Since 2024, what is now the Workers International Narrative Network (WINN) has been exploring the advantages of a networked approach to generating increased narrative and storytelling capacity in the labor rights movements internationally. WINN is supported by the Ford Foundation.
IRIS nurtures and strengthens a narrative shift and storytelling ecosystem within labor movements by aligning narrative expertise, impact strategies and worker-centered storytelling to build the conditions for positive change toward a more equitable and just world. The effort has prioritized connecting global majority and global north perspectives.
This was envisioned as a robust, integrated network of labor leaders, narrative practitioners, civically engaged storytellers and journalists, and other relevant stakeholders. The resulting narrative interventions amplify the work being done to advance worker priorities.
In the medium term, IRIS ensures that the Workers International Narrative Network is collaborative, action oriented, informed by and centered in Global South perspectives and operates in service of labor leaders, creative storytellers and adjacent stakeholders.
In June 2025, IRIS participated in the Gig Workers United Summit (GWUS), which was held alongside the 113th International Labor Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland. As a space for solidarity, strategy and collective visioning, the GWUS marked a historic gathering of grassroots platform workers and labor rights organizers confronting the rise of platformization in the global economy.
Following the GWUS, the participants formed the Global Platform Workers Solidarity Project (GPWSP), a growing community of grassroots platform workers and their allies. GPWSP uses its collective power to shape platform work that respects workers’ rights and dignity, influence investors and capital, and collaboratively develop worker-centered alternatives.
The GPSWP participated in the 114th ILC in June 2026 where the first international labor standard specifically focused on the rights and protections of platform workers, where Convention No. 193, Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, was adopted.
Convenings, Research & Knowledge | Global Platform Workers Solidarity Project
Content & Campaigns | Mississippi Worker’s Center for Human Rights & Narrative Initiative
IRIS supported Narrative Initiative’s partner Mississippi Worker’s Center for Human Rights to develop a production timeline for the first season of Dark Work: Devalued and Unprotected, a podcast series focused on worker stories in the state of Mississippi. The ultimate objective of this podcast is to bring to life and celebrate the lived experiences of Black workers in the Mississippi Delta and other parts of the state. The episodes will be released throughout 2026.
The foundational element of the project is the establishment and maintenance of a networked community of labor rights organizations, with narrative and storytelling at its core. Activities are grounded in evidence and learning that bring together people to support coordination and growth and facilitate the creation of work that advances worker priorities and seeks to understand the impact of technology on the worker experience.
Building A Narrative Network
The people who know the issues best are the ones who face the reality of this global labor market on a daily basis. Through WINN, IRIS partners with labor rights organizations and artists, engaging with them to uplift worker narratives through innovative efforts in content creation. The project has supported the development and distribution of a portfolio of content to amplify worker experiences and priorities. Through video, radio, poetry, blogging and other platforms, these projects bring to life the unique issues, concerns and hopes of workers.
Amplifying Worker Experiences
WINN ensures increased and improved access to critical narrative and storytelling resources by establishing a Workers Rights Collection in the Commons Library, an online library for change makers and those interested in social change, activism, advocacy and justice. The project has also made improvements to the user experience within the Narrative Directory, an international resource to support those using storytelling and narrative strategies to drive progressive change. Taken together, these interventions result in a strengthened knowledge base for labor and narrative practitioners.
Improving Access to Narrative Resources