Sectoral Research & Campaigns

Understanding your target company is not enough. A sectoral approach to research, policy, and campaigning can change the strategies and stakes of your effort. In this workshop, you will learn how to step back from the company’s financials and look at the big picture. Mike Muñoz and Jessica Durrum from the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy will walk you through sectoral approaches to research with examples from real-world campaigns.

Mike (he/him) joined LAANE in 2017 as a senior researcher on LAANE’s Our People Our Port campaign. Mike went on to become the director of the campaign before becoming LAANE’s research director in 2023. Mike also currently serves on the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners.

Prior to LAANE, Mike was an organizer with the Teamsters/Warehouse Worker Resource Center at the Port of LA and the coordinator of the National Staffing Workers Alliance, a coalition of worker centers dedicated to organizing temp/staffing agency workers. He also spent 14 years working at the National Immigration Law Center. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Mike attended East LA College then received his BA in Political Science in 1994 from UC Santa Barbara.

Jessica (she/her) joined LAANE in 2012 as a researcher, analyzing the port trucking industry and driver misclassification, and supporting port drivers in fighting wage theft and reclaiming their rights as employees. She went on to become the director of Our People Our Ports, and is now the director of LAANE’s living wage campaign as well as deputy director of policy and campaigns.

Prior to LAANE, Jessica worked for seven years at Centro Presente, an immigrant rights organization in Boston, playing a central role in the organization’s transformation from service provision to organizing. Jessica holds a BA from Wellesley College in History and Spanish and graduated from UCLA’s Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning program in 2012.