Working America

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In Brief:

The community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, founded in 2003 in an effort to claim the hearts and votes of white working class people without a union on the job. It has offices in 11 states, combining a strong political field program with year-round campaigns based on advancing a progressive economic agenda such as Medicaid expansion, voting rights, minimum wage and paid sick days, corporate accountability, and governance that works for all.

Together, and in solidarity with working people across the country, Working America fights for our common interests—good jobs, affordable health care, education, retirement security, corporate accountability and real democracy. Working America wants to ensure our kids have a quality education, our grandparents don’t have to decide between paying for their monthly medication or paying for food and that we will have a secure retirement when our working days have ended.

Since 2003, Working America has been organizing in neighborhoods across the country. Working America communicates with our friends and neighbors to learn their needs and priorities and get them engaged on the issues that matter most. And the organization provides tools, research, information and assistance that can help make working people’s lives better.

As part of Working America, working people get a chance to be heard in the political debate and make positive changes in their communities. The organization has helped increase the minimum wage in Ohio, save thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania and Colorado, protect workers’ rights in Minnesota and get more health insurance coverage for kids in Oregon. Across the country, Working America takes the lead on the issues that matter to the 99%. It unites working people on commonsense issues of economic justice—and makes sure they win.

The organization is active in several issue areas affecting millions of Americans, including:

  • Healthcare: America’s families need to have access to affordable, quality health care, regardless of income level, pre-existing conditions or employment status.
  • Good Jobs: As Pam, a Working America member from Cincinnati puts it, “You can’t put money into the economy if you don’t have a job.”
  • Retirement Security: There are three key ingredients to security in retirement: personal savings, pensions through your job and Social Security. We need to make sure everyone has a chance at all three.
  • Quality Education: America’s kids should be able to get a quality education. It’s not just the right thing to do for children—it’s absolutely essential to a strong economy in years to come.
  • Unemployment: Unemployment insurance matters to workers and to the national economy.
  • Workplace Rights: All workers deserve fair treatment and respect in the workplace.

As Americans who care that everyone has a voice, Working America knows that a united voice is 3 million times stronger than standing alone. Working America knows that by standing together with working people, we challenge the corporate agenda across the nation and make things better.

The Resistance

Working America unites working people who do not have a union on the job around economic and social justice issues. With over 3 million members, Working America relies on sustained, face-to-face outreach, cutting-edge analytics, and continuing digital engagement to organize on issues such as health care, minimum wage, paid sick leave, the opioid crisis, and mass incarceration. It innovates on local solutions from the ground up, and use issues as an on-ramp to voter persuasion and measurable, sustained civic engagement and elections impact. Working America engages working people who otherwise have no entry point in the progressive movement, as well as working class communities of color in urban areas.