[4] They grew out of a response to neoliberal policies that resulted in declining working conditions in manufacturing, factory closings and an increase in low wage service sector jobs.
Many worker centers are expanding not only in the city, but into the suburbs, rural regions, and southern states where there is a large concentration of Mexican and Central American immigrants working in the poultry, service, agriculture, and meat-packing sectors.
Worker centers are emerging among Korean, Filipino, South Asian and African immigrants, often with strong connections to faith-based organizations and unions.
[6] Worker centers are not governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and do not have to have a specific organizational model, strategy or structure.
Common features of worker centers include: a hybrid organization, providing necessary services, and engaging in advocacy; possess a broad agenda, approach the world with a global perspective, democracy-building, they build coalitions and have small and involved memberships.
This coverage allows great flexibility for worker centers to address everything from stolen wages and hourly pay to conditions such as high temperatures in warehouses or widespread sexual harassment in a workplace.
This includes helping workers combat wage theft through filings claims, collaborating with governmental agencies to assure enforcement of labor laws and wage theft claims, launching "direct action campaigns against specific employers and sometimes across particular industries, and engaging in leadership development and popular education.
[14] This is a great challenge in workplaces such as fast food jobs that suffer from high turnover, or in industries such as contracted cleaning companies, where even figuring out the number of employees and where they are located can be extremely difficult.
Nationally, there exist at least four networks that link worker centers together: In August 2006, NDLON announced a new partnership with the AFL–CIO: "The AFL–CIO and NDLON will work together for state and local enforcement of rights as well as the development of new protections in areas including wage and hour laws, health and safety regulations, immigrants' rights and employee misclassification.