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.

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

UPS Teamsters preparing to strike

The Teamsters’ Proposed Agreement With UPS Is a Great Victory by and for the Workers: How can we move from clawing back losses into actually changing the terms of the game in workers’ favor?

In an era of growing acceptance of racist demagogues—if not outright creeping fascism—strategy for working-class institutions has to give equal weight to strategic political education as it does to winning material gains. The two go together. The material wins in this UPS contract will be life-changing for many workers—a tremendous achievement, and nothing to diminish. Read More

Obrien speaks with Sanders in Massachusetts

Contract Talks by Teamsters and the UAW Have the Potential to Change Our Politics: Upcoming union negotiations can swing the 2024 election—and help rebuild democracy.

Unions once played a central role in the political education of the working class. The Teamsters, who announced a 97 percent yes-to-strike vote by members on June 16, and the UAW have a chance to build on the brilliance of the teachers’ unions in Chicago and Los Angeles and educate everyday Americans on how to fight back and win what we need at work—and in our democracy. Read More

Supreme Court justices

How Should Workers Respond to the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Glacier Northwest?: The court's ruling could have been much worse—and soon will be. Workers and unions need to be prepared.

Today’s US Supreme Court ruling in the Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters case was a blow to workers—but not quite the knockout punch hoped for by the Chamber of Commerce. Despite the court’s 8-1 decision favoring the employer, the justices made a relatively narrow ruling, rather than a broad one weakening the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) even further. Read More

WGA picket line

These Unions Are on the Front Lines Fighting Against the Uberization of Us All: Some long established unions are challenging Silicon Valley’s agenda by pushing back on AI, surveillance, and wage theft.

In the past year and a half, start-up unionization efforts such as those at Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s, and Apple have been satisfying to witness for those of us hungry for social justice in the United States. We have their backs, and we’ll continue to root for them. But the workers with the best chance of actually slowing the spread of oppressive technology (which aims to supplant humans with artificial intelligence and tries to maximize productivity by surveilling workers and controlling their time down to a fraction of a second) and stopping the Uberization of the workforce (which replaces full-time workers with contractors, turning good jobs into underpaid gigs with no benefits) are in unions that are already established. Read More