Introduction
The Workers Rights Hub contains a wide range of resources to support people engaged in organising, campaigning and narrative change for economic justice, labor rights and the future of work. This collection is developed in partnership with IRIS, the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling, as part of the Future of Work(ers) project.
Start here by exploring their collection. Fill in this form if you would like to submit a resource.
Resources
Gender
When Flight Attendants fought the Airline Industry and Won
Watch this Vox video on the “stewardess rebellion,” where flight attendants fought and overturned discriminatory, sexualised airline practices, transforming their profession and advancing women’s workplace rights.
Gig Economy
Gig Workers, Organising, Unions and Algorithms: A Curated Collection
This collection brings together key research, guides, case studies and analyses exploring how gig workers navigate digital platforms, work instability, unions and algorithms.
Exploring the Gig Economy: Challenges and Opportunities Toolkit
This toolkit is a practical resource to better understand the online gig economy, whether for personal learning or to support awareness-raising and training sessions. It is a learning guide with detailed explanations, real-life examples and insights into online gig work.
Podcast: A Rebel’s Guide to the Gig Economy
Need to understand more about the gig economy? Listen to Podcasts by The Gig Economy Project, a media network for gig workers in Europe.
Images, Narrative & Messaging
Narrative Change for Worker Rights: Directory of Messaging Guides
Want to change the story about work, workers’ rights, and economic justice? Here is a collection of research, guides and recommendations for framing, narrative and messaging to help you develop powerful messages & narratives.
How these Photos Ended Child Labor
Watch this video about how Lewis Hine’s photographs transformed public understanding of child labor in the United States and created change.
Migrant Workers
Labour Migration Process Mapping Guide
The Labour Migration Process Mapping Guide aims to help businesses identify, mitigate and address human and labour rights risks faced by migrant workers in global supply chains.
Changemaker Chat with Jolovan Wham: Migrant Domestic Workers in an Authoritarian State
Imagine trying to make change in an authoritarian state? Jolovan Wham works in Singapore with migrant domestic workers. Why does he do it and what does the state do to make his change making so hard?
Labor Toolkit on Anti-Asian Racism, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
“APALA created this toolkit as a guide to the labor movement for how we can build a workers’ movement that is truly inclusive of all workers and that fights to end anti-Asian racism with the same fervor as we fight for workers’ rights. In the sections included, unions, state federations, central labor councils, and rank and file members can find recommendations on substantive actions they can take, beyond statements and resolutions, to stop treating Asian American workers as invisible, disposable, and perpetual foreigners and commit to a vision of inclusion and justice for all workers.” – Source
Trade union-led Migrant Worker Resource Centres in ASEAN and Jordan: Case studies for protecting and organizing migrant workers, Internationa Labour Organization
“This paper features good approaches and innovations by trade union MRCs in five Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia and Thailand) as well as in Jordan. It highlights how the MRCs are useful and effective avenues in protecting the rights of migrant workers and eventually helping trade unions to organize them. The examples introduced in this paper can be replicated by trade unions that intend to launch campaigns to organize migrant workers.” – Source
Chicano! The Struggle in the Fields: Documentary about the Farm Workers Movement
This episode of Chicano! chronicles the efforts of farm workers to form a national labor union under the nonviolent leadership of César Chávez.
Organising & Campaigning
Secrets of a Successful Organizer Handouts, Labor Notes
Handouts from the book Secrets of a Successful Organizer. The handouts include checklists and exercises. They are also available in Spanish. You can also listen to the Labor Notes podcast.
- Lesson 1: Attitude Adjustment
- Lesson 2: One-on-One Conversations
- Lesson 3: Map Your Workplace and Its Leaders
- Lesson 4: Choosing an Issue
- Lesson 5: An Escalating Campaign
- Lesson 6: Expect the Unexpected
- Lesson 7: Always Be Organizing
- Lesson 8: Putting It All Together
See book excerpts:
Developing Strategic Campaigns: An ITF Manual for Trade Union Activists, Educators and Organisers
This manual will help workers to identify clear campaign goals and objectives, develop strategies and tactics, and create unifying public messages and timelines for campaigns.
How Decades of Fast Food Worker Organising Lead to “The Fight for 15”
Keith Kelleher tells the history of fastfood worker organising – complete with employer dirty tricks, ambitious organisers, and efforts to rapidly scale up. Low wage workers are now organising nationwide for a new minimum wage – The Fight for $15.
Jane McAlevey: Organizer Extraordinaire
A guide to Jane McAlevey’s work including key takeaways and a plethora of links to books, articles, videos, podcasts, workshops and more.
How to Organise Workers in a Call Centre
Young workers in a call centre in Sydney join a union and become confident to advocate for their rights and create better conditions as a result.
Organising! A Remedy for Despair: How Workers at the University of Melbourne won back $45 million in Stolen Wages
A case study on how casual workers at the University of Melbourne in Australia got organised and won back $45 million in Stolen Wages. Read about the campaign highlights and the lessons learned.
Learn how Toys R Us workers won a historic $20 million hardship fund from Wall Street
Learn how to build and grow online communities and develop an online-to-offline organizing model to move your people to action.
Baristas vs Billionaries (Documentary)
Starbucks baristas in Buffalo unite against corporate exploitation during the pandemic, sparking a generational uprising among working-class Millennials and Gen Z as they challenge a powerful billionaire CEO and fight for their rights.
Co-worker Resource Library
Coworker.org is a laboratory for workers to experiment with power-building strategies and win meaningful changes in the 21st century economy. They deploy digital tools, data, and strategies in service of helping people improve their work lives. Their library provides timely and accessible resources to help you address the issues you’re facing. The resources have been developed based on insights gained from working directly with affected employees, through surveys, interviews, and other research. It is updated monthly. The library has many useful resources such as campaign stories, workers voice resources and how-to guides, e.g.:
- So you want to stage a workplace walkout. Here are a few things to consider
- How to crowdsource employee data to promote salary transparency
- A simple guide to talking about workplace issues with your coworkers
- Think you may have missing wages? Here’s what you can do
Race
Learning about Racial Capitalism
What is racial capitalism and why does it matter? Watch and listen to these resources by Robin D.G. Kelly, a Professor of US history at the University of California.
Workers Center for Racial Justice WCRJ
WCRJ is a grassroots organization fighting for Black Liberation and for a fair and inclusive society that benefits all people. They organize Black workers and their families to address the root causes of high rates of unemployment, low-wage work and over-criminalization impacting Black communities. They have links to many useful resources such as Workers Resources.
Social Cooperatives
Social Cooperatives, Democracy Policy Network
How social cooperatives can ensure that the growing caring economy is co-created by caretakers and communities. This resource has useful precedents and videos.
Unions
The Fall (and Rise?) of Unions in the US
Documentary on the decline and resurgence of unions in the US, exploring why union membership fell and how new organising at Amazon and Starbucks signals a renewed labor movement.
Bargaining for the Common Good
Resources for union leaders, community organizations, and researchers on how you can join together and bargain for the common good. The Bargaining for the Common Good network grew out of successful campaigns driven by unions, community groups, and racial justice organizations.Groups across the country are partnering around a long-term vision for the structural changes they want to see in their communities and using union bargaining as a critical moment in a broader fight for the common good. The BCG network is convened by the Action Center on Race and the Economy, the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at Rutgers University, and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.
Chicano! The Struggle in the Fields: Documentary about the Farm Workers Movement
This episode of Chicano! chronicles the efforts of farm workers to form a national labor union under the nonviolent leadership of César Chávez.
Unions During the Great Depression in the United States
A powerful documentary of the Great Depression in the 1930s tracing how tenant farmers and steelworkers fought to unionise during the Great Depression.
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