New Undergraduate Opportunity: Academic Year Internship in Labor Rights

In an exciting partnership between the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights, and the Emergency Workers’ Organizing Committee (EWOC), we are launching a new labor rights internship, where students can get rare training and hands on experience in union organizing. 

“It’s strangely difficult for people to get experience doing union organizing—doing labor activism—unless they are involved in organizing their own workplace,” says Professor Ben Laurence, the Pozen Center’s Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies. “The pathways, especially from an elite institution like the University of Chicago, to the labor movement are not obvious.” This unique internship will give students an opportunity to engage in labor organizing and learn about the role of unions.

Labor and Human Rights

Unions exist to give workers a voice in otherwise undemocratic workplaces, allowing them to achieve better working conditions, pay, and benefits through contract bargaining backed by collective action like strikes. Unions are also important sites of solidarity, and they are one of the only abiding institutions under capitalism that represents the interests of workers in the political process. 

“Labor rights are human rights," says Laurence, "They're enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in one of the two successor conventions, the [International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights], ICESCR."

After a five decades long continuous decline of labor density, workers in the U.S. are rediscovering the labor movement and are increasingly expressing interest in joining unions. But the models of organizing employed by the labor movement that have proven the most successful are very staff intensive, and so costly. If the labor movement is going to meet this interest and scale up to reverse this long decline, workers may have to learn to take matters into their own hands. 

This is where the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee comes into the picture. EWOC exists to support worker-to-worker organizing, by training workers to be their own union organizers, and by providing them with veteran organizers who can support them as they navigate the challenging process of organizing a union with their coworkers. 

Internship Format

The Labor Rights Internship runs during the academic year, beginning in Autumn Quarter and ending in Spring Quarter. During this time, the Labor Rights Interns will undergo two sets of trainings: first, the training that EWOC provides workers to help them learn how to organize themselves; and second, the training that EWOC provides to experienced organizers so they can become campaign leads who support workers in their organizing drives. 

After having undergone these trainings, the Labor Intern will begin working on an active campaign under the mentorship of a lead organizer. They will learn firsthand what it takes to organize the union, and how to support workers in growing to become labor organizers.  

How to Apply

• Submit your online application by May 19, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CST.
• The opportunity is open to all UChicago undergraduate students who have a passion for workers' rights and the willingness to step outside of their comfort zone to gain skill as an organizer.
• Applications must include the webform, CV, and the names and contact information for two professional references.