David
Madland

Senior Fellow; Senior Adviser, American Worker Project

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David Madland

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David Madland is a senior fellow and the senior adviser to the American Worker Project at American Progress. He has been called “one of the nation’s wisest” labor scholars by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. His work “is creating a North Star for how we increase workers’ power in the economy and democracy,” according to Mary Kay Henry, former president of the Service Employees International Union.

Madland is the author of Re-Union: How Bold Labor Reforms Can Repair, Revitalize, and Reunite the United States (Cornell University Press, 2021), which helped put sectoral bargaining on the political agenda, and Hollowed Out: Why the Economy Doesn’t Work without a Strong Middle Class (University of California Press, 2015), a pioneering critique of trickle-down economics that has helped policymakers understand that the economy grows from the middle out and the bottom up, not from the top down.

He is frequently featured on television and radio programs, including appearances on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and NPR. His work has been cited in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. He has testified before Congress as well as several state legislatures.

Madland received his doctorate in government from Georgetown University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His research about the decline of the U.S. pension system received the “Best Dissertation Award” from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Madland previously worked on economic policy for Rep. George Miller (D-CA).

To view the work of the American Worker Project, click here.

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Communities That Lost Manufacturing Jobs Are Main Beneficiaries of Biden Administration’s New Industrial Policy Article
U.S. President Joe Biden thanks the crowd following a speech.

Communities That Lost Manufacturing Jobs Are Main Beneficiaries of Biden Administration’s New Industrial Policy

New analysis finds that private investments from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act are being announced in the communities that have been hit hardest by disinvestment in American manufacturing.

Construction of Tennessee EV Battery Facility Highlights Promises and Challenges of Biden Administration Policies Report
Electric vehicle charging station

Construction of Tennessee EV Battery Facility Highlights Promises and Challenges of Biden Administration Policies

Tennessee’s BlueOval City electric vehicle battery facility shows how public investments can lead to good union jobs, but anecdotal evidence suggests that workers are not connecting these jobs to important economic policies.

David Madland, Kyle Ross

Lessons From New Zealand’s New Sectoral Bargaining Law Report
Photo shows a man walking across a partially constructed wooden structure.

Lessons From New Zealand’s New Sectoral Bargaining Law

Unions and policymakers in New Zealand are seeking a solution to address stagnant wages, rising economic inequality, and low productivity after the failures of worksite-only bargaining—and the United States can learn from their efforts.

David Madland

Worker Rights Are Getting a Major Shake Up In the News

Worker Rights Are Getting a Major Shake Up

David Madland discusses California's FAST Recovery Act, which gives the state's fast-food workers a seat at the negotiating table to help set industrywide standards.

Route Fifty

David Madland

For Unionized Amazon Workers, Lessons From Italy May Hold Key to Success In the News

For Unionized Amazon Workers, Lessons From Italy May Hold Key to Success

David Madland outlines several lessons learned from the historic nationwide contracts that Amazon workers in Italy signed in 2021 and suggests a path forward for unionized workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse, who must now try to sign a collective bargaining agreement.

InsideSources

David Madland

Lessons From Italian Unions’ Historic Agreement With Amazon Article

Lessons From Italian Unions’ Historic Agreement With Amazon

Facilitated by worker activism, supportive policy, and a sectoral bargaining system, unions in Italy signed a collective bargaining agreement with Amazon, offering optimism for U.S. workers seeking to negotiate with the company.

CAP Action

David Madland

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