Opportunity in America - Events by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program

Democracy may be top of mind for many Americans this election season, but it’s easy to forget that the ideal of democracy has always been about more than filling out one ballot every couple of years. Democratic and participatory principles and practices can strengthen our public spaces, community organizations, social media platforms, and even our workplaces.  

Workers are closest to many of the problems and potential solutions most critical to an enterprise’s performance, holding essential knowledge about safety, productivity, and culture. Employers who fail to sufficiently listen or value their workers’ voices miss opportunities to innovate and improve productivity — and may suffer from workers’ decreased job satisfaction, productivity, and retention. We know workers want a seat at the table on issues from pay and benefits to safety, culture, and accountability, not only because they say so in surveys, but, increasingly, because they’re organizing to win it. Companies that genuinely seek to leverage workers’ insights often deploy tactics like surveys and town hall meetings that fall short of capturing representative input or turning feedback into action. But democratic mechanisms like shared ownership, board level co-determination, and labor-management partnerships can unlock benefits by enabling a truly collaborative, participatory work environment.

In this virtual event — hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on November 20, 2024 —  experts and practitioners share insights on how different democratic structures and strategies can create better workplaces and businesses. Panelists also share their own experiences and extrapolate learnings that may apply to others looking to build more vibrant, participatory work environments. Our speakers include:

For more information about this event, including a transcript, speaker bios, and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/workplace-democracy-sharing-power-and-decision-making-at-work/

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Or subscribe to the “Opportunity in America” podcast to listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

Announcements of a big employer moving to town, or a large infrastructure project, can often spark excitement. Local communities see the potential for big benefits, including new and better jobs and other investment in community needs. Too often, however, these benefits do not materialize. Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), binding agreements created between community groups and organizations like real estate developers or large employers, are a powerful alternative that ensure people have a real say in shaping the outcomes these new investments will create for their communities.

Jobs to Move America (JMA) is a national leader in leveraging CBAs to improve jobs and provide opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities and workers. CBAs have allowed JMA to build consensus between affected workers and employers on policies that would benefit the community — from reformed hiring practices to improved training and protecting workers from discrimination. 

In this webinar — which took place on October 23, 2024 — we hear from experts and practitioners about their experiences implementing CBAs and leveraging them to improve job quality in their communities. Our speakers include:

This event was co-hosted by JMA and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). It is part of EOP’s Job Quality in Practice webinar series, which examines the strategies and approaches practitioners are using to improve job quality and expand economic opportunity. 

For more information about this event, including a transcript, speaker bios, and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/community-benefits-agreements-a-tool-for-creating-good-jobs/

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Or subscribe to the “Opportunity in America” podcast to listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

Join us November 20 on Zoom for our next webinar, “Workplace Democracy: Sharing Power and Decision Making at Work.” Click here to RSVP: https://aspeninstitute.zoom.us/webinar/register/5817297828083/WN_XAV8eUIoS6W6OSjNrSojbQ

The passage of the 13th Amendment following the American Civil War abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, but it included a crucial exception: “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This exception allowed southern governments to institute an early version of prison labor called convict leasing. Black Americans arrested for minor offenses, once imprisoned, were effectively purchased from state and local governments by individuals and companies looking to continue using cheap labor. This allowed individuals and companies to keep slavery in action. Though the practice of convict leasing ended in the mid-20th century, its infamous traits can still be seen in today’s incarceration system. 

Today, the majority of incarcerated workers in the US, who are disproportionately Black and people of color, are often required to work or face retaliation such as solitary confinement, denial of opportunities to reduce their sentence, and loss of family visitation. They work jobs that might pay pennies on the hour, if they are paid at all, and are often not protected by labor laws. Many work in dangerous conditions. At the same time, some find deep purpose in their work behind bars, an opportunity to build skills, and support in making a successful transition to life after incarceration.

In this webinar — which took place on October 10, 2024 — we explore the history and conditions of work for incarcerated people and ideas for creating more humane and dignified work for those behind bars. Our speakers include:

For more information about this event, including a transcript, speaker bios, and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/a-hidden-workforce-prison-labor-human-rights-and-the-legacy-of-slavery/

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Or subscribe to the “Opportunity in America” podcast to listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

Join us October 23 on Zoom for our next webinar, “Community Benefits Agreements: A Tool for Creating Good Jobs,” hosted in partnership with Jobs to Move America. Click here to RSVP: https://aspeninstitute.zoom.us/webinar/register/8117286582590/WN_l4Lcw4p5Qji2hC7BgeuUOQ

Today’s politicized environment poses unique challenges for worker rights advocates. With Congress often divided, and many state and local governments as well, the path to improving worker rights through legislation is narrow. Nonetheless, we have seen some remarkable progress on worker rights over the last few years through executive action. Leveraging executive action, however, is not a straightforward and easily discernible path for grassroots activists and organizations interested in advancing worker rights and job quality. 

Workshop’s “Toolkit: An Organizer’s Guide to Executive Action” authored by Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell, demystifies and democratizes the policy-making process by sharing lessons learned during her time in federal government. Toolkit offers a blueprint for advocates inside and outside on how they can collaborate to build an economy that works for all and, in the process, rebuild a healthy democracy.

This webinar — which took place on September 4, 2024 — features a panel of experienced public servants and organizers, who dive into the lessons and stories from Toolkit and provide guidance to advocates and organizers striving to advance worker rights. Our speakers include:

For more information about this event, including a transcript, speaker bios, and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/seizing-the-moment-on-worker-rights-a-toolkit-for-organizers-and-practitioners/

To download “Toolkit: An Organizer’s Guide to Executive Action,” visit: https://www.workshop1933.org/toolkit

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Join us October 10 on Zoom for our next event, “A Hidden Workforce: Prison Labor, Human Rights, and the Legacy of Slavery.” Click here to RSVP: https://aspeninstitute.zoom.us/webinar/register/6517255601925/WN__24hSIjGQbizD5K_QINy2g

Workforce intermediaries are uniquely positioned to help workers and businesses achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Employers desire a workforce development approach that will address their most critical pain points, whereas workers seek opportunities to advance their economic security. In recent years, a wave of organizations has worked to take a “both-and” approach. These pioneers have recognized that job retention and recruitment are often linked to poor job quality, and that worker voice and input are critical to their ability to meet the demands of a dual-customer approach.

Members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) network are among those embracing this approach and leading on job quality and worker voice. The TPM Academy equips employers and their education and workforce development partners with strategies and tools to co-design talent supply chains that connect learners and workers to jobs and career advancement opportunities. And recently, the Foundation and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program developed a new curriculum focused on job quality to embed within the TPM Academy for businesses and business-facing organizations. The new course will be available this summer.

In this webinar, which took place on July 24, 2024, we hear from two members of the TPM network about how they have tapped into worker voice and worked with employers to drive job quality improvements. Our speakers include Michael Evans (Kalamazoo Literacy Council), Jaimie Francis (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation), Laurie Mays (Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Foundation), and moderator Matt Helmer (The Aspen Institute).

For more information, including speaker bios and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/tapping-into-worker-voice-to-improve-job-quality-lessons-from-the-talent-pipeline-management-network/

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Or subscribe to the “Opportunity in America” podcast to listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

Meat and poultry processing are core to our food supply chain. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes about 68 pounds of chicken, 48 pounds of pork, and 56 pounds of beef per year. Meanwhile, health and safety hazards are pervasive, and workers in these sectors face some of the harshest conditions in the US. They endure long hours on their feet, with few breaks, working with sharp tools at fast speeds. And they do so in cold, damp environments where exposure to various chemicals is common. Not surprisingly, severe injuries and even fatalities occur frequently. Adding insult to (literal) injury, many don’t receive the pay or benefits needed to be economically secure. These conditions affect some of our most vulnerable compatriots, including undocumented workers and even children who have been found to be working in these facilities. These challenges are not new — Upton Sinclair famously described them in “The Jungle” over 100 years ago — but they can be solved.

In this conversation — co-hosted by the Aspen Institute’s Food & Society Program and Economic Opportunities Program — panelists discuss the challenges workers face, ideas for improving their jobs and well-being, and the policies and practices to reshape this industry and build a sustainable system where workers, consumers, and businesses thrive together. Speakers include Shelly Anand (Sur Legal Collaborative), Debbie Berkowitz (Georgetown University), Kim Cordova (UFCW Local 7), Dr. Angela Stuesse (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and moderator Leah Douglas (Reuters).

This conversation took place on March 19, 2024. It is the second event in our series, “The Hands that Feed Us: Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Supply Chain,” in which we explore the challenges food workers face and opportunities to create a sustainable food system where workers, businesses, and consumers can thrive together.

For more information, including speaker bios and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/workers-on-the-line-improving-jobs-in-meat-and-poultry-processing/

For highlights from this discussion and others, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Or subscribe to the “Opportunity in America” podcast to listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

People in the US spend more than 10% of their disposable income on food each year. About a trillion dollars of this spending goes toward purchasing food to eat at home, much of it spent at grocery stores and supermarkets. Yet, very few people understand or know about how food makes it to this last step of the food supply chain and ends up on the shelves of their local store. 

In this book talk, Benjamin Lorr, author of “The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket,” traces the history and evolution of the modern-day supermarket, exposes the grocery supply chain, and reveals the often exploited and underpaid labor that goes into making sure shelves are stocked. Speaking with Food & Society Director Corby Kummer, Lorr paints a vivid picture of how agricultural and meat processing workers, fisherman, truck drivers, and grocery store workers, among others, often endure poverty and sometimes worse as they work to feed our country. Maureen Conway, vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Economic Opportunities Program, provides opening remarks.

This conversation took place on June 21, 2024. It is the third and final event in our series, “The Hands that Feed Us: Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Supply Chain,” in which we explore the challenges food workers face and opportunities to create a sustainable food system where workers, businesses, and consumers can thrive together.

For more information, including speaker bios and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/the-workers-behind-our-groceries-a-book-talk-with-benjamin-lorr/

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AspenEOP

Or subscribe to the “Opportunity in America” podcast to listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

For almost twenty years, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program has convened local and national academies that bring together senior leaders from across the workforce ecosystem to learn together about increasing economic opportunity for all.

In this conversation facilitated by EOP Senior Fellow Dee Wallace, we hear from Clair Minson, the founder and principal consultant at Sandra Grace LLC, co-director of Workforce Matters, and a 2015 alumna of the Weinberg Sector Skills Academy in Baltimore.

The interview delves into the critical intersections of workforce development and racial equity. Minson shares insights on systemic change, racial equity, and the evolution of leadership within the workforce development field. Through candid reflections, Minson offers a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities for advancing equity in the workforce.

Visit our website for key lessons and takeaways from this discussion: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/workforce-leadership-profile-advancing-equity-through-workforce-development-with-clair-minson/

Or subscribe to our YouTube channel and watch the whole discussion there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95bPOtrNyRo

The myth that hard work pays off in the US, and always leads to a better and more economically prosperous life, has come unraveled in recent years. Many jobs simply do not pay enough for workers to meet their basic needs, much less do things such as save for retirement, fund their kids’ education, or allow for leisure.

In her first book, “The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy,” Natalie Foster asks us to imagine a new economic framework that casts aside the failures of the trickle-down approach to embrace one that builds economic security and well-being from the bottom up. Foster — co-founder of the Economic Security Project, a leading voice for guaranteed income, and senior fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative — explores a bold vision in which housing, health care, higher education, dignified work, family care, and an opportunity to build generational wealth are guaranteed for all by our government. Through real-life experiences, collaborations with prominent activists and thinkers, compelling narratives, and analysis, Foster forces us to dream big and ask tough questions about why we provide so many government-backed guarantees and supports to the private sector, but very little to the people. 

In this book talk — hosted May 15, 2024, by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program — Foster discusses what a New Deal could look like for the 21st Century. Dr. Manuel Pastor, distinguished professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, provides opening remarks. Maureen Conway, vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Economic Opportunities Program, moderates the discussion.

For more information about this event, including speaker bios and additional resources, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/the-guarantee-inside-the-fight-for-americas-next-economy/

To order “The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy,” visit: https://nataliefoster.me/the-guarantee/

For more clips and content from the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aspeneop/

Or tune in to our podcast and listen on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop/ 

And join us at an upcoming event!

In this clip, Gwyneth Galbraith, vice president for global small business philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase, offers closing remarks for the 2024 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum.

The Forum is hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. Our 2024 Forum, “Employee Ownership on the Ground,” brought innovative employee share ownership initiatives and speakers from around the country to Washington DC to highlight how this bipartisan approach to improving jobs, wealth creation, and business performance is helping create more equitable economies in states, cities, and rural communities.

For clips and highlights from the Forum, subscribe to the Economic Opportunities Program on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aspeneop/

And tune in to our podcast to listen to full discussions on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

For more from the Forum — including videos, photos, audio, transcripts, and additional resources — visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/employee-ownership-ideas-forum-2024/