Writing
Organizers with substantial, direct experience in the field have an entirely different focus than authors who have not been involved in campaigns: we focus on how the work gets done (methods), and how to win.

UAW strike picket line

What’s at Stake in the UAW Strike: With so much riding on the outcome, it’s time for labor and its supporters—from the White House to the grass roots—to play for keeps.

For the current strike to move us forward, workers need to lay the foundation for more power: more control over technology in the workplace, and better terms for building a broader base of power among newly organized workers. The billionaires and their Republicans will try their best to set the terms of this fight in their favor, as they have with their Supreme Court and their Electoral College. Read More

Jennifer Abruzzo - ©Getty Images

The NLRB’s Recent Decisions Are Good News for Workers: But while both are worth celebrating, there are still no shortcuts to the hard organizing work needed to win life-changing contracts.

It’s important to take the right lessons from this dynamic moment: The hard work of building durable worker power and organization can’t ease up just because it seems like, officially, it should be getting easier. The hard work of building durable worker power and organization can’t ease up just because it seems like, officially, it should be getting easier. Read More

ATU victory

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.

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

Nurses celebrating their hard won contract

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.

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

UC workers on strike

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

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