Our History

In 2021, the unions affiliated with the Huron Valley Area Labor Federation recognized the need for a labor organization that would focus primarily on workers in our area who are not fortunate enough to have a union. Together with local community partners, they established the Huron Valley Worker Organizing and Research Center (HV-WORC) to support local workers and to help those workers help themselves and one another - strengthening labor power in Southeast Michigan. Since our formation, the Worker Center has supported workers across sectors: fighting against unfair labor conditions, providing resources to workers and supporting local efforts to organize workplaces, and advocating for changes that improve the lives of working people in our communities, hand-in-hand with local partners. 

Since 2021, we’ve supported workers in their efforts to unionize their workplaces - from food industry workers to research and development to higher ed workers. We’ve also supported existing unions in their negotiations with their bosses, helping them secure the protections they deserve. In addition to supporting organized workers and workers who want to form a union, however, the Worker Center brings together all kinds of workers in our membership and leadership: everyone deserves a place in the labor movement.  Together, we engage in advocacy, education, and mobilization.

At this moment of sustained attacks on working people across the country, we need urgently to come together to defend our rights and those of our neighbors. At the Worker Center, we want to do even more: not only to push back against attacks on working people, but also to organize and fight for something better - a world where everyone gets their fair share. Join us.