Nik Theodore and Agustin Chiarella
2020
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)—a federation of community-based worker centers and advocacy organizations—implemented a plan to urgently respond to the twin public health and unemployment crises that were rapidly unfolding. Making use of a national network of worker centers and their local organizational infrastructures, NDLON and its members quickly amassed and then administered cash and noncash aid, and provided emergency assistance to people who otherwise had been excluded from the federal government’s pandemic-relief initiatives. This report provides an assessment of these early efforts.