Carlos Fernandez (he/him)

Executive Director

Carlos joined Grassroots Collaborative in July 2021 as the Bargaining for the Common Good Director. He is responsible for advancing the integration of Bargaining for the Common Good practices in union contract campaigns and connected policy and organizing campaigns. Carlos comes to Grassroots Collaborative after 10 years as a National Representative for the American Federation of Teachers, and 10 years in a number of organizing and program roles at community and labor organizations in Chicago. His work to build worker power, immigrants’ voices, global justice, and community-labor alliances has been motivated and guided by his upbringing in an Mexican immigrant family, growing up on Chicago’s southwest side, and witnessing and studying neoliberalism’s reshaping of local, national and global forces.