What is a worker center?

Worker centers are organizations committed to organizing workers around workplace issues.   These centers are particularly important in the low-wage portion of the private service sector, where highly fragmented, decentralized employment structures, employer resistance to union organizing efforts, and 1930s era labor laws not designed for labor markets with these characteristics, result in a workforce in which less than 5% of workers belong to unions.  

Worker centers have emerged as a way to meet the needs of workers in these industries.  In demanding respect for workers, fighting for their rights and trying to advance their economic interests, worker centers are becoming an important, supplementary component of the labor movement in this country.

How is a worker center different from a labor union?

Despite the similarities in fundamental goals just noted, there are a number of important differences.  

First, after a government-supervised certification vote – IF they can win the support of a majority of those who are eligible to vote and actually vote -- unions are legally granted the exclusive right to bargain collectively on behalf of all workers in a particular workplace (i.e., a “bargaining unit” that is also defined by the government, if the union and employer cannot agree on its boundaries).  

The membership of worker centers, who those centers choose to fight for, and which employers they choose to take on – none of these things is subject to government regulation.   Worker centers may challenge employers to alter their behavior whether or not they represent a majority of the employees in a particular workplace.  But they do so without any government sanction, and without any claim to exclusive representation.     

Second, and related, while employers have a legal duty to bargain “in good faith” with a duly certified union, they are under no such obligation with respect to worker center demands.   

Third, unions’ central goal in their negotiations with employers is usually to secure a collective agreement or contract.  Workers centers do not seek or obtain collective agreements of this sort, though they do seek concessions and/or changes in behavior from employers and these are sometimes set out in a legal settlement.  

The absence of a collective agreement makes worker centers weaker than unions in some important ways.  In particular, they do not have automatic dues check-off from all those in the union (or the bargaining unit, depending on the content of the collective agreement).  This means that workers’ centers typically have much less financial autonomy than unions, and must rely on outside sources of revenue (e.g., foundations) where unions do not.
 
Fourth, because workers’ centers are different from unions in the three basic ways noted above, they are not subject to the restrictions on forms of collective action – secondary strikes and boycotts, in particular – to which unions have been subject since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.  This means that worker centers have greater tactical and strategic freedom than unions, and that solidaristic forms of collective action that proved very effective for unions until Taft-Hartley outlawed them, are available to worker center.  

The greater tactical and strategic flexibility of worker centers, relative to unions, partially offsets their relative financial weakness. The upshot is that each type of labor movement organization has strengths and weaknesses in the current context, and the labor movement would be greatly strengthened if they cooperated to realize the full symbiotic potential of these differences. 

How many worker centers exist?

The worker center movement is a fast growing phenomenon. In 1992, only five worker centers existed. By 2006, over 150 workers centers had been created!  The number is surely much higher today, though we possess no precise account.  A good guess would be about 200.

What does WCWC stand for?

WCWC stands for Washtenaw County Worker Center.

How do I become a WCWC volunteer?

Send us an email through our Contact page telling us who you are and how you want to get involved.