“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

In May, we were proud to release the culmination of extensive research collected over the last two years aimed at understanding how to create a more worker-centered future. This report, a collective product of ReWork the Bay, Jobs With Justice SFand Working Partnerships USA synthesizes insights and perspectives from worker organizations, workforce development and philanthropy leaders, and offers action-oriented recommendations. We invite you to explorePower is at the Root: How Funders and Workforce Leaders Can Center Workers in the “Future of Work”.

Last week we brought together leaders and workers to discuss the report and reflect on how it ties to their efforts. During the program, Tim Rainey, Executive Director of the California Workforce Development Board, reminded us of a saying he heard from his grandfather: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Now is the time to invite workers to the table to have a greater say in the decisions that impact them and their families.

• Center workers as decision-makers
• Forge a racially just future as essential to building worker power
• Build collective power
• Focus on the changes most affecting people’s lives (Hint: it’s not automation)
• Shape technology to serve people

“The future of work is not a question of technology,” said Kung Feng, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice San Francisco. “It needs to be a visionary question, a question of what we think is a good future: a future where work meets our societal needs for public health, caring for children or climate resilience, where all people can achieve their full potential and agency at work and where the value of work is shared by all.”

I encourage you to check out the report and thePower is at the Root webinar, and let us know what you think. Below, you’ll find links to articles that offer additional examples of the challenges we face and the innovative solutions workers are leading. I’d love to hear from you as we continue to reshape the Bay Area workforce to benefit us all.

• The Gig Economy’s Business Model Is a Racial Justice Issue by Edward Ongweso, Jr
• The future of elder care is here – and it’s artificial intelligence by Zoe Corbyn
• Special Delivery: Our New Report Shows How Local Delivery Services are Superior to the Big Apps by Susan Holmberg and Kennedy Smith

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