We began supporting workers in 2012 as the Brazilian Worker Center of Bridgeport, a branch of Massachusetts’ Brazilian Worker Center. Through our organizing work, described below, our base grew to include people from across the state and from Connecticut’s West Indian, Latino, Haitian, and Polish communities. In  2019 we decided to become an independent organization. The Connecticut Worker Center (CWC) received its 501c3 designation in 2021.

Since 2012, the domestic workers who lead CWC have spearheaded the movement to secure new labor rights for Connecticut’s 55,000 domestic workers. In 2015, because of their efforts, Connecticut became the 9th state in the U.S. to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Since then, our members have trained their peers on their rights, advocated for robust enforcement of the law, and also won new protections for domestic workers under the anti-discrimination regulations of the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. This Spring, we had another legislative victory, successfully advocating for a law that requires employers to provide domestic workers with information about their rights and establishing an education and training grant program to support domestic workers’ rights enforcement.