Building a Just Economy: Insights from Worker Center Leaders

For nearly two decades, worker centers have been at the forefront of rethinking strategies for addressing economic injustice and building worker power. There is much to glean, and celebrate, from their remarkable body of work.

The Ford Foundation commissioned a series of reports and articles to document transformative strategies that have expanded worker organizing and power over the last decade and to inform strategies in the decade to come.

This groundbreaking research will inaugurate the Worker Center Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Economic Development, set to launch on Labor Day 2021. The research will also be captured in a robust, multi-piece American Prospect series exploring the past, present, and future of the Worker Center movement.

On August 31, a live panel will participate in building a Just Economy: Insights from Worker Center Leaders, a virtual event co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the American Prospect, and the Center for Urban Economic Development. The discussion will bring the nation’s leading workers’ rights and economic justice advocates together to reflect on the gains made in building worker power and the challenges and opportunities ahead of shaping a world with workers at the center.

Featured speakers include Ai-jen Poo, Andrea Delendorf, Erica Smiley, Laine Romero-Alston, Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Pablo Alvarado, and Sarita Gupta. See the full list of speakers and agenda here.