Policy
At the National Black Worker Center, we mobilize Black workers to advocate for policies that will help us move toward an economy that centers Black workers, equity, care, and our well-being. We believe that starts with demanding seats at the policymaking table and creating our own tables so that Black workers are leading the policy changes we want to see in the workplace.
NATIONALBLACKWORKERCENTER’SPOLICYDEPARTMENTPRIORITIES
Develop a policy agenda that seeks to build Black worker power
Create and share reports and briefs to support local and national organizing and advocacy
Advocate for legislation benefitting Black workers with our members and partners
Develop and implement participatory policy design and decision-making models
Train, equip, and empower Black worker leaders with the skills, resources, and knowledge to advocate for economic justice and worker-centered policies
Train, equip, and empower Black worker leaders with the skills, resources, and knowledge to advocate for economic justice and worker-centered policies
RACIAL DISPARITIES INUNEMPLOYMENT RATES
2X
Black workers face double the unemployment rate compared to White workers.
IMPACT OF COVID-19ON BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT
16.8%
Unemployment peaked at 16.8% for Black workers during the pandemic.
POLICY WINS
Through National Black Worker Center and its partners’ advocacy efforts, we have secured historic policy wins for Black workers across the country including:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s 2014 reinstatement of its longstanding practice, opening the door for employee representatives such as Black Worker Centers to accompany OSHA Compliance Officers during walkaround inspections to ensure they are conducted thoroughly and effectively.
The Federal Trade Commission’s April 2024 ruling to ban all non-compete agreements between employers and “workers” to protect the rights of workers to change jobs, bring new ideas, and start their own business.
POLICY WINS
Through National Black Worker Center and its partners’ advocacy efforts, we have secured historic policy wins for Black workers across the country including:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s 2014 reinstatement of its longstanding practice, opening the door for employee representatives such as Black Worker Centers to accompany OSHA Compliance Officers during walkaround inspections to ensure they are conducted thoroughly and effectively.
The Federal Trade Commission’s April 2024 ruling to ban all non-compete agreements between employers and “workers” to protect the rights of workers to change jobs, bring new ideas, and start their own business.
BLACK WORKERPOLICY COALITION
In October 2021, the National Black Worker Center launched the Black Worker Policy Coalition. The coalition includes the voice and genius of local Black Worker Centers and representatives of organizations centering Black workers and the issues that most impact us. This Black-led strategy coalition is dedicated to racial, gender, disability, and economic justice with the belief that we can advance toward our goals through organizing, power building, advocacy, and policy work done through deep intentional partnerships. We are committed to:
Addressing issues critical to Black workers
Supporting Black worker grassroots organizing and power building
Centering Black workers in policy spaces championing issues that impact us like infrastructure investments, job quality, pay equity, health, and workplace safety standards.
BLACK WORKERBILL OF RIGHTS
Poor job quality for Black workers is too often blamed on racist notions of personal responsibility, putting the burden on workers versus centuries-old history of systemic corporate power imbalances, policy decisions, and discrimination in education, employment, and labor law. Issues of job quality, health, safety, fair compensation, workplace organizing, and legal rights and protections are exceptionally layered for Black workers, whose success in the labor market depends on labor laws that center Black workers and anti-racist policies that redress years of labor exploitation and discrimination.
That is why the Black Worker Policy Coalition created The Black Worker Bill of Rights, which would impact more than 20 million Black people in the U.S. job force. Join us by signing our petition or becoming a member of our Facebook group.
BLACK WORKER BILL OF RIGHTS
- The Right to Organize
- The Right to Resources and Information to Address Barriers to Quality Employment
- The Right to Assert and Have Your Rights Enforced
- The Right to Equitable Wages, Equal Pay, and Compensation that is Owed
- The Right to Career Advancement Opportunities.
- The Right to Workplaces Free from Discrimination, Harassment, and Other Harm
- The Right to Health, Healing, and Rest.
- The Right to Privacy and Freedom from Surveillance, Monitoring, Automated Management, and Control
- The Right to Dignity in Seeking, Securing, Maintaining, and Retiring from Employment
- The Right to Participate in Democracy
PARTNERS
PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS AND SUPPORTERSOF THE BLACK WORKER BILL OF RIGHTS
Liberation in a Generation
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Coalition of Black Trade Unionist
Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor & the Working Poor, Georgetown University
One Fair Wage
MediaJustice
Junqtion
Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Partners for Dignity & Rights
Jobs With Justice
National Legal Advocacy Network
CoFED (Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive)
National Employment Law Project
Organization for Black Struggle
North Carolina Justice Center
Empower The Movement Forward
The Center for Law and Social Policy
Legal Aid Justice Center
Detroit Community Wealth Fund
National Council of Jewish Women
UCLA Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity (CARE) at Work
Workplace Fairness
Economic Policy Institute
Blue Tin Production Worker Co-op
Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC)
Southerners on New Ground
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Peace Development Fund
VAYLA New Orleans
Women With a Vision, Inc
Reckoning Trade Project
United Steelworkers Local 170
Power Coalition for Equity and Justice
Worksafe
Pittsburgh Food Policy Council
Wage Equity Now Coalition
A Better Balance
Athena Coalition
Equity and Transformation (EAT)
CWA Local 3204
The Betty Griffin L.U 1579 Chapter of the EWMC
A Phillip Randolph Institute Savannah Chapter
DC Jobs With Justice
Family Values at Work
PowerSwitch Action (formerly Partnership for Working Families)
Movement for Black Lives
Groundwork Collaborative
QLaw Foundation of Washington
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, INC
Michelle Burris – signing as individual. Fellow, Workforce Development and Racial Equity at the Century Foundation