NFG Working Group On Labor And Community Partnerships And GCIR Site Visit To Chicagoland - Winning What Matters: Worker Rights And Workforce Development In The Midwest
Winning What Matters: Worker Rights and Workforce Development in the Midwest
October 22nd – 23rd |Chicago
Please join the NFG Working Group on Labor and Community Partnerships and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees for a site visit to Chicagoland.
Across the country, millions of people have found that what were once good jobs with benefits and career ladders have become precarious:
· they work for low wages, sometime less than the minimums set by Illinois and the federal government
· they work for years in the same job, for the same company, in the same place, but remain “temps”
· they have their wages stolen, are injured (or worse) on the job, and left without recourse
· they lack flexible leave to take care of themselves or their children
· they are subject to racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and immigration raids.
But Illinois is now leading the way – and winning! – in its efforts to put working families back on pathways out of poverty and into improved wellbeing. Save the dates of October 22nd – 23rd, where we’ll learn about:
· cutting-edge policy and system reforms to raise the floor for low-wage workers
· innovations in workforce development that discover hidden career ladders and help new workforce entrants navigate a challenging labor market – including emerging economic models such as worker cooperatives
· powerful multi-racial and multi-cultural alliances
· deep connections between emerging working organizations and established unions.
*Updated 6-6-11* Recent reports around worker rights and treatment can be found below:
· A new report released by the National Employment Law Project, Chain of Greed: How Wal-Mart’s Domestic Outsourcing Produces Everyday Low Wages and Poor Working Conditions for Warehouse Workers, presents the latest evidence that Wal-Mart, facing increasing scrutiny from federal lawsuits and government investigations, bears direct ties to and control over the subcontractors and third-party employers that handle much of the company’s domestically outsourced work.
· The Food Chain Workers Alliance also released a new report detailing workplace abuse up and down the entire food chain-- including warehouses. That report, The Hands that Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain is now available.
· The Warehouse Workers for Justice produced a report of their own, Bad Jobs in Goods Movement, that details conditions in Chicago warehouses.
Join a diverse group of local and national funders as we explore what’s happening in Chicago and its implications for the rest of the nation.
This program is for funders only.
