Care work impacts every single person in all stages of our lives. Whether it’s child care, health care, elder care, care for persons with disabilities, or sick and paid leave, care is essential to our irresistible futures. The care economy is also rapidly growing, but it is historically gendered, racialized, and increasingly at risk of consolidated corporate control. Corporate-run care prioritizes shareholder profits over the well-being of care workers and those receiving care, and leverages corporate lobbying power to undermine our organizing and maximize profits. In fact, many of the workers providing care for our loved ones are overworked, underpaid, and unable to provide care for their own families. But state legislators and caregivers across the country are challenging corporate power and building economies that value care not as a product, but as a public good. From paid family medical leave, to public retirement and child care, to workers rights, this workshop centers the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of state leaders across the country challenging corporate power and building care economies that create good jobs, advance equity, and empower people.
