The Vermont Workers Center is a left-of-center pro-labor union advocacy group affiliated with Jobs With Justice, a national coalition of workers centers, labor unions, and advocacy groups that operates a variety of state chapters and other organizations. Vermont Workers’ Center has operated a variety of campaigns promoting left-of-center policies including founding the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign in 2008.

The group is funded by a variety of unions and left-of-center grantmaking foundations including the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and Grassroots Global Justice. ^{1 2 3}

Background

The Vermont Workers Center was founded in 1998 as Central Vermonters for a Livable Wage. The group is associated with the left-of-center national organizing group Jobs with Justice, having first affiliated with the group in 2001. The Vermont Workers’ Center is described by the Center for Popular Democracy as essentially Jobs With Justice’s Vermont state chapter. ⁴

Early activities of the center included establishing the Vermont Workers’ Rights Hotline, which fielded calls to help organize unions and protests. The group also led local campaigns affiliated with the Fight for $15 campaign, protested free trade policies, and opposed U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. ⁵

Activity

The Vermont Workers’ Center lobbies for left-of-center policies with a particular focus on health care. In 2020, the group’s president Avery Book wrote an op-ed calling on the state to immediately expand Medicaid to all individuals including illegal immigrants and for a government takeover of hospitals, stating that the state should “keep our hospitals open by establishing a new public authority that assumes ownership and direction of all 14 hospitals, operating them in the public good.” She also called for the government to “cancel the All-Payer ACO Model Agreement and decommission OneCare Vermont, transferring its assets, along with the responsibility of managing payment reform, to the state.” ⁶

Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign

In 2008, the Vermont Workers’ Center established the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign in Vermont, releasing a report titled “Voices of the Vermont Healthcare Crisis” and led a protest at the Vermont Statehouse to advocate for a statewide taxpayer-funded health-care program. The group’s campaign was viewed by other left-of-center organizations as a model for universal health care campaigns in other states. In 2012 the Vermont Workers’ Center executive director, James Haslam, stated that the annual budget had grown from $154,500 in 2008 to $638,700 in 2012 since launching the campaign. ^{7 8}

Funding and Affiliations

The Vermont Workers Center is officially affiliated with Jobs with Justice and similar advocacy organizations and labor unions. It is additionally funded by a variety of left-of-center groups. Funders of the organization include the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, the American Federation of Teachers, Jobs with Justice, Grassroots Global Justice, Physicians for a National Health Program, Bread and Roses Community Fund, Haymarket Peoples Fund, the Ben Cohen Charitable Trust, the Harris and Frances Block Foundation, and the Communication Workers of America. ⁹

Other organizations affiliated with the group include Health Care Now, Labor for Single Payer, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, the Center for Popular Democracy, and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. ¹⁰

1. “Full Text Search: Vermont Workers Center.” ProPublica. Query Conducted October 4, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?q=%22Vermont+Workers%27+Center%22
2. “Vermont Workers’ Center at the Fore of Health Care Advocacy.” Center for Popular Democracy. January 12, 2014. Accessed October 4, 2023. https://www.populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/vermont-workers-center-fore-health-care-advocacy
3. “About.” Vermont Workers Center. Accessed October 5, 2023. https://workerscenter.org/about/
4. “Vermont Workers’ Center at the Fore of Health Care Advocacy.” Center for Popular Democracy. January 12, 2014. Accessed October 4, 2023. https://www.populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/vermont-workers-center-fore-health-care-advocacy
5. “About.” Vermont Workers Center. Accessed October 5, 2023. https://workerscenter.org/about/
6. “Avery Book: What COVID-19 teaches us about Vermont’s health care reform effort.” Bennington Banner. April 22, 2020. Accessed October 4, 2023.  https://www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/columnists/avery-book-what-covid-19-teaches-us-about-vermonts-health-care-reform-effort/article_16abf21e-8c78-5b07-ae37-5d6b29b8ae5b.html
7. “Vermont Workers’ Center at the Fore of Health Care Advocacy.” Center for Popular Democracy. January 12, 2014. Accessed October 4, 2023. https://www.populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/vermont-workers-center-fore-health-care-advocacy
8. “About.” Vermont Workers Center. Accessed October 5, 2023. https://workerscenter.org/about/
9. “Full Text Search: Vermont Workers Center.” ProPublica. Query Conducted October 4, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?q=%22Vermont+Workers%27+Center%22
10. “Vermont Workers’ Center at the Fore of Health Care Advocacy.” Center for Popular Democracy. January 12, 2014. Accessed October 4, 2023. https://www.populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/vermont-workers-center-fore-health-care-advocacy