2011 Annual Report: Making a Difference for America’s Workers

Letter from the Executive Director

Friends,

The year 2011 entered like a lion—and ended with the people roaring back. Even before the final inaugural confetti fell last January, the rout on workers’ rights had begun. Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere axed public employee collective bargaining. A number of states where joblessness remains high made deep cuts in unemployment insurance, and proposals surfaced to punish the unemployed for not finding work. Maine’s leaders rolled back the state’s pioneering child labor protections, and in Florida, Washington and Missouri, corporate lobbyists and their political allies tried to block the indexed minimum wage increases that voters had approved to prevent inflation from eroding the value of this core standard.

The overreach was palpable, the attacks too extreme—and by year’s end, workers across America had had enough. In Ohio, voters roundly repudiated the rollback of bargaining rights for public employees. Same-day voter registration was restored in Maine, through a people’s referendum that overruled the reactionary state legislature. Arizona voters recalled the legislator who had authored the state’s egregious anti-immigrant law. And occupiers of Wall Street and Main Streets across the country put the issue of rising income inequality front and center.

Through it all, NELP was in the fray, fighting against efforts to gut unemployment insurance and core labor standards, and fighting for good jobs, economic policies that prioritize working families, and stronger labor law enforcement. As you’ll see in the pages that follow, NELP’s work in 2011 made a positive difference for America’s workers across the full continuum of work-related issues—from job creation and job access to job quality and security between jobs. Among the highlights:

■ NELP helped cement economic security for millions of workers, leading efforts to maintain federal unemployment insurance, reauthorize Trade Adjustment Assistance, and amend state laws to preserve extended unemployment insurance in 33 states;

■ NELP built the capacity of workers’ allies to fight wage theft by publishing a comprehensive guide and conducting training sessions that reached hundreds of advocates, while continuing to successfully promote U.S. Labor Department enforcement reforms;

■ We partnered with groups on the ground to beat back attacks on minimum wage laws in numerous states, enforce voter-approved indexed increases, and launch new campaigns in several states;

■ We documented the loss of good jobs and lopsided growth of low-wage jobs, and issued a comprehensive blueprint of innovative strategies state and local governments can harness to accelerate economic recovery and grow good jobs; and

■ NELP shone a spotlight on discriminatory hiring practices that limit job opportunities for the unemployed and for people with criminal records, and promoted reforms in policy and practice to end these unfair and unlawful exclusions.

There were setbacks along the way as well, but 2011’s victories and achievements were powerful reminders that even when challenges are daunting, the best within us can—and must—transcend the worst around us. And they signified something else: a powerful reaffirmation of the fundamental role work plays in the lives of Americans, of the value we attach to it, and of the commitment most Americans feel to guaranteeing that work will be the cornerstone of economic opportunity and security.

All of us at NELP believe in the power of work to transform individuals, their families and their communities; to provide for today and prepare for tomorrow; and to build a strong economy that revolves around and rewards work and workers. We are grateful for the opportunities we have in our work to play a role in realizing the promise of work for others—and because we know our work is possible only with the generous support, financial and otherwise, of our many partners, allies, friends and donors, we are deeply grateful for that support.

As we look ahead, we know daunting challenges remain. But we are also excited and energized by the positive opportunities. Numerous states are taking up proposals to raise their minimum wage rates. Legislation to ban hiring discrimination against the unemployed is moving in several. And the electoral campaign provides many openings for inserting “work” and “workers” into the national discourse—and to give office seekers and office holders an opportunity to show whose side they’re on.

Excited by these opportunities and buoyed by the winds at our back, we are eager to continue this important work with you throughout 2012 and beyond.

Warmly,

Christine L. Owens
Executive Director