Putting a stop to labor trafficking!

The Industrial Commons (TIC) strives to create an inclusive economy based on community between employee-owned social enterprises and industrial cooperatives, creating a more democratized, worker-centric environment. Since 2015, TIC has launched five cooperative businesses, employing more than 100 workers, and is working to grow the number of businesses to 75 by 2025.

Deliveristas Unidos started as a WhatsApp group for local delivery workers to connect, but over time it turned into a mobilized organization of thousands of delivery workers ready to take to the streets to protect their rights as workers. Through their organizing, the group managed to get a legislative package passed that enacted several laws that guaranteed their rights and protections, including access to bathrooms in restaurants across the city, transparent communication with delivery apps about tips, as well as hourly pay.

Unit of Work, an organization backed by venture capital, helps unions organize and win contracts. Organizers provide free consulting to groups of workers forming unions within their own workplaces. Once a contract is in place, members of the new union can decide to pay Unit of Work a monthly fee — like traditional union dues — to keep providing support.

4 Day Week Global offers workshops, cross-company mentorship, and assistance with tracking productivity and employee wellbeing to help companies implement shortened workweeks. The nonprofit has piloted its program with 38 companies so far, and organizations that have switched to a four-day schedule report increased productivity and improved work-life balance for workers.

Ethiopian domestic workers stuck in Lebanon can now rely on help from an organization started by Ethiopian women who were once in their shoes. Victims of labor exploitation have a hard time escaping abusive situations, leaving them stranded in Lebanon without a place to stay or a means to get home.

Worker-run co-ops in the food industry and in the care sector, industries hard hit by COVID-19, have proved resilient in weathering the pandemic. Some, like Cooperative Home Care Associates, partnered with other co-ops to provide discounted PPE supplies for workers. Others provide job opportunities for people who have trouble getting a foothold, like ChiFresh Kitchen’s formerly incarcerated women worker-owners and Red Emma’s in Baltimore. Worker-owner models can also pivot operations more quickly, which helped Brooklyn Packers respond to the pandemic by providing fresh produce to those in need.

After a contact tracing effort spurred by an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County, Oregon resulted in the realization that resources weren't being offered in Indigenous Mayan languages, the Oregon Health Authority created a helpline to better connect community members with translators. The hotline is now being used in several other counties and has also been used to offer additional public health information – such as when wildfires began erupting throughout the state.

A first-of-its-kind worker-led program in Vermont is helping dairy migrant workers to "hold farmers, corporations, and suppliers in the dairy industry accountable for the rights of workers in their supply-chains through a legally-binding agreement." Although not all dairy farm operations have joined in the program as participants, it has been enacted on 64 farms and helped bolster wages and housing situations for migrant farmers.

Paying Congressional interns gives lower income students a chance to engage with the legislative process. By bringing increased attention to the lack of paid internships on Capitol Hill, the nonprofit, Pay Our Interns, succeed in pressuring Congress to allocate funds for intern stipends. The funding makes opportunities on the Hill more accessible to those who cannot rely on family financial support to accept an unpaid internship.

A new survey and analysis shows that paid leave has a hugely positive impact in quality of life and financial stability. Using examples of what has worked around the world, the report suggests that paid leave should be offered for six months, regardless of length of tenure in a job, and regardless of the size of a business.