There is a significant need for Black leadership at all levels of movement work. ABSI seeks to develop experienced and well-trained Black Strategists through the ABSI Movement Fellowship Program. This collaborative project led by Jobs With Justice, will offer a cohort of Black worker-leaders direct experience developing and implementing strategies that seek to expand organizing and collective bargaining power with Black-led campaigns in the South. This paid apprenticeship program provides the opportunity to share experiences and advance the Fellows’ understanding of the ABSI ‘School of Thought’ in fellowship with Black academics, labor leaders, and organizers, and access to certifications that will position them for future employment and/or studies.
Throughout this program, Fellows will examine the effects of race, class, gender, and power on workers across the South, and inform national discourse on how to expand organizing and collective bargaining power for everyone based on these experiences. At the end of this 15-month Fellowship, ABSI will produce a cohort of Black strategists committed to leading, developing, and advancing practices that support working people’s ability to govern through expanded forms of collective bargaining, in the South and beyond.
ABSI Movement Fellows will receive a one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art education from a breadth of academic institutions, community organizers, civil rights advocates, and the leading thought leaders from across the nation.
One-of-a-kind education
Academic instruction on topics like:
- Black Worker Organizing/ History
- Social and Economic Justice
- Social and Economic Policy
- Race, Gender, and Labor
- Corporate and Labor Research
- Race and Economic Theory
The Movement Fellowship Program will build pipelines for emerging Black strategists and movement leaders to advance their work and connect to dynamic worker campaigns via paid apprenticeships.
One-of-a-kind experience
Past MFP partners:
- United Steel Workers Union
- Jobs to Move America
- United Auto Workers Union
- International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
- United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America
*This is a full-time fellowship that has a salary range of $55,000 – $60,000 per year plus benefits (medical, dental, professional development, etc.). Relocation IS required if you do not live in your assigned Host Campaign location.
Be a part of the movement
The program launches Spring 2024. Apply today! Application deadline is February 26, 2024.
To sponsor or become an ABSI-trained Black Strategist, contact Jason Tomlinson at Jason@jwj.org or call (817)475-1756.
Program Includes:
- Travel
- Per diem
- Participation in ground-breaking Black LaborStudies Program
- Training from Movement Leaders
- Professional/ Academic Certifications
- Vast Black Strategists Network
What is ABSI?
Jobs With Justice launched the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative (ABSI) in the fall of 2020. We began with a vision to create a cohort of Black economic justice and labor-focused strategists committed to leading, developing, and advancing policies and campaigns that support collective power-building of working people – particularly in the South.
With the significant need for Black leadership at all levels of movement work, the inaugural ABSI Movement Fellowship Program kicked off in the Spring of 2022. This paid apprenticeship program offered a cohort of Black worker-leaders direct experience developing and implementing strategies that sought to expand organizing and collective bargaining power with Black-led campaigns in the U.S. South, the opportunity to share experiences and advance their understanding of the ABSI ‘School of Thought’ in fellowship with Black academics, labor leaders, and organizers. With focused strategies that seek to expand workers’ direct role in creating, implementing and enforcing new standards beyond simply passing policy, the Fellows examined the effects of race, class, gender, and power on workers across the South.
We’re proud to establish a new partnership with Clark University ahead of our second cohort of ABSI Fellows.
ABSI in the headlines
Reviving the Southern Black Labor Movement
Southern Black workers have a long record of forming unions to press their demands for justice—we once again need to build power at work as we have in the past. Read more.
About Jobs With Justice
Jobs With Justice believes that all workers should have collective bargaining rights, employment security and a decent standard of living within an economy that works for everyone. We bring together labor, community, student, and faith voices at the national and local levels to win improvements in people’s lives and shape the public discourse on workers’ rights and the economy. Learn more about our work and our history here.