Abstract
In 2019 the Global Commission on the Future of Work outlined the centrality of institutions of work and workers’ organizations to a reinvigorated social contract. Workers’ organizations have a crucial role to play in realizing social justice and safeguarding democracy. For the most part they are increasingly seen as an irritation by those in power, even in historically democratic countries. The freedom to organize and to form and join trade unions, and indeed democracy itself, is increasingly under threat. To meet this challenge, workers organizations must strengthen themselves to promote workers’ rights, reinvigorate democracy and contribute to a new social contract, However, it cannot be business as usual. This article presents twelve recommendations for a way forward.