Reimagining the Business-Labor Playbook for the 21st Century

59m · Opportunity in America - Events by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program · 11 Dec 22:28

Hear from a new wave of business leaders who understand the need to reimagine their relationship with organized workers and from the leader of the biggest federation of unions, who is ready to innovate and work together with business to achieve shared prosperity.

American workers are reevaluating their working conditions and rallying for change, driving a surge in worker organizing that affects businesses across sectors and regions. While many business leaders are unprepared for and resistant to unionization and other forms of worker empowerment, the case for fostering a positive relationship with organized workers is stronger than ever. At a time of historically high public approval of unions and newly emergent public expectations about the nature of work and the responsibilities of corporations, informed by the cataclysm of the pandemic and ongoing inflation, new voices in business are starting to call for an approach where businesses and workers collaborate to achieve shared prosperity.

The Aspen Business Roundtable on Organized Labor cultivates and organizes these new voices. It provides a space for business leaders to come together to learn, share, and advance strategies in which workers have a meaningful seat at the table when it comes to the terms and conditions of their work.

This December 2023 event, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and MIT Sloan’s Institute for Work and Employment Research, is our first public conversation about how business and labor leaders are reframing the narrative about organized labor and worker power, how mutually beneficial labor-management relationships are forged, and how a more constructive labor and business dynamic can support a stronger economy and democracy.

Our speakers include AFL-CIO President Elizabeth Shuler, Roy Bahat (Bloomberg Beta), Jamie Barton (AT&T Services, Inc.), Tom Kochan (MIT Sloan School of Management), Rajesh Nayak (US Department of Labor), Matt Patsky (Trillium), Alyson van Hardenberg (Honeycomb), and moderator Joe Weisenthal (Bloomberg).

For more information about this event — including video, audio, transcript, speaker bios, and additional resources — visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/reimagining-the-business-labor-playbook-for-the-21st-century/

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