You’ve made it to the largest gathering of the troublemaking wing of the labor movement! Share your enthusiasm with other newcomers, and learn about how to make the most of the 2026 Labor Notes Conference.
The workplace throws us together regardless of culture, race, gender, and language. We may have little in common besides the need to earn a livelihood. But working shoulder to shoulder, we generate a union culture. Hear how Amazon workers have gone about building a union culture in the early days.
If you’d like to plan better picket lines or rallies, this workshop is for you! We’ll talk about how to create songs and chants that capture current issues, but also dig into the practical: developing an event plan that manages logistics for success.
It's unfortunately common for employers to violate worker and union rights. But an unfair labor practice can be a gift in disguise, providing a defense against the employer's most dangerous weapons. A union that plays its cards right can use ULPs to help win contract campaigns and strikes. Learn how.
Power inside our workplaces is critical to labor’s future. Management frequently restructures work, introduces new technologies, and promotes ideologies that undermine our collective voice and power. If your management has introduced new technologies or restructuring programs (e.g. lean, 5S, Six Sigma), downsizing, understaffing, speed-up, or “continuous improvement,” come learn a strategy developed by labor educator Charley Richardson. Though Charley died in 2013, his work continues to build worker solidarity and union power.
What's the secret of winning a strong contract? Hint: You won't find it at the negotiations table! Learn how to organize a successful contract campaign and harness the power of the rank-and-file membership to win the strongest possible contract. We'll cover building a Contract Action Team, putting together an escalating campaign, and dynamics between the leadership and the membership. Note: We recommend participants familiarize themselves with Secrets of a Successful Organizer first, if possible.
Rideshare drivers and food delivery workers are organizing to secure their employee rights against Uber, Lyft, Doordash, and Instacart. Hear how workers across the globe are battling not only their employers, but also a fundamental attack on what it means to be a worker.
Chances are good that you’ve had your heart broken at least once by one of your own leaders. Whether you tried to get involved and there was nowhere to go, or the members got sold out, or leaders want to keep the union as their exclusive club, it can feel pretty harsh. We’ll talk about how to organize with your fellow union members to recommit to your union, and to change the culture into one where leaders respect and serve the members.
Bullying, conflict, and divisions weaken us. The more united our worksites are, the easier it is to solve problems. In this interactive workshop we'll talk about how discrimination shows up in our workplaces and our unions, and how we can find opportunities to increase respect among co-workers, build unity, and respond collecively to workplace problems.
This session will open with a brief song by: Elise Bryant, Joe Whitesell, and Elizabeth Rosenberg, DC Labor Chorus
What is sexual harassment? How can you create a safe and welcoming work and union environment? Find answers and learn how to engage in active bystander intervention when you witness sexual harassment. Through role-playing exercises, gain hands-on experience using realistic scenarios for the building trades work environment that can be adapted to any workplace.
Worker cooperatives promote the values of dignity, democratic control, educational and financial growth, and concern for the social health of the community. Interest in this model has been growing since the 2008 financial crisis, when community credit unions and the New England Cooperative Fund remained solvent and healthy even as more traditional banks and financial institutions went bankrupt. Learn the process to create worker cooperatives in any community or industry.
Does your union training look like an audience listening quietly to a speech? Would you rather get people laughing, sharing their own experiences, and strategizing together? "Popular education" is an approach that starts from what people already know about their lives, workplaces, and power. We'll try some participatory exercises and talk about how to adapt them to your issues and situations, whether it's a workshop at your delegate convention or a meeting in the breakroom.
This session will open with a short song by: Erin Murphy and Susan Rogers, DC Labor Chorus.
What is inflation, why is it important, and what can we do about it? As union members we have little control over prices, but we do have the power to bargain for pay that keeps up with the cost of living. We’ll cover the basics of inflation, including how it’s calculated and what we mean by good and bad inflation. The session will also equip organizers with strategies to win strong wage clauses that stay strong even as costs rise.
(Part of the Railroad Workers United convention, but open to all.) Hear how rail workers in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. are fighting for public ownership and worker control of critical rail infrastructure. In North America, railroading is dominated by corporate "Precision Scheduled Railroading,” stock buybacks, and mega-mergers, while in Britain rail service has been devastated by privatization and franchising, and the fight is on for re-nationalization. How can we build a national rail system that works for workers, passengers, shippers, and trackside communities?
Companies like Palantir, Amazon, and Google have long used Palestine as a testing ground for surveillance tech. Now these militarized technologies are being exported globally—including to the United States to enable anti-immigrant violence. Hear how workers are taking on these tech giants, from nurses defending their co-workers and patients from ICE terror, to painters and tech workers calling for divestment.
So you want to tax the rich in your state? Hear about successful campaigns in Massachusetts and Washington and campaigns-in-progress elsewhere. What does it take to win? What obstacles will you encounter?
Do you find fundraising intimidating? Are you scared of asking supporters for money? Don't be! Fundraising is a fun superpower, and also a necessary skill for scaling up reform organizing, running for union office, and many other organizing endeavors. Learn what it takes and how to do it well.
Are you beating your head against the wall trying to get other workers involved? This workshop is for you. Hear success stories from those who’ve turned their workplaces around and turned apathy into action. Learn practical organizing tools for engaging your co-workers, taking action, and getting results. Based on the popular book Secrets of a Successful Organizer.
One-on-one conversations are essential for bringing people into a campaign, but then what? General meetings are rarely an engaging place to bring new recruits. Instead, one-on-ones can lead to small group discussions at the worksite, building a culture of debate and decision-making that leads to sustainable commitment. Learn how it's done.
Learn the secret to holding union meetings with high attendance and high participation. In this interactive workshop, we’ll hear what has worked at different workplaces, such as parking lot meetings, 10-minute meetings, contract clinics, and monthly union meetings, member to member. Every participant will get to have a one-to-one talk about creating their own union meetings in the workplace.
Cuando construimos poder en el lugar de trabajo, le estamos arrebatando poder a quienes ya lo tienen; por eso, ¡no nos debe sorprender que tiendan a contraatacar! Aprenda a inocular a sus compañeros de trabajo, es decir, a prepararlos para posibles represalias y a ayudarlos a interpretar la lucha contra el jefe a medida que esta avanza. Esta capacitación es pertinente para cualquier persona que esté formando un sindicato, pero también para quienes estén intensificando el nivel de actividad dentro de un sindicato ya existente.
When management is breaking the rules left and right, quietly filing a grievance won't cut it. Fighting grievances isn’t only about how well you argue your case. It’s also about organizing members to build pressure on management. This workshop for stewards and union reps will focus on how to win creatively without going to arbitration. We'll hear from health care workers who took collective action, fought back against discipline and an unfair firing, and won.
Learn how to move from short-term defensive fights to a plan that can win bigger demands. Good long-term strategy requires first getting clear on our destination: what is the world we are trying to win? We'll discuss power—how to assess what power union members have and what power the bosses and their allies have—and seven strategies worker organizations can use to build power over the long term.
Worsening conditions in medicine are inspiring militancy in health care unions around the country. Learn from recent examples of powerful strikes and their lessons learned about strike-worthy demands, inoculating co-workers, escalation in the contract campaign and during the walkout, and how crucial democracy and transparency are.
Group singing has always been a key ingredient to sustain labor and civil rights struggles in the U.S., because it lifts our spirits, reminds us of our values, and helps us find the unity and energy to stick it out one day longer. What makes a good song for a rally or march, and how can you get people singing along? Learn the basics of song-leading, plus some powerful "Singing Resistance" anthems from Minnesota and other easy-to-learn songs you can adapt to any fight.
Pressure to speed up and micromanage your work may come disguised as a new technology to make your job easier or more "efficient." But efficient for whom? Learn how you and your co-workers can decode the boss's plans, recognize the danger signs, and resist.
This workshop is designed to take participants (new or experienced in bargaining) through each stage of the process. We'll cover best practices for preparing your team and drafting proposals, tactics at the table and pacing during bargaining, ratification once you reach a tentative agreement, and implementation. You'll leave with notes, ideas, and a useful packet of materials.
When the boss cries poor, do we take them at their word? Hear how people have gotten creative, helped their co-workers overcome hopelessness, and won better deals, in the public and private sectors.
Unions can be powerful champions for the whole working class. Hear how some are fighting for creative contract demands to tackle the crises of student debt, incarceration, and housing, and even demanding a four-day work week.
This workshop will begin with a short song by Jayanni Webster, CWA Local 3866.
What's the secret of winning a strong contract? Hint: You won't find it at the negotiations table! Learn how to organize a successful contract campaign and harness the power of the rank-and-file membership to win the strongest possible contract. We'll cover building a Contract Action Team, putting together an escalating campaign, and dynamics between the leadership and the membership. Note: We recommend participants familiarize themselves with Secrets of a Successful Organizer first, if possible.
Hong Kong unions and civil society were crushed in 2020, driving countless activists into jail or exile. A coup-from-above by the president of South Korea in 2024 was defeated by general strikes and months of mobilization from below. Japan's right-wing president broke with decades of demilitarized diplomacy. Learn about these profound challenges—not dissimilar to those we face in the U.S.—and how union-led responses are challenging authoritarianism.
Bosses break the law all the time, especially when workers are not yet unionized. They get away with it because workers don't know the law. Learn the basics about employers' unfair labor practices and how to use the National Labor Relations Board as part of your campaign, plus how to tell the difference between a grievance and an unfair labor practice and when to do what.
Many of the country's biggest industries—from finance to tech to retail—remain almost entirely non-union. Hear from workers on the front lines of organizing unions and fighting for first contracts at Starbucks, Google, and Wells Fargo.
Hear Amazon workers from different groups across North America and Europe describe how they’re organizing at the corporate giant—running elections, building independent unions, organizing with established unions, taking direct actions on the job, and striking.
How does racism show up in our workplaces and our unions? What are some strategies to confront it and build solidarity for a stronger, multiracial labor movement? And what can you say to union siblings who aren’t convinced racial justice has anything to do with union politics?
Learn about the tricky web of health care profits and money-making schemes, clearly explained in a way you can break down for your fellow members. But it's not all doom and gloom: you'll also hear how health care unions are fighting for well-funded workplaces and better patient care.
Learn from the winning campaign in Massachusetts! Get practical advice and Q&A on building a coalition, developing legislation or a ballot proposal, raising money, building a grassroots campaign, making sure the tax money collected gets spent the right way, and defending a victory against billionaire blowback.
Union members are often encouraged to run for office—whether as independents, third-party candidates, or progressive, pro-labor Democrats. But making the transition from labor activism to electoral politics is not easy in a two-party system dominated by big money, where few working-class people hold public office. We’ll address the challenges of recruiting candidates and campaign volunteers, raising money, getting endorsements, and winning elections, using the skills and experience of past local union leadership or staff. Hear about running inside and outside the Democratic Party, at the state, local, and federal level.
Public pensions hold more $6 trillion, money that billionaires are using to raise your rent, intensify the climate crisis, and fuel ICE deportations. Learn how you can take back control of your retirement savings and use your pension dollars to help your community.
You know you need to get more of your co-workers involved in your organizing, but are you struggling to reach (or even find) them? Whether you're launching a bottom-up campaign, building a reform caucus, or running for union office, learn how to systematically build a list of your co-workers from scratch, and how to make the best use of it.
Did you know that under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, you have free speech rights within your union? Learn what your speech rights are, how to know if they have been violated, and how to enforce them.
Are you beating your head against the wall trying to get other workers involved? This workshop is for you. Hear success stories from those who’ve turned their workplaces around and turned apathy into action. Learn practical organizing tools for engaging your co-workers, taking action, and getting results. Based on the popular book Secrets of a Successful Organizer.
Your workplace may feel like an unorganized mess, but the truth is you’re not starting from zero. There’s organization there already—though it might have nothing to do with the union. Learn how to map out the existing networks in your workplace, identify the leaders in those networks, and then knit them together into an organizing committee. Based on the popular book Secrets of a Successful Organizer.
Explore creative ways to maximize member participation in contract campaigns... and in the long stretches between contract fights. Learn how to build strong, healthy locals with high involvement year-round. If you have an approach you've found effective, come and share it.
In many union campaigns in Mexico, workers are up against not only the boss, but also their own unions. Learn how workers are fighting to build democratic and independent unions, despite threats and intimidation. Note: This panel will be conducted in Spanish, with interpretation into English.
En muchas campañas sindicales en México, los trabajadores no solo se enfrentan al patrón, sino también a sus propios sindicatos. Aprende cómo los trabajadores están luchando por construir sindicatos democráticos e independientes, a pesar de las amenazas y las represalias. Nota: Este panel se llevará a cabo en español, con interpretación al inglés.
¿Se está golpeando la cabeza contra la pared tratando de involucrar a compañeros de trabajo en una lucha para mejorar su lugar de trabajo? Este taller es para ti. Escuche historias de otros trabajadores quienes convirtieron la apatía en acción. Aprenda los fundamentos de cómo organizarse para lanzar campañas que involucren a sus compañeros de trabajo para tomar acción y obtener resultados.[Workshop for Spanish speakers only.]
Fighting grievances isn’t only about how well you argue your case. It’s also about organizing members to build pressure on management. This workshop for stewards and union reps will focus on how to win creatively without going to arbitration—or sometimes without even filing a grievance. We’ll discuss the do’s and don’ts of settling grievances, as well.
Build your contract interpretation skills in this hands-on workshop, especially useful for stewards. A co-worker comes to you with a workplace problem, but how do you determine whether it's a potential grievance, and what kind? We'll look at real contracts and example scenarios to practice identifying and analyzing the relevant contract language.
Grocery and meatpacking workers across the U.S. are fighting for stronger contracts, organizing new unions, and defeating corporate mergers. We'll discuss the opportunities and challenges of organizing in these sectors, and how worker coordination across the food supply chain can help beat the boss.
(Part of the Railroad Workers United convention, but open to all.) By understanding production systems and supply chains, and drawing on our own experience, logistics workers can identify chokepoints and vulnerabilities that give us leverage to win. Historically workers have used this power to win better wages, benefits, and working conditions, and even to block arms from being shipped to war zones, such as to Central America in the 1980s or Gaza last fall. Lessons from those actions apply to the war on Iran today.
Strikes can demand a lot more than a raise. Minnesota unions and community organizations held a mass strike in January, demanding to kick out ICE, deny it further funding, and hold officers accountable for killings. The Chicago Teachers Union won a demand to make May 1 a day of civic action, allowing educators and students to participate in the national day of no, work, no school, no shopping. Hear from organizers who were on the front lines, pushing boundaries of what a fighting labor movement can win.
Our labor movement is brimming with creativity and artistry. Come share a song, hip-hop piece, story, poem, dance, drag piece, joke, poster, puppet, banner, spoken word piece, costume, chant, photo, picket sign, or whatever you've got... Or just come to listen. You’ll be moved and amazed at what your fellow workers bring to the table.
Bring your burning organizing questions and labor knowledge to the first-ever live episode of The Labor Notes Podcast, our weekly show on rank-and-file news and organizing tactics! With special guests: two casino dealers who helped lead a remarkable recognition strike at the Horseshoe Indianapolis Casino last fall.
Get strategic in using media coverage to amplify your campaign—learn where to place your story, understand what makes a pitch compelling to editors, and discuss steps you can take, beyond drafting press releases, to make sure your story gets across your message. Hear from journalists from The Real News Network, Workday Magazine, In These Times, and a retired reporter from the Minnesota Star Tribune.
"Partners," a short documentary on Starbucks baristas’ crusade to bring a coffee behemoth to heel, charts the seemingly unlikely trajectory ignited by workers in Buffalo, New York, who organized the first Starbucks location in 2021 and helped grow a highly energetic movement—one that has emerged as a symbol of persistence against vicious union-busting and brought hope for renewed militancy. The showing will be followed by a panel discussion with Starbucks workers.
New technology and software can threaten your job security, working conditions, and union strength. How can you identify your power before management implements its plans? From robots to A.I. “spyware” to GPS, we'll explore how to prepare and organize co-workers to bargain and take action over tech changes, including using the "continuous bargaining" approach. We'll consider an example from longshore workers who fought the use of automated equipment, RFID, and logistics software.
Let the members and the power in! This workshop will dive into the tool of open bargaining, a way to increase democratic participation by members and the community in your contract negotiations. Let the boss organize the workers for you!
This workshop will explore the psychology of bargaining. Participants will learn techniques, then practice them in a brief session of simulated bargaining.
Power inside our workplaces is critical to labor’s future. Management frequently restructures work, introduces new technologies, and promotes ideologies that undermine our collective voice and power. If your management has introduced new technologies or restructuring programs (e.g. lean, 5S, Six Sigma), downsizing, understaffing, speed-up, or “continuous improvement,” come learn a strategy developed by labor educator Charley Richardson. Though Charley died in 2013, his work continues to build worker solidarity and union power.
Corporate profiteers and climate change are driving our cost of living out of control. We'll learn from organized workers leading and winning fights that promote affordable communities and a safer climate. Then we'll discuss how our own unions could lead, with contracts and coalitions, to bring down the cost of a good living.
Strong contracts are won with the power we build away from the bargaining table. Learn how to develop high-participation contract campaigns that give you the leverage to win your demands and grow the union.
Don't pump the brakes after a contract is won! Convert your new leaders, skills, and confidence into a shop floor army and keep shifting the power away from the boss. Hear how UPS Teamsters used their 2023 mobilization as a springboard to stronger organization on the job through parking lot meetings and everyday collective action on issues like excessive overtime, supervisor harassment, and workplace hazards.
Ready to bring your co-workers into collective action? Planning some community actions, but not quite ready to strike? Discover the wide range of tactics you can use as part of an escalating campaign to target the boss, get wins, and build power. Hear some great stories of clever and effective tactics that built solidarity and scared the boss, and learn how to choose the right tactics for your situation.
The Trump administration has set its sights on unions in the federal sector, tearing up contracts covering hundreds of thousands of workers in one of the single largest attacks on collective bargaining rights ever seen in the U.S. Hear about what those attacks have meant for federal workers and the services they provide, and about how they have been organizing in response.
Union members across the country are in an intensifying battle to keep their members and communities safe from federal immigration authorities. While some say unions should avoid "divisive issues," organizing around immigrant defense can deepen relationships among members and help bridge political divides. Learn how members are taking up this fight—and how do it in your own local.
In these harrowing times, immigrant workers continue to fight for each other—and against the boss. Learn about their campaigns and tactics to overcome a climate of fear and build collective power.
As tariffs and trade threats destabilize the global supply chain, auto workers across the globe are taking on bold fights. Hear union activists from Brazil, Italy, Korea, and Mexico describe the struggles in this strategic sector and identify key points of leverage for holding auto giants to account.
Corporations reach across the world... labor should too! Hear how workers are making contact with others who share a common employer, industry, or supply chain, flexing our power to back each other up, and dealing with practical challenges like language barriers.
(Part of the Railroad Workers United convention, but open to all.) During the national freight rail contract fight of 2022, upwards of 90 percent of railroad workers were poised for a national strike for the first time in three decades... but no strike materialized. Government officials use the Railway Labor Act to limit worker actions and undermine our rights, including the fundamental right to strike. Hear how airline workers have built the power to resist despite these constraints, and how railroad workers can likewise build effective bargaining campaigns.
Tens of thousands of graduate student employees are now in unions, and they're making their presence felt on campus as they push for a better working and learning environment. Learn from campaigns to win better protections for international student workers, increase pay even without a union contract, and grow the union by representing workers previously excluded from a contract.
Semiconductor production in the U.S. is set to triple in the next decade, with hundreds of billions in private investment and federal and state subsidies. But these new chip factories bring with them exploitation of workers and toxic byproducts that can contaminate our air, water, and land. We’ll share reports from the front lines of struggles in the semiconductor industry and talk about building worker and community power to make sure these companies are good employers and neighbors.
Ever since workers in the U.S. started forming unions, we've had to overcome mistrust between groups and get co-workers with different cultures and languages working together. Hear how workers are making solidarity the norm—and building astonishing collective power—in a Kroger grocery warehouse, on a Minnesota university campus, at Amazon, and in food delivery on the streets of New York City. This panel will inspire you!
The wars waged by the U.S. are deeply unpopular at home and abroad, but workers are still testing out how to use shop floor power to bring them to a halt. Hear from worker activists who are challenging militarism. We'll discuss what strategies can succeed, what fails, and how these efforts relate to everyday "troublemaking" around working conditions.
Increasing participation and democracy means increasing power. So how can you as a union leader move beyond administering bureaucracy, toward engaging members in all aspects of the union? You'll leave this interactive workshop with active plans to increase democracy in your union.
Your workplace may feel like an unorganized mess, but the truth is you’re not starting from zero. There’s organization there already—though it might have nothing to do with the union. Learn how to map out the existing networks in your workplace, identify the leaders in those networks, and then knit them together into an organizing committee. Based on the popular book Secrets of a Successful Organizer.
Everybody has complaints and frustrations, but an organizer has the power to turn problems into opportunities. Learn how to sort through the issues you hear from co-workers, bring people together, and make a plan to solve them. Based on the popular book Secrets of a Successful Organizer.
Open shop conditions don’t have to be a death sentence. Learn strategies for building and maintaining stronger unions even under so-called “right to work.”
Ready to declare you’ve had enough? A collective march on the boss can shift the balance of power. Hear from workers who've done it, and learn how you and your co-workers can prepare to do the same.
En este taller exploraremos el teatro campesino, también conocido como teatro del oprimido. En este espacio, el arte se convierte en acción: aprenderás a utilizar la creatividad para visibilizar injusticias y generar diálogo en torno a las problemáticas que afectan a nuestras comunidades.
This workshop will explore farmworkers theater, also known as theater of the oppressed. In this space, art becomes action: you'll learn to harness creativity to bring injustices to light and start dialogue on the issues affecting our communities.
¿Se está golpeando la cabeza contra la pared tratando de involucrar a compañeros de trabajo en una lucha para mejorar su lugar de trabajo? Este taller es para ti. Escuche historias de otros trabajadores quienes convirtieron la apatía en acción. Aprenda los fundamentos de cómo organizarse para lanzar campañas que involucren a sus compañeros de trabajo para tomar acción y obtener resultados. [Workshop for Spanish speakers only.]
Stewards often find that regular conflict with supervisors is part of the job. But sometimes you come up against particularly difficult supervisors who try to undermine the union at every turn. Meet with stewards from a variety of industries to talk about strategies for handling bad management, and learn some new ones.
Rebuilding labor’s power will take more than winning union elections at individual workplaces. Hear insights from veteran organizers and labor strategies drawn from big campaigns including the effort to organize hundreds of thousands of L.A. manufacturing workers, the strike by 40,000 Verizon workers in 2016, and ongoing organizing and contract fights at Kaiser.
Meet others who are bringing creativity and heart to labor struggles: the chant writer, the photographer, the singer, the one who makes great signs, draws comics, wears a hilarious costume, or gets everyone dancing on the picket line.
A good picket sign helps distill the core message of your campaign into a clear demand with a specific targets. It's also an opportunity for creativity and wit, with the ultimate goal of bringing supporters in and keeping members out one day longer. We'll be making signs in this workshop!
Without preparation, bargaining teams can spend their caucus time reacting to the boss and lose track of their goals. Learn strategies to use that time to build consensus, make key decisions, and push your bargaining forward with a unified team.
Like few other sectors, union construction workers have a culture of speaking up and slowing down work to fight disrespect, dangerous orders, and time theft from the boss. How can we go beyond cussing out the super, to collective action that wins lasting power on the job? This interactive workshop is focused on construction, but open to any kind of worker interested in turning the screws on management.
How can organizers foster communication between people who speak different languages? Language justice practices can expand participation in union life and strengthen organizing. Learn practical strategies for multilingual facilitation, collaborative translation, and using accessible digital tools. Leave with ideas and tools you can apply in union trainings, campaigns, and leadership programs.
A chance for grassroots labor activists from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea to exchange with their counterparts in the Asian diasporic community in the U.S.
Friday June 12, 2026 5:10pm - 6:40pm CDT Rosemont B
Building democratic and militant unions, from the bottom up, has guided Labor Notes for decades. These international unionists describe how this approach is taking hold and thriving elsewhere.
The South has long stood out as nearly impenetrable for labor, but the Auto Workers have been organizing for decades to breach these anti-union fortresses of exploitation. Hear from auto workers about their efforts to build a union at Mercedes, Toyota, Hyundai, and Subaru plants.
Less than 10 percent of U.S. workers belong to unions. To build working-class power and raise standards, the labor movement needs to organize millions more workers. Hear how unions are stepping up to the plate, and learn how your union can do more new organizing.
In the fight for a first contract, the boss has every incentive to stall, stall, stall! Learn how to keep members engaged and determined through the course of a long fight.
Join Black activists to discuss what unions are doing and could do to address the issues affecting Black workers and our communities. How can we get our unions in gear, and how can we build stronger connections across unions?
Friday June 12, 2026 5:10pm - 6:40pm CDT Rosemont A
Different groups of workers in the same workplace or union are easily pitted against each other, but we're all stronger when we have each other's backs. Hear how drivers and package loaders, teachers and paraeducators, nurses and housekeepers, electricians and factory workers are learning about each other's concerns, overcoming friction and mistrust, and building power together.
In the U.S. and across the world, working-class voters are increasingly being won over by right-wing populist appeals. What are some possible elements of a labor political program that can both win back workers from the forces of reaction, and force elected officials to address the needs of working people? Hear about initiatives including the Maine AFL-CIO’s campaign to develop a Contract with the Working Class and the Grassroots Power Project’s Solidarity Wins member-to-member political education program.
Despite promising to be the “peace president,” Trump is using our tax dollars to wage illegal wars and regime change operations in Latin America and the Middle East, bringing suffering to our fellow workers abroad and endangering everyone’s future. Join a discussion with an intergenerational group of unionists who have been at the forefront of labor’s antiwar organizing at key moments in our recent history—from Reagan’s nuclear arms buildup to Bush’s invasion of Iraq to the ongoing Gaza genocide.
Reforming one local is hard enough, but what about an international union? Leaders from reform caucuses undertaking this task will talk about best practices and strategies for how activists can organize around international union conventions, leadership elections, national contract campaigns, and more.
It’s not enough to tell your co-workers to “get involved” or say, “We need to be unified.” This workshop will look at how you identify, support, and nurture new leaders. Learn the steps to identify potential stewards and develop rank-and file leaders.
Todo el mundo tiene quejas y frustraciones, pero un organizador tiene el poder de convertir los problemas en oportunidades. Aprenda a resolver los problemas que escucha de sus compañeros o compañeras de trabajo, reúna a las personas y elabore un plan para resolverlos de forma democrática a través de un esfuerzo de grupo. [Workshop for Spanish speakers only.]
Stewards are the backbone of the union, defending co-workers when they need it most. We'll review how stewards can use their special rights and protections to most effectively advocate for their co-workers in investigatory interviews—and how to handle supervisors who are trying to put you off or trip you up.
We can learn a lot from our mistakes and those of others. In this workshop we’ll follow a grievance handling from beginning to end and ask: What went wrong? What should have been done? We start with the initial report of a disciplinary suspension and follow step by step, identifying mistakes which could have been damaging to the union’s case. The goal is to be persuasive and have a principled settlement. Come laugh and leave reminded of what to avoid. Presenter Richard De Vries confesses to having made all of the mistakes.
Three thousand Boeing Machinists in St. Louis, who build F-15 and F-18 fighter jets, struck last summer. Four thousand meatpacking workers in Greeley, Colorado, walked out in March on the industry’s first major strike in 40 years. And in 2023, nurses with the 80,000-member FIQ in Quebec struck after rejecting a contract offer. Hear how taking militant action has strengthened their unions.
Hear how unions got in gear to participate in Minnesota's January 23 strike and economic blackout. How did the rapid-response networks, the defensive side of the fight, and the workers' movement, the offensive side, relate to each other and help build power? What was the interplay between the 2020 George Floyd Uprising and the resistance to ICE? How did public schools become hubs of resistance?
