Teaching Human Resource Management Students About Worker Centers

Abstract

Worker Centers – nonprofit organizations which provide services to and advocate for workers – have grown dramatically in recent years.  They largely exist outside of the scope of labor laws, yet many critics charge that they are, in effect, surrogate unions.  This paper describes three different class assignments to teach Human Resource Management and Labor & Employment Relations students about the complex challenges Worker Centers pose to efficient business management and the challenges that modern business practices (e.g., classifying workers as independent contractors) pose to workers.