Joe Alvarez

Joe Alvarez brings a lifetime of experience on the front lines of the labor movement fighting for racial justice, civil rights, peace, workers’ and immigrants’ rights. In 2005, he left his position with labor and became a founding partner of the Alvarez Porter Group, an organization development consulting firm that specializes in work with mission-driven organizations focused on labor rights and other social justice issues.

Joe spent decades organizing industrial workers and labor support for the civil rights movement throughout the south. As the national political director of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and UNITE, he developed innovative programs promoting grassroots civic engagement and participation. And as the Northeast Regional Director of the AFL-CIO, Mr. Alvarez designed and co-led a major national, state-by-state campaign to revitalize and reorganize state and local AFL-CIO bodies. Joe’s work with unions has involved him in a number of industries, including retail, food processing, arts and entertainment, education, transportation, public sector, construction, and health care. At the AFL-CIO, Mr. Alvarez was also a leader in engaging the labor movement on fighting for immigrant rights, and was a national organizer and leader of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in 2002.

Joe has also worked with national, state, and local union federations, as well as with unions in Indonesia, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. His work among non-profits has been with organizations involved in community organizing, civil rights, housing, human rights, workers’ rights, and environmental sustainability.

In 2000, Joe helped found the New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute, where he still teaches. He is also a Fellow of Cornell University’s Worker Institute.

Joe is married with two adult children and an expanding number of grandchildren. He lives in Yonkers, NY with his wife, Sally.