“Their Health and Their Pockets”: Strategic Decision-Making Processes of Worker Centers in the Public Health Arena

This presentation seeks to 1) understand how and why multi-ethnic worker centers in New York City (NYC) organize workers around the issues of health and healthcare; and 2) examine the strategic decision-making processes of multi-ethnic worker centers in the public health arena. This qualitative case study explores two worker centers in NYC – the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA). A comparative analysis reveals that organizational context, industry characteristics, and organizational goals affect the way in which each worker center develops and carries out its health campaigns. NYTWA portrays drivers as victims of lack of access to healthcare, casting owners, garages, and brokers as responsible parties. By engaging in this type of framing NYTWA is setting the stage to achieve their long-term goal to create a union for taxi drivers. ROC-NY frames the issue of health in the restaurant industry as one of both public concern and relevant to restaurant workers, at once holding restaurant owners responsible for the negative conditions they create. This type of framing allows ROC to distinguish between “high road” and “low-road” employers and promote the idea of model practices for the restaurant industry. NYTWA and ROC-NY foster and employ two similar but unique identities that shape their strategic decision-making. By developing “working class” leaders, NYTWA is building ownership of their long-term goal to establish a union. By organizing “immigrant leaders”, ROC is developing expertise among their members in order to implement immigrant-led models for the restaurant industry.