Workshift will engage American workers across the country to highlight their stories, collectively identify what makes a good job in America, and create a pathway to good jobs for all
NEW YORK—In recent months, politicians and business leaders have openly asked, “What is a good job in America?” The Workshift campaign, which launched today, aims to provide a platform for American workers to answer this very question through a series of on- and off-line events in August leading up to a mass online engagement on Labor Day. In answering this question, Workshift will build upon core values of a good job—flexibility, stability, opportunity, and pride—to set a new standard against which all jobs should be measured.
Beginning on Friday, August 14 in New York City, workers, employers, policy-makers and everyday Americans from cities across the country will add their voices to the ongoing debate around what it means to have a good job in America. The Workshift campaign will then travel to Des Moines, Iowa, and Miami, Florida over the next several weeks to continue the public conversation about good jobs.
In each city throughout August, interactive art installations will be placed in prominent public spaces to encourage Americans to visualize and articulate how their jobs work for them, and to add their perspectives in defining the phrase “good job.” The art installations will ask participants to fill the good jobs gap—the growing divide between jobs that are working for the American people and those that aren’t—by choosing which value is most important to them in a good job and placing balls labeled with these values into a Plexiglas box. This public demonstration will give American workers a forum to display hopes for their jobs and their futures—and to claim a more prominent place into the national conversation about the availability of good jobs.
“There are too many jobs out there that do not provide the flexibility, stability, and opportunity you need to support your family and grow as a person,” said Roy Castro, father, business owner, and resident of the Bronx, New York. “For too long workers and employers have ignored each other in defining what it is means to have a good job. Workshift will change the conversation so more American workers, whose livelihoods rely on good jobs, have a greater say in shaping their future.”
“Workers should have a larger say in what makes a good job, since we know firsthand what is needed to feel proud of what you do for a living and lead a happy life,” said Ashley Bermudez, mother, non-profit worker, and resident of the Bronx, New York. “Workshift gives us a platform to let our voices be heard so that our children and our communities will have the opportunity to get a good job both now and in the future.”
“Businesses have the power to create good jobs for workers today and in the future, but we have been missing a definition of what makes a good job in America that’s driven by working Americans themselves,” said Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation. “A good job in America should be beneficial for businesses and employees alike, and Workshift is creating an opportunity to start the conversation that will make this goal a reality.”
Workshift is organized by Purpose and supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, whose work seeks to advance inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity, especially for those facing the greatest barriers to advancing their well-being.
About Workshift
Workshift: Good Jobs for All is a national campaign that seeks to change the way Americans think and talk about good jobs in the United States. To build a more equitable, inclusive economy, Workshift seeks to create a space for workers, communities, employers, and policymakers to join together in a conversation about what it means to create good jobs for all. Workshift aims to set a new standard for what makes a job a good job: a job that is grounded in the personal experiences and basic needs of the modern American worker and a standard that’s built on the shared values that make America work. Workshift wants to shape the future of work so that it works for all Americans. Together Workshift will create a renewed vision for American jobs that serves workers, businesses, and communities and build a stronger American future with more good jobs for all.
For more information contact: Lauren Amaio, lamaio@globalstrategygroup.com, (212) 235-6219