As a community organizer, President Obama learned the importance of bringing people together to talk about their experiences and their hopes for the future, and how to build plans to make positive change. He saw firsthand the power of people working together to make important, incremental changes to move the world as it is into the world as it should be.
In that spirit, President Obama hosted the first-ever Summit on Worker Voice last year, bringing together a diverse group of workers, employers, unions, organizers, advocates, academics, and business leaders to explore ways working Americans can experience the benefits of economic growth and make their voices heard for higher wages, safer working conditions, paid leave, and other improvements in the workplace.
But the President made clear that the work wasn't finished that day:
"This is the beginning of a conversation that I want to push for the next 15 months, through the end of my presidency… you own this thing. The deal is that I will work with you around the ideas that you identify. And we’ll work together. And hopefully this will be the start of reversing some trends -- both economic and cultural -- that have been around way too long."
It's been 12 months since the President called us to action, and since then we’ve all owned a piece of the effort to reverse those trends.
Organizations have released new tools and tried out new innovative models of expanding worker voice, leaders across the country have taken part in regional summits by elevating their stories, and workers nationwide have advocated for changes that make their workplace more equal, fair, and just.
For example, since the Summit, Caring Across Generations launched a coalition with Care.com and New America to focus on promoting the social and economic value of caregiving and lifting up new resources like the Care Index which indexes states by the cost, quality, and availability of care. Centro de Tabajadores Unidos en Lucha, a worker center in Minneapolis, won a union for about 600 janitors by pioneering a sector-wide strategy and convincing employers to take the plunge together. And the Department of Labor launched a soft beta prototype of www.worker.gov, an online tool to help workers understand their rights under federal worker protection statutes -- a tool developed directly in response to feedback at the Summit that resources were too inaccessible.
The Administration has continued to build on its success -- after requiring contractors to notify employees of their collective action rights, granting collective bargaining rights for TSA employees, and finalizing a rule requiring federal contractors to issue paid sick leave for their employees.
But while we have made some important changes to the workplace, there is much work ahead. Change starts at the individual level; in conversations over social media, at the workplace, in meetings, and in town halls. It's our responsibility as a nation of workers and managers, leaders and community members to ensure we are all doing our part.
One year after the first-ever White House Summit on Worker Voice, we commend everyone for doing their part, we thank you for your partnership, and we encourage everyone to keep on working to enhance the voice of every worker.
Sincerely,
Cecilia
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