Investing in the Future: The Workers Lab Sows Seeds of Change

More voices beyond the usual suspects are linking our persistent income inequality with the need to raise real wages and restore bargaining power for workers. We’re seeing many new and creative responses to these challenges in an increasingly complex economy with outdated labor laws. There may be no better example than a startup called the Workers Lab, which the Department of Labor hosted as part of a series of policy briefings spotlighting new thinkers and doers who inform our work.

To date, these policy briefings have included provocative presentations on diverse topics. Harvard’s Cass Sunstein (former head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) discussed how behavioral economics can inform more effective public policy. MIT’s Zeynop Ton talked about forward-thinking employers who are investing in a “good jobs” strategies that boost their bottom lines. The Roosevelt Institute’s Dorian Warren lifted up labor-management partnerships that connect young people of color to construction careers. The Freelancers Union’s Sara Horowitz highlighted new organizing models to unite workers who otherwise go it alone.

And this past week we featured the Workers Lab, the first-ever Silicon Valley style incubator and self-styled “accelerator” supporting new models of worker voice. Co-founders David Rolf and Carmen Rojas asked themselves: Why can’t we take the dynamism and ingenuity fueling new products, services and institutions, and harness them to advance the interests of low-wage workers? Can we channel that creativity and rigorous experimentation to address the vexing problems facing millions of American workers?

Workers Lab brings together venture capitalists, philanthropists, trade unionists, community organizers and business leaders to support new ideas that meet three criteria: game-changing potential to improve the lives of low-wage workers; significant scale that impacts hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of workers; and a real plan to be self-sustaining or profitable.

The Silicon Valley start-up approach features a different lingo than you typically hear at forums on workers’ rights: “what is your business plan?” and “how will this quickly scale up?

Rolf is a long-time labor movement leader with incredible victories under his belt. He burns with urgency about declining workplace standards and the shrinking number of workers with any access to traditional collective bargaining. Rojas has spent years in the Bay Area building new coalitions to improve the lives of low-income people. Her strategic thinking and infectious optimism have attracted creative new talent to tackle this challenge.

Rolf and Rojas highlighted four projects, or “partners” they’ve selected for resources and technical assistance in 2015. The first, coworker.org, is attempting to build a digital network of workplace activists who are empowered, trained and supported in their efforts to win change. The second, the Better Builder Program, is leveraging the power of workers to partner with local governments and businesses to raise wages and safety standards on construction projects in Texas. WorkAmerica is working to link job-seeking students with employers. Finally, the CHOW Game is working to develop a gaming platform that will provide training for restaurant workers to advance into higher paying jobs in the industry.

What will come of these first four lab partners’ efforts? The proof will be in the results: How many people will they reach? What concrete improvements will they make in peoples’ lives? What new win-win collaboration further expands the “we” of who has a stake in the success of all workers? Can they demonstrate that investing in workers pays real dividends for the bottom line? If new models of worker voice are properly nurtured, will they yield sustainable improvements for working people? The Workers Lab is betting that they will. We are eager to learn from these promising new experiments.

Originally published April 30, 2015