Economic freedom Agenda
The Economic Freedom Agenda is our strategy for breaking the link between punishment and poverty by raising standards in the temp industry and expanding access to stable, union jobs for workers with records.
It draws inspiration from the Freedom Budget, introduced in 1966 by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. The Freedom Budget recognized that civil rights and economic justice are inseparable, and that true freedom requires access to decent work, material security, and collective power.
Today, we carry that vision forward under new conditions shaped by mass incarceration and a fractured labor market.
The problem
Mass incarceration has reshaped the U.S. economy. More than 114 million people now live with a criminal record, facing barriers to work, stability, and dignity long after their sentence ends.
The common story is that people with records can’t find jobs. The truth is more troubling: people with records are hired into the lowest-wage and most dangerous jobs precisely because they have records. Probation, parole, fines, and fees leave people with little choice but to accept any work. Refusing a job, missing a payment, or losing work can send someone back to jail.
At the same time, stable, unionized jobs have been replaced by fissured, contingent work—short-term jobs with low wages, few benefits, and little power. The rise of the temp industry sits at the center of this shift, funneling workers with records into disposable jobs, undercutting union standards, and locking people into permanent instability.
Under these conditions, freedom is impossible.
The solution
The Economic Freedom Agenda is both a moral response to economic exclusion and a strategic intervention in the labor market. It targets the economic choke points that trap workers with records in cycles of exploitation.
Our Objectives
Raise Standards in the Temp Industry. Workers with records are disproportionately concentrated in temp jobs. Raising standards in this industry is essential to stopping the race to the bottom and protecting all workers.
Expand Access to Union Jobs. Union jobs offer stability, fair wages, benefits, and collective power. Expanding real pathways into unionized work for people with records strengthens unions and lifts standards across entire industries.
These objectives reinforce each other. Raising standards in the temp industry prevents agencies from undercutting union employers with cheaper, disposable labor. Expanding union pathways prevents workers with records from being pushed back into temp work. Together, they break a self-perpetuating cycle of exploitation.
how we organize
The Economic Freedom Agenda shapes everything we do, from our campaigns and labor partnerships to staffing cooperatives and publications.
Campaigns – Corporate and policy campaigns that raise standards and shift power
Labor Alignment – Deep partnerships with unions to open real pathways into stable jobs
Staffing Staffing Co-ops – Worker-led alternatives to exploitative temp labor models-ops
Publications – Research and storytelling that expose how the system works and how to change it