For almost 20 years, Sugar Law Center has worked from our home in Detroit to advance the rights of working people throughout the U.S. We’ve stood with people in Hazelwood, Missouri, fighting against corporate tax giveaways. We’ve won court victories for laid-off workers in numerous states including Wisconsin, Tennessee and Texas. We’ve counseled Wal-Mart “associates” in Florida, Utah, Oregon, New Hampshire, and beyond. We’ve advised Congress on strengthening protections for workers.
And throughout these two decades, Sugar Law Center has given special attention and effort to our home city and our home state. Detroit and Michigan once embodied the promise of American prosperity. Today they embody the abandonment of that promise, the suffering of millions. Then and now, Detroit and Michigan represent the needs, aspirations and travails of American workers. They show the best and worst of industrial capitalism and corporate globalization.
Sugar Law represented Southwest Detroit families when a new public school was built on toxic land. We fought for Flint residents against an incinerator that would pollute neighborhoods already burdened by poverty and racism. We’ve advised Michigan communities on passage and enforcement of living wage laws. And we’ve stood with unions here in organizing drives and strikes. Today, Sugar Law helps Michigan workers fight wage theft, unsafe working conditions and discrimination. We are using generous support from the Fund for Equal Justice, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and a wonderful three-year commitment from the Ford Foundation to advance our Michigan-focused work, under the name Stronger Michigan Communities.
Doing Development Differently in (Metro) Detroit
Starting in early 2010, Sugar Law’s Stronger Michigan Communities initiative has taken a central role alongside dozens of unions, community groups, environmentalist and faith-based activists who have come together to create a coalition called “Doing Development Differently in (Metro) Detroit” (D4).
The model inspiring the D4 coalition is known as “community benefits,” a framework that brings diverse stakeholders together to demand that economic development better serve communities suffering from racism and poverty.
The community benefits movement has emerged around the country over the last decade. Its purpose is to challenge established economic development processes that reinforce economic inequality rather than reducing it. In particular, job opportunities related to economic development have historically been inadequately available to people of color. Minority neighborhoods have also borne the brunt of neighborhood displacement and environmental degradation resulting from development projects.
Community benefits coalitions have had success around the U.S. by negotiating “community benefits agreements” (CBAs): legally binding contracts that spell out the commitments a developer makes to mitigate the burden of a project on its host community. CBAs’ ability to lessen these burdens has been demonstrated many times around the country, including $500 million in environmental and job training programs for low-income residents affected by the expansion of the Los Angeles International Airport.
Sugar Law’s role in D4 includes helping to structure the coalition; build its accountability to member groups; and research specific community needs. We will also offer legal representation in CBA negotiations with public agencies and private developers, and draft the resulting agreements. By adding legal expertise to D4’s tools, Sugar Law will strengthen the coalition’s efforts to advance effective and equitable economic development for metro Detroit.
Sugar Law’s work for D4 is only one part of our Stronger Michigan Communities initiative. We have already been approached by groups working for community benefits in other Michigan cities. “Sugar Law’s involvement in our process has been an essential part of our growing an effective, mutually trusting coalition,” says Venus Chapman of Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES). “I know other groups would benefit from working with them.”
Center for Community-Based Enterprise
The D4 coalition is just one example of how Sugar Law works to foster institutions committed to empowering people and communities.
Another exciting example is Sugar Law’s role as one of the founding organizational members of the Center for Community-Based Enterprise (C2BE). Created by a network of labor, business, and community activists, C2BE is a nonprofit whose mission is to grow “community-based enterprises”—sustainable, locally rooted businesses paying living wages. C2BE serves as a catalyst and resource center for businesses that are a) committed to increasing income and assets for workers, and b) permanently rooted in their home communities by binding legal and financial mechanisms.
Making this model work in the U.S. legal environment is worthwhile, but not simple. As part of C2BE’s leadership, Sugar Law is involved in setting up legal structures for community-based enterprises and for the Center itself; identifying and enlisting key stakeholders to make community-based enterprise an effective tool; and developing education campaigns to broaden public understanding of this valuable approach.
Sugar Law is committed to working with C2BE and other creative, dedicated organizations in introducing to American business new ways of building fair, sustainable wealth for families and communities.