Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Labor’s New Kids on the Block: Can Immigrant Worker Centers and Unions Collaborate to Improve Low-Wage Work?

Millions of U.S. workers face stagnant or declining wages, unsafe workplaces, and a lack of paid sick leave or other benefits. In the past, labor unions served as the primary advocate for workers’ interests, and helped build a large American middle-class. With the decline of unions, new organizations, including immigrant worker centers, have emerged to improve worker outcomes. Worker centers are community-based, community-led organizations which advocate for, organize, and provide services for low-wage workers, primarily immigrants and people of color. The over 200 worker centers across the U.S. have had significant impacts on policy at the state and local level, particularly on issues related to wage theft, health and safety, and paid sick leave. For example, worker centers have passed a Domestic Workers’ Bills of Rights in New York State, worked with unions to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts, and improved the enforcement of health and safety laws in the Texas construction industry.

Although scholars have argued that the labor movement would be stronger if unions and worker centers worked together, there is insufficient research about collaboration between immigrant worker centers and labor unions. Which organizational characteristics affect their potential to collaborate? What have the outcomes been when worker centers and unions have collaborated on labor policy? In an evolving world of work, characterized by high levels of inequality and a more diverse workforce, this question has significant public policy implications.

This mixed-methods study analyzes collaboration between a bureaucratic, established organizational form and a flatter, emergent form by examining the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative (IWCC), a coalition of worker centers in metropolitan Boston, as well as 8 labor unions in the same area. The research questions are examined through several forms of data. Semi-structured interviews (n=26) were conducted with worker center and union staff, as well as community stakeholders, in greater Boston. In addition, a survey was administered to worker center and union respondents (n=29) in English and Spanish. Lastly, document review and observation generated further data.

The paper concludes by discussing the research’s policy implications. The study’s findings will have implications especially for policymakers in regions with large immigrant populations. In particular, the findings will affect state and local revenues, health and safety outcomes, and the overall economic well-being of immigrant workers and their families. As inequality and immigration issues continue to loom large in the public discourse, the study’s findings will provide legislators, practitioners, and non-profit funders with more robust evidence regarding new actors sharping employment policy for the most vulnerable immigrant workers.

Keywords: Labor, Employment, Immigration, Wages.