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FORGING GRASSROOTS SOLUTIONS
ESWA By the Numbers
Since 1977, EASTERN SERVICE WORKERS ASSOCIATION (ESWA) has been building a free and voluntary unincorporated private membership association comprised of seasonal workers, service workers and other low-income part-time and temp workers, regardless of current employment status, as well as retired and disabled workers.
ESWA's Winning Numbers
government funding
members signed
Decades of history
Our Past, Present & Future
ESWA is a vehicle for workers to participate in and direct actions in line with their long-term interests, as well as fight to hold the government accountable to their demands. Concerned residents, students, professionals, small businesses and clergy work together with ESWA members to pursue permanent solutions to the problems low-income workers face in South Jersey in general and Atlantic County in particular.
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History
Learn about ESWA’s five decades of organizing in South Jersey and winning victories for low-income workers.
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Purpose
To end poverty for working people, ESWA is building a strong organization to attack its root causes.
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Accomplishments
ESWA members and volunteers have delivered measurable, material victories for working people in South Jersey.
HERE TO WIN,
HERE TO STAY
Organize to Ensure ALL Workers Have a Future
Poverty, hunger and high prices threaten our futures. Be part of the work to change these conditions. Join with Eastern Service Workers Association (ESWA) to put your time, skills and concern to work.
Seasonal Worker Dilemma
* Data and experience collected by ESWA volunteer canvass teams in low-income neighborhoods across Atlantic County over the course of five decades.
What can you do to play a part in the struggle for solutions to the problems of poverty?
Invest Time in Your Community And You Will,
ESWA members along with volunteers from all walks of life work shoulder-to-shoulder to build a strong organization to eliminate the poverty conditions we face. Volunteers assist with ESWA’s Membership Benefit Program to deliver basic material necessities, organizing food and clothing distributions, working with participating attorneys, doctors and dentists as lay advocates, learning how to overcome barriers for ESWA members to obtain what is rightfully theirs. Volunteers get organizer training, learning how to build the collective strength of organization.
SEE THE DIFFERENCE
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
A Victory Everyday
ESWA has:
Signed tens of thousands of members throughout South Jersey.
Built a members-helping-members 11-Point Membership Benefit Program that includes emergency food, clothing, legal advice, non-emergency dental care, information and referral and more.
Organized seasonal distributions, from Back-to-School supplies to holiday food baskets.
Trained hundreds of volunteers in Systemic Organizing, a unique method of building grassroots organization.
Published an independent, membership newspaper to tell the truth about the struggles of low-income workers in South Jersey and the organizing they are doing to bring about change.
PURPOSE
Solutions for All of South Jersey’s Lowest-Paid Workers
ESWA organizes South Jersey’s lowest-paid seasonal and service workers, who care for the sick, clean offices and deliver food. Yet, we go without health care, shelter and food. We recognize that in order to organize, we must take collective action to ensure our day-to-day survival through a self-help benefit program under membership control. ESWA’s Benefit Program performs neither acts of charity nor isolated acts of goodwill, but rather helps members to obtain what is rightfully theirs in a context that promotes their best interest on all levels.
