#6] Now or Never: Heeding the Call of Labor Market Demand — STEVEN L. DAWSON

For 45 years I’ve worked to create better jobs for low-income workers. I have supported African-American enterprises in rural Virginia and North Carolina, worker buy-outs of threatened factories in New England, and large-scale service cooperatives in the inner cities of the South Bronx and Philadelphia.

Download the full paper (PDF)

5 responses:

  1. Clara Miller
    Director & President
    F.B. Heron Foundation

    A truly superb paper and required reading for anyone in the field. Going up on Heron’s website next week, and we will be using it as a lens to look at how we invest to incentivize employers to maintain good jobs. Thank you Pinkerton Foundation and Steven Dawson for this extremely important and helpful series.

  2. Molly Hemstreet
    Founder and General Manager
    Opportunity Threads

    Thank you again, Steve, for another compelling piece that can move the work forward and (as Rebecca says in the above comment) help us bridge the differences in organizational territory about who can and should be leading workforce development work. One sentence really stands out for me in the piece: “Instead, the call here is for a new breed of lead intermediaries, one that would dramatically redefine the type of operational services the workforce community can deliver to employers — personified by a new blend of staff leadership and expertise.” I see the employer angle and certainly agree. Also, the chart is very compelling, especially given the fact that employers can see the good they are doing and set a higher standard for themselves. I am intrigued by how this “new breed” of organization can also potentially raise collective worker voice as well (especially in the absence of traditional organized labor), and if you see the ability of the same organization to authentically build employer strength and worker collective voice at the same time.

  3. Harneen Chernow
    Regional Director
    1199SEIU Training & Employment Funds

    Thank you Steve for your work in putting this series together. I agree that the role of workforce development intermediaries needs to change to start addressing the issue of job quality. Even if/when that happens, we will still need additional levers to push for greater job quality. I hope that workforce organizations can also partner with community and labor organizations who have been pursuing job quality strategies from a different venue.

  4. Angie Kamath
    University Dean of Continuing Education and Workforce Development
    City University of New York

    I am inspired. Thank you for writing this final paper and articulating our collective call to action. I have thoroughly enjoyed and learned something new from each of your papers. What good luck that the community of workforce leaders has been able to benefit in this way from your experiences and big thinking.

  5. Rebecca Bauen
    Program Director
    Democracy at Work Institute

    Steven Dawson not only has the clout of 45 years working for quality jobs, that has led me to listen to him. But now, with this paper, he provides a clear and compelling vision that breaks us free of workforce or business silos. Here he gives clear on-the-ground examples of ways to move forward in creating quality jobs and responsible businesses. Thank you Steven!