FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

September 7, 2020 

Raise the Floor Alliance Receives National Grant for Just Cause Anti-Retaliation Legislation  

Chicago, IL — Raise the Floor Alliance is among nine recipients of a national grant by Clean Slate for Worker Power to advance labor law reform. The $47,200 award will help Raise the Floor Alliance to advance anti-retaliation legislation to implement state-wide just cause standards for terminating employees. 

Developed in partnership with the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the proposed legislation would allow workers to make complaints and pursue legal action against employers for wrongful discharge. Raise the Floor Alliance’s project is a grassroots effort in collaboration with Arise Chicago, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights, Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, Latino Union of Chicago, Warehouse Workers for Justice, and Workers Center for Racial Justice. 

The grants program is part of the visionary Clean Slate for Worker Power project, based at Harvard Law School. It generated two reports in the past year with recommendations for how to empower working people to build an equitable economy and democracy, particularly for women workers, workers of color, and low-wage workers.  Raise the Floor Alliance’s project will build on the Clean Slate recommendation to move from an at-will to a just-cause employment practice, which would protect employees from workplace retaliation and discrimination. 

“While our federal labor law has failed to fulfill its purpose to ensure workers have a voice on the job, there are exciting state and local activities that are advancing worker power and organizing. Clean Slate is looking forward to supporting and partnering with groups experimenting with innovative strategies.  These groups can serve as models for the kind of  federal labor law reform that Clean Slate envisions,” said Sharon Block, co-director of Clean Slate for Worker Power and executive director of Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.   

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