2026 Labor Notes Conference: Full Schedule

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9:00am CDT

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT

Join us for a discussion of coordinated bargaining in various scenarios: within the same union with a common employer, across different unions with a common employer, and across different unions with different employers. Topics will include aligning contracts, coordinating actions and strikes, and negotiations strategy.

Moderators

Mark Brenner

University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center

Speakers

Sarina Roher

Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals

Matias Campos

UPTE-CWA and California Nurses

Richelle Milford

Richmond Teachers Association

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT
Lindbergh

Bargaining Strategy

9:00am CDT

How to Build Power: From Acting Tactically to Thinking Strategically

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT

United B

You can maximize the impact of tactics by making them part of a larger strategy. Draft individualized components for reaching your organization’s main goal. Practice activities that will help you recognize members’ strengths, identify community alliances, and align purposeful, escalating tactics to build the power to win.

Moderators

Ericka Wills

University of Wisconsin School for Workers

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT
United B

Strategy

9:00am CDT

Upping Our Strategy to Build Working-Class Power

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT

Barajas

Unions fight for better wages and working conditions, but we also want to build power to win transformative change for working people and the planet. How can we work across unions and sectors, align with community partners, and build powerful alliances that begin to change the balance of power? Hear how unions are developing a long-term agenda and strategy to win bigger gains.

Moderators

Stephanie Luce

Professional Staff Congress, co-author, Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World

Speakers

Margarita Hernandez

Grassroots Power Project

Inez O’Donnell

Union of Southern Service Workers

Katie Romich

Communications Workers District 7

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT
Barajas

Strategy

9:00am CDT

Find Your Workplace Leverage—and Use It

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT

Seatac

Workplace mapping, a tried-and-true step in campaign planning, can help workers discover different sources of leverage based on specific work performed. Reflect on new ways to bring pain to the boss and explore possibilities for adapting this method to different industries.

Moderators

Sarah Mason

Long Haul

Speakers

Yuchen Jin

New York Times Tech Guild

Rendi Rogers

United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 261

Ira Pollock

Amazon Teamsters

Saturday June 13, 2026 9:00am - 10:45am CDT
Seatac

Strategy Shop Floor Power

2:15pm CDT

Case Study: Reflections from the UCORE Network of Teachers Union Reformers

Saturday June 13, 2026 2:15pm - 4:00pm CDT

London

Teachers unions met 14 years ago to chart a path to union reform and organizing through reform caucuses. What was the purpose, and what were the outcomes? What role does the ongoing network serve now? And what can it teach us about the role of worker networks in transforming our unions?

Moderators

Jane Slaughter

Labor Notes

Speakers

Luke Amphlett

San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel

Kelsey Gray

Columbus Education Association

Jia Lee

United Federation of Teachers, MORE Caucus

Jackson Potter

Chicago Teachers Union

Alison Underdahl

Seattle Education Association

Saturday June 13, 2026 2:15pm - 4:00pm CDT
London

Reform Caucuses Strategy

2:15pm CDT

Industrial Policy: Union Visions for Our Jobs

Saturday June 13, 2026 2:15pm - 4:00pm CDT

Capital

To shape a pro-worker economic future, we'll need industrial policy: coordinated goverment action to plan what our economy produces and how. Learn how some unions and community organizations are beginning to do this at the state and federal levels.

Moderators

Dustin Guastella

Teamsters Local 623, Center for Working-Class Politics

Speakers

Kassie Beyer

Jobs to Move America

Patrick Crowley

Rhode Island AFL-CIO

Brenda Rodriguez

CHIPS Communities United

Morten Thaysen

New Economy Organisers Network

Saturday June 13, 2026 2:15pm - 4:00pm CDT
Capital

Strategy Politics Climate

4:30pm CDT

Climate Jobs Organizing Strategies

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT

Int’l Ballroom E

It's critical that jobs in the clean energy sector become high-quality, union jobs. Unions are beginning to make this happen in two ways: legislative campaigns and industrial policy from the top, and new organizing from below. Come learn about the development of clean energy industries and how unions are taking advantage of opportunities to organize.

Moderators

Rohan Palacios

Cornell ILR Climate Jobs Institute

Speakers

Patrick Crowley

Rhode Island AFL-CIO

Eileen Hagerman

IUE-CWA Local 83600

Ben Harper

Cornell University ILR Climate Jobs Institute

Lerry Thomas

Green Workers Alliance

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT
Int’l Ballroom E

Climate Strategy

4:30pm CDT

Defending and Expanding Public Sector Collective Bargaining Rights

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT

Vienna

Public sector bargaining laws are highly uneven across the U.S.—from states with union shop to states with absolutely no bargaining or union recognition rights for public workers. Hear how fights to win back collective bargaining rights are reinvigorating unions and empowering members.

Moderators

Jayanni Webster

CWA Local 3866

Speakers

Eyklipse Baca

Denver Public Library Workers United, CWA Local 7799

Dane MacNeil

AFSCME Local 47

Ivy Smith

AFSCME Local 1004

Harry Szabo

United Campus Workers Virginia, CWA Local 2265

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT
Vienna

Government Workers Strategy Politics

4:30pm CDT

Don't Wait for Recognition: Pre-Majority Unionism

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT

Florence

Labor movement membership is at 10% of the workforce and shrinking nearly every year. Unions do a good job of winning NLRB elections, but not nearly at the scale we need to grow. We need more ways to organize and reach the millions of workers who want to join a union. One way is where workers without official recognition and a contract form a union and fight for improvements on the job - what EWOC calls Pre-Majority unions. This form of organizing is available to any group of workers now—whether they can't get legal union recognition, or they feel that winning an election may be years away, or they don't necessarily want a contract, but simply want to organize for immediate improvements. Panelists from several pre-majority unions will discuss challenges and successes in their campaigns.

Moderators

Eric Dirnbach

EWOC

Speakers

Drew Curtis

Government Employees (AFGE) 3911

Lu Liu

Alphabet Workers Union-CWA

Carlos Perez

Durham Association of Educators

Mark Medina

Food Chain Workers Alliance

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT
Florence

New Organizing Strategy

4:30pm CDT

Case Study: Minnesota Bargaining and Organizing Coalition

Saturday June 13, 2026 4:30pm - 6:15pm CDT

DFW

There's a backstory to the inspiring uprising in the Twin Cities. Trump picked the wrong place to pick on, because a coalition of unions and community organizations there had been planning and building together for many years. Those relationships yielded a coordinated bargaining plan in 2024, shared demands, and political power, and set the stage for mass action against Trump in 2025. Learn more about their education, organizing, and political coalition work.

Moderators

Strategy Bargaining

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