Project Overview
Coworker.org is a non-profit platform that advocates for freelancers, independent contractors, and others in today’s gig-based workforce. Across America, according to the Freelancers Union, jobs are increasingly becoming independent, contingent, and short-term, with half the national workforce expected to fill nontraditional roles by 2020. Yet the old systems to support workers don’t fit the new economy: traditional worker advocacy models rely on time-intensive and procedure-heavy unions, worker centers, or legislative campaigns, while the agencies protecting labor standards, wages, and worker rights are underfunded or outmoded. Seeking a new way to advance worker well-being, Coworker.org’s Co-founders Michelle Miller and Jess Kutch set out to harness online tools that could connect far-flung workers in advocacy campaigns—15,000 Starbucks baristas from 17 countries ending a ban on visible tattoos; thousands of Uber drivers successfully seeking to add customer tipping to the company’s app—allowing them to collectively negotiate and improve their employment conditions. In addition, by aggregating and analyzing data gathered through its work, Coworker.org can leverage that knowledge to help employees become more informed advocates, support workers in similar industries, and create flourishing networks of collaboration and innovation. Ultimately, the organization aspires to create a “new kind of civic space” where employees come together as agents of a democratic workplace.
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