How Open Bargaining—and Not Letting Management Set the Ground Rules—Led to a Union Victory: In 2017, Kentucky became the most recent “right-to-work” state in the US. Which makes the recent victory by the Amalgamated Transit Union all the more significant.

• April 19, 2023
• Posted in Class Struggle, Labor Movement, Mobilizing, Organizing, Strikes, The Nation, Unions

In this right-to-work state where only 7.9 percent of the workforce are covered by union contracts, the members of Local 1447 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) beat back racist divide-and-conquer proposals by management last November to win a great contract. But their victory relied on method—not luck. Read the complete article here >> Read More

Getting to Contract: Negotiating and Winning Against the Odds: Workers learn governing power through high-participation negotiations. That’s also how they can get employers to the table.

• March 6, 2023
• Posted in Class Struggle, Labor Movement, Mobilizing, Organizing, Strikes, The Nation, Unions

Whether a union is new and independent or long-established, the questions of how to negotiate, and how to get to the bargaining table, represent strategic choices. Workers can’t begin the process of realizing the concrete gains that will lead to a better life—from ending torturous scheduling to achieving real cost-of-living wage increases to obtaining the health care and retirement plans everyone deserves—until they secure a first union contract. Read More

Time to Turn Up the Pressure on the University of California Decision-Makers: There's one clear and urgent path to victory

• December 5, 2022
• Posted in Class Struggle, Labor Movement, Mobilizing, Organizing, Strikes, The Nation, Unions

As a member of Local 5810 of the United Auto Workers, I can’t think of a more momentous month in our union. The massive University of California system is as important to the country’s political economy as General Motors was at the UAW’s industrial peak. Read the complete article here >>                 Read More

Labor’s Winning Weapon: Two Canadian unions show why the supermajority strike is the key to worker power

• November 22, 2022
• Posted in Labor Movement, Mobilizing, Organizing, Strikes, The Nation, Unions

The bus drivers, station attendants, maintenance crews, cleaners, and transit safety workers walked off the job in a strike that lasted four days with 100 percent unity. Not a single worker crossed the picket lines. The timing couldn’t have been better—and it wasn’t an accident. How workers prepare one another for strikes is crucial to their strength and success—the ATU members ratified a great contract last Thurs. Read More

You Voted To Form a Union. Now What? (video): Jane McAlevey explains 3 core principles that can help workers win better contracts, faster.

• September 2, 2022
• Posted in Labor Movement, Strikes, The Nation, Unions, Video

You won your vote to start a union.. Now comes the hard part. Negotiations aren’t easy. A year after workers vote to unionize, more than half still don’t have a contract. After a year without a contract, management can push to legally dissolve a hard-won union. Reaching a good contract matters—so how do we get there? Read More