Janice Fine

Janice Fine "is a Senior Fellow for Organizing and Policy at the Center for Community Change (CCC).  Her book Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream was released in January of 2006 by Cornell University Press and the Economic Policy Institute.

"From 1981-83 she was the President of United States Student Association. During the 80’s, she worked for the AFL-CIO in Broward County, Florida, Massachusetts Fair Share in Boston, the Jackson ’88 presidential campaign as well as numerous other electoral campaigns. In the early 1990’s, she worked for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Building and Construction Trades Council. In 1993, Fine founded the New England Money and Politics Project at Northeast Action and went on to play a leading role in passing the nation’s first “Clean Election” law in Maine. For ten years, until 2003, she was the Organizing Director at Northeast Action, the hub of a regional network of statewide progressive coalitions, unions and citizen action groups.  Her most recent project, which has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Univision and Telemundo is a social venture with CCC and 8 worker centers around the country to provide inexpensive and reliable financial services to low  wage immigrant workers who lack access to them while at the same time developing an ongoing source of income for worker centers to support their broader mission of organizing and advocacy, and establishing a mechanism to help build membership and institutionalize the collection of membership dues.

"For many years, Fine has written about the labor movement and community organizing as well as the influence of money in American politics and has been the recipient of fellowships from the Open Society Institute as well as the Industrial Performance Center at MIT.  Her most recent articles include “Why Labor Needs a Plan B”  in the New Labor Forum May 2007 issue and “A Marriage Made in Heaven? Mismatches and Misunderstandings Between Worker Centres and Unions” in the March 2007 issue of the British Journal of Industrial Relations.  In addition to her scholarly work, Fine has also contributed pieces to the Boston Globe, the Nation, All Things Considered on National Public Radio and appeared on the Lou Dobbs show.  In September of 2007, Fine was appointed by Governor Corzine to New Jersey’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigration.  She also sits on several boards including the Jewish Funds for Justice, Ms. Women and Labor Fund, Boston Review, United for a Fair Economy Action Fund, and Labor Studies Journal."


 * Editorial Advisory Group, Social Policy
 * Editorial Board, New Labor Forum