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What’s at stake? The transformation of work has produced two well-known problems: one, many workers can no longer rely on stable employment to provide them with benefits like retirement, vacation, or insurance, and, two, it is increasingly difficult to enforce basic laws like minimum wage and overtime pay. Although there are many ways to address these problems, putting workers in charge of the organizations that deliver benefits and conduct enforcement could ensure efficient delivery of services while building economic and political voice for working people.
At this convening, we will consider:
1) How benefits can be provided to workers in a manner that builds worker power, including an examination of whether to adapt a Ghent-type system for the U.S.; how to facilitate the use of worker owned/controlled capital to augment workers’ economic and political voice; and
2) Whether there is a role for workers and their organizations in regimes to enforce labor standards and collective action rights that can build worker power, through co-enforcement, other public-private partnership models or new roles for private actors.
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Day 1 – Thursday, April 4, 2019 |
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12:30pm-1:00pm |
Registration with Coffee and Snacks |
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1:00pm-1:20pm |
Opening Remarks
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1:25pm-2:25pm 40’, Discussion 20’, Audience Q&A LWP staff runs mic and takes questions |
Benefits The discussion around benefits often centers on how much and for what. While that is an important discussion, it misses the opportunity that the administration of benefits provides to build worker power. This conversation will explore whether the provision of benefits can build worker power. We will focus on the questions of whether: (1) worker-run organizations created to administer benefits systems can amass power that can be exercised in other ways and (2) how the accumulation of capital that funds benefits systems can support the exercise of collective power.
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2:30pm-3:30pm 40’, Discussion 20’, Audience Q&A LWP staff runs mic and takes questions |
Enforcement Workers rely on effective enforcement regimes to make their rights in the workplace effective, including the right to collective action. There is also a question, however, about whether the process – and not just the outcome – of enforcement can be empowering. This discussion will explore whether the involvement of worker organizations, through co-enforcement or other partnerships with enforcement agencies, can accomplish effective enforcement and empowerment at the same time and where to draw the line in balancing these dual objectives.
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3:30pm-3:45pm |
Break |
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3:45pm-4:30pm |
Small Group Work Sessions Making the Case for Change/Identifying Gaps |
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Benefits
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Enforcement
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4:35pm-5:00pm |
Readouts - 3' per group |
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Day 2 – Friday, April 5, 2019 |
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8:30am-9:00am |
Registration & Breakfast |
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9:00am-12:00pm Small Group Work Sessions |
Benefits
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Enforcement
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9:10am-10:00am |
Round One |
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10:05am-10:55am |
Round Two |
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10:55am-11:20am |
Coffee Break and Ideas Exchange |
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11:25am-12:15pm |
Round Three |
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12:20pm-1:00pm |
Readouts - 5' per group |
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1:00pm-1:15pm |
Closing Remarks
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1:15pm-2:00pm |
Lunch |
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2:00pm-4:00pm |
Closed Working Groups IV.A. and IV.B. sessions |
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