Worker Centers

Abstract

This article describes worker centers as new sites for macro social work practice. Incorporating elements of community, policy, and organizational practice, worker centers are community-based organizations focused on the needs of low-wage and otherwise vulnerable groups of workers. This new type of worker organization emerged most prominently in the United States in the mid-1990s, largely in response to concerns about workplace abuses in low-wage and informal sectors dominated by immigrant workers and workers of color. Since then, the impact and reach of worker centers has grown through their dispersion across the United States and the growth of national worker center networks. Drawing on multiple traditions, including labor unions, settlement houses, and ethnic agencies, worker centers offer a hybrid approach to planned change. They support workers organizing for collective action, provide direct services, and advocate for policy change at the local, state, and federal level. Since their emergence, worker centers have led the efforts to pass legislation protecting domestic workers and helped low-wage workers win millions of dollars in lost or stolen wages from employers. These and other notable examples of U.S. worker centers’ contributions to macro practice will be discussed.