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.
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.
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.
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!
