About Us
We are a group of workers, activists, and organizers, building a workers center in Berlin.
What does the worker center do?
- We want to fill the need for a physical space, used regularly, to encourage sustainability of grassroots organizing community
- To connect separate workers struggles together to build strength
- To be an incubator of future struggles to happen more rapidly and readily
- To help provide/direct immediate material needs of workers (know your rights, lawyers, organizing skills training, language, community support, grassroots organizers)
- To be autonomous from existing institutions
- To research who is typically left out of existing Berlin initiatives and fill those gaps (migrants, refugees, lower/working class, gig economy/platform workers)
- To incubate future Workers Councils - go out and find who is interested and support them
- To strengthen collaboration between activists and primarily workers/tenants/people
How did we get started?
A group of activists and activist researchers involved with organizing and anti-racist work came together to discuss the idea of a workers center. This group organized a workshop in July 2022 and invited activists, workers themselves and organizers to map existing initiatives, needs, and brainstorm possibilities. This group of twenty people collectively committed over the last six months to build a Workers Center together, meet monthly, and realize this vision.
The groups involved include: workers from rider companies (Gorillas, Lieferando, Flink, Getir, Dropp, Wolt), Tech Workers, activists from migrant-justice groups and tenant organizations.
We provide consulting hours on Fridays between 12.00 and 18.00 (6pm), and on the following topics and more
Location is subject to change, check instagram
- Advice on stolen wages, layoffs or other workplace complaints.
- How to file a lawsuit and the lawyer we recommend.
- How to organize your workplace to take collective action to win your claims.
- How to read your pay slips or employment contract.
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Know your labor rights.
- Free printing, coffee/drinks, snacks, lounge, TV/music, kitchen, coworking space, private meeting room and social atmosphere.
- German translation assistance (e.g. if you need to make a bureaucratic call).
- Talk to us in Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, French or English.
- General advice for newcomers to Berlin.
- Advice on how to find a job and a wide network of connections with workers in different sectors.
- Upcoming events that might be relevant to you, such as training courses or social events.
- General support for stressed workers who need someone to talk to.
- Direct you to the right resources/organizations beyond what we can offer you.