This piece provides a summary and highlights from “Job Quality in the Fields: Improving Farm Work in the US,” an Opportunity in America event that highlighted the challenges of agricultural workers and ideas for improving their working conditions.

This report examines findings from phase two of the Gig Worker Learning Project, an effort of The Workers Lab and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. The purpose of this effort is to understand more about gig work and workers directly from gig workers themselves – motivations to do gig work; challenges being faced; and solutions that would impact gig workers personally, their families, and their work. The first phase of the Gig Worker Learning Project produced an analysis of existing research and recommendations. The phase two findings presented in this latest report emerged from participatory research which included more than a dozen focus groups and several participatory analysis sessions led by an incredibly diverse set of workers. It marks the beginning of The Workers Lab’s plan to help build greater advocacy for gig workers nationally.

In this event, 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. 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.

In this event, panelists discuss the challenges that poultry and meatpacking 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.

In this event, leaders from both business and organized labor discuss how they can innovate and work together to achieve shared prosperity. The conversation offers a glimpse of how business leaders have begun to reimagine their relationship with organized labor, including a fireside chat with AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.

In this event, panelists discuss the latest research on the experiences of workers grappling with schedule instability, how new technology is helping businesses adopt worker-friendly scheduling practices, what we are learning from states and cities with fair workweek laws, and other opportunities and strategies for change.

This piece provides a summary and highlights from “Good Work in the Gig Economy: Building a Sustainable App-based Economy,” an Opportunity in America event EOP hosted in 2023.

This piece is an introduction to job quality in the US food supply chain, with a focus on poultry and meat processing, and on farm labor. The piece also highlights the prevalence of child labor in these industries and the elevated risk for many immigrant workers in the food supply chain.

In this event, Rick Wartzman, author of “Still Broke: Walmart’s Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism,” considers the experience and history of Walmart moving toward a more conscious capitalism and the recent efforts the company has made to provide higher wages and better benefits and opportunities for its employees. Wartzman raises important questions about how much an individual company can do on its own to improve the quality of jobs and people’s ability to earn a living through their work; the degree to which business imperatives encourage companies to improve jobs and when those incentives conflict with that goal; and whether public sector action, through either labor market regulation or the provision of social supports, needs to be strengthened to ensure that work in today’s economy is contributing to an inclusive economy in which all can thrive.

In this event, Saket Soni, author of “The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America,” discusses the story of a group of immigrant workers who experienced significant abuses in the US. Soni deals with these weighty questions by telling a gripping tale — a story of love, dreams, betrayal, greed, courage, redemption, and hope. Ultimately, it’s a story about learning to see across our society’s divides of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and geography to find our common humanity.