The Alt-Labor Chronicles: America’s Worker Centers
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto
How Gig Workers Are Bearing the Brunt of the Global Economic Crisis
Higher prices, an imminent economic downturn, and the stock market turmoil have turned working conditions from bad to worse for on-demand workers. Read more
Jul 25, 2022
⏩ Building a Just Economy: Insights from Worker Center Leaders
A panel event on the past and future of workers’ rights Read more
Sep 3, 2021
Hans Pennink/AP Photo
Worker Centers: Past, Present, and Future
How a movement of the most vulnerable workers has won major social reforms—and how it can build on those going forward Read more
Aug 30, 2021
Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Helping the Powerless Build Power
Oral histories of five activists who’ve worked in and for worker centers Read more
Apr 27, 2021
Jeff Martin/AP Photo
Voices to Votes: Worker Centers Meet the Political Moment
How—and why—worker centers expanded from providing services to engaging in electoral politics Read more
Apr 26, 2021
The Funding Dilemma
Unlike unions, worker centers can’t be sustained by their members’ dues. So survival is an ongoing challenge. Read more
Apr 26, 2021
Stefano Paltera/AP Photo
Embracing and Resisting: The Variable Relationships Between Worker Centers and Unions
In some cities, the two kinds of worker organizations frequently collaborate. In other cities, not so much. Read more
Apr 22, 2021
CQ Roll Call via AP Images
John Sweeney and Worker Centers
The AFL-CIO president who aligned the labor establishment with the women, immigrants, and minorities of alt-labor Read more
Apr 22, 2021
Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP
Worker Centers: Where Causes Cohere, and Forge Power
At the crossroads of diverse social movements and worker representation, many centers have become models of intersectionality. Read more
Apr 21, 2021
Black Worker Centers: Building Workplace Power in the Communities
Even in anti-union terrains, the centers have found ways to change public and corporate policies. Read more
Apr 20, 2021
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
How the Powerless Win Power
Immigrant workers—particularly the undocumented—are denied basic rights, but through worker centers, they’ve aggregated their strength and bettered their lives. Read more
Apr 19, 2021
The Alt-Labor Chronicles: America’s Worker Centers
A Prospect series on how day laborers, domestics, fry cooks, and others have built institutions and won power to better their lives Read more
Apr 19, 2021
