Black workers have seen it all! Last hired-First fired…Concrete ceilings…Doing more – paid less…
Join us as we discuss our experiences Working While Black; and gain insights on exercising your rights on the job, learning your rights, and organizing your workplace. We’ll dive into issues that impact the job market, define the gig economy and more.

Saturday, August 24th

location: Room 102-A


Dancing the Gig
10 am – 11 am

Led By: Aisha Satterwhite- Coworker.org

Aisha Satterwhite, founder and managing director of coworker.org, who helped organize the walkout at Google recently over its treatment of sexual harassment claims, leads this workshop about technology sector workers. Are they paid well? Some are. Benefits? Not so much. How about control over their workplaces? Not really. Learn what the pressing workplace issues are in this workforce, how those issues motivate tech workers to action, what the results are so far, and what tech workers are willing to do to win improvements, despite the risks.


I Am Not My Hair
11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Led By: Neneki Lee- Service Employees International Union (SEIU) & Sherri Davis-Faulkner- Rutgers University

Workplace discrimination based on hair style and hair texture is real. We will explore the role that hair has played in the lives of Black workers. We will also examine protections — including the California CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) — that Black workers are using to fight back against hair discrimination. Please join us for this empowering discussion.


Economy Though A Black Lens
2 pm – 3:30 pm

Co-led By: Janel Bailey- Co-director; LaTonya Harris, Co-director; Jeremiah Gordon- Community Organizer & Trina Traylor- Community Organizer, Los Angeles Black Worker Center

The jobs crisis…how does it affect me? If our economy is broken, how do we fix it? What do Cardi B and Karl Marx have in common? Discover the answers to these questions and more in this 101-crash course on the US economy.


Best Practices for Working Together: National Organizations, Black Worker Centers, Local Organizations and Black Workers
3:45 pm – 4:35 pm

Co-led By: Rebecca Dixon- Chief of Programs & Nzingha Hooker- Staff Attorney, National Employment Law Project

Find out about the National Employment Law Project’s approach to building and maintaining authentic collaborative relationship with our partners, the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights and New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. We’ll discuss ways to highlight the work of Black radical feminist leaders. Participants will have an opportunity to brainstorm solutions to challenges that arise when working with a national organization, and how to effectively leverage their power in these partnerships.

Sunday, August 25th

location: Room 102-A


Reversing Runaway Inequality
10 am – 11 am

Co-led By: Bianca Cunningham- Labor Notes & Lenora Knowles, Baltimore Black Worker Center

How can we help create a social movement to take on Wall Street’s economic and political dominance? This interactive workshop provides a crash course in how the expanding power of corporate America is behind the rapidly growing gap between the super-rich and ordinary workers.


Know Your Rights
11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Co-led By: Lenora Knowles- Coordinating Committee & Dorcas Gilmore- Executive Director, Baltimore Black Worker Center

The Baltimore Black Worker Center, which has developed expertise on educating Black workers about how to confront such workplace issues as job discrimination and wage theft, now share their expertise with participants in the Working While Black Expo. If you are a Black worker, it may be time to learn the best way to confront these workplace challenges.


Young, Gifted, Black + Unemployed
2 pm – 3:30 pm

Led By: Antwain Jordan- The Baltimore Algebra Project

What are the employment realities for Black youth in the Baltimore area? What are the opportunities? What are young Black workers actually experiencing? Antwain Jordan tells his story, and then turns the microphone over to participants to discuss the obstacles young black workers face, and strategies for pushing back and winning gainful, well-paid and meaningful employment, whether it be self-employment, starting a business or working for someone else.