Alexander Hertel-Fernandez

Across the country, workers are organizing with their co-workers and engaging in collective action to gain improvements in their jobs and workplaces. What can we learn from these recent organizing efforts? How do they fit in the broader history of worker organizing in the United States? And how can the Department of Labor support worker organizing to advance our mission of improving working conditions for all workers?  

At the U.S. Department of Labor, we’ve been taking a whole-of-department approach to advancing equity for underserved communities since President Biden issued the executive order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities on his first day in office.

A new collaborative network will help us better measure, analyze and report on job quality.  

Learn more on why a national paid family and medical leave program is needed.

See how the U.S. Department of Labor is using data to improve our work and make sure we’re serving all America’s workers equitably.

New grants are available to help states collaborate with community and worker organizations to improve their unemployment insurance systems, ensuring all workers have access to these critical benefits.

A new grant will help to leverage academic research, training and partnerships to improve unemployment insurance-- just one of the many ways we’re using research and data in support of equity in unemployment insurance

Though apprenticeships have a proven track record of producing strong results for both employers and workers, we still have a long way to go toward advancing equity in apprenticeship participation.

When we dug into our procurement data as part of our equity analysis, the results were encouraging, but also identified some areas where there is room for improvement.

A new data challenge will help ensure our programs and resources are equally accessible to all Americans.