kevin Johnson is the youngest Organizer that Working Family Solidarity has had on staff. Kevin began as an intern in 2022 with WFS, participating in presentations and dialogues with other youth of color around the theme of Youth of Color and Jobs. He believes in the need for more and better jobs, especially for young people of color, as well as the need for affordable housing for working families of color. Kevin will be organizing outreach in WFS’ targeted neighborhoods on the topics of jobs and housing.
David Ervin Jr,
Mass comms & data management specialist, part-time organizer
Our newest staff person, David Ervin, who began his position with us on 11/1/22. David is working as an Organizer, as well as heading up our Communications and Data Management. He was born and raised in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on Chicago's southside, where he still lives. "I want to put my abilities and experience to work for our communities, especially for the African American community and working families of color," says David, "I'm tired of watching our families being displaced by the forces of gentrification, I'm tired of the lack of good jobs for working people. I have enjoyed my first few weeks with Working Family Solidarity, and I look forward to meeting more of our members and supporters and winning some concrete victories."
Claudia Galeno
Coordinator, Women for Green Spaces
Claudia has been a volunteer with Working Family Solidarity since our inception, and was volunteer Coordinator with our Women's Committee for several years. She and other WFS members started our Women for Green Spaces (Mujeres por Espacios Verdes) project in 2021, and Claudia became Coordinator of this project as a staff position in 2022. Claudia is a native of the state of Puebla in Mexico. Upon arriving in Chicago, she worked many years in low-wage, difficult jobs, where she began to speak out against the workplace abuses she experienced.
Ms. Benétta M. Standly, MPA
Civil Rights & Social Justice Consultant
Founding Board Member, Working Family Solidarity
Benétta M. Standly is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Standly Solutions Consulting, LLC, a boutique organizational development consulting firm serving non-profit organizations worldwide. Ms. Standly’s clients are all social justice non-profits led by people of color, serving people of color, where she leverages her expertise in non-profit management, civil rights, racial, economic and reproductive justice as well as human rights to strengthen her client’s capacity and infrastructure. Ms. Standly previously worked with the American Civil Liberties Union in three (3) southern states—Georgia, Florida and Washington, DC, in executive director or senior leadership positions. Ms. Standly partners with Working Family Solidarity to provide racial equity technical assistance, conceptualization, and planning regarding our Teach-Ins, workshops, and Dialogues on topics such as the history of Civil Rights, the Criminal Justice System's disparate impact on Black and Brown people, and related issues. Each dialogue will infuse relevant data and discuss the disparate impact of COVID-19 on African-American and Latinx communities. Civil Rights: Past, Present & Future Why Communities of Color Must Unite in the Fight for Racial Justice At the Intersection: The Criminal Justice System and its Disproportionate Impact on Black & Brown Bodies.
Board of Directors
Elisa Rodriguez, Board President, immigrant attorney with Rodriguez & Flores-Szeto LLC, long-time immigration rights & immigration workers advocate.
Arnold Bradford, Board Vice-President, Executive Director, Crossroads Collaborate, has extensive experience with workforce development, as well as housing issues.
Matthew Robinson, Board Secretary-Treasurer, software engineer, racial justice and racial equity advocate.
ALLIES