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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An expiring contract can get members fired up and paying close attention. How can we use contract campaigns to build union democracy that lasts? Learn from union members who organized daring contract campaigns. Based on inclusive member discussions and creative collective actions, they won more than paycheck gains, making their unions more member-led and ready to fight.
The engine of any contract campaign is a member-to-member communication and organizing network that reaches the entire workforce. Panelists will take us through the steps of how they built and activated Contract Action Teams and used that power to win.
Striking sounds exhilarating, but it's also scary and takes a lot of work. What are the building blocks for getting your union and co-workers ready to strike? Panelists in this interactive workshop will reflect on their strike experiences and share lessons from the picket line to the bargaining room.
Learn how to build rank-and-file teams to dig up information on your employer, and once you’ve got it, how to turn it into a winning organizing or bargaining campaign. Explore the basics of company and industry research to supercharge your campaign and build your union.
Management attorneys' strategy in a first contract is to delay with multiple counters for each proposal, refuse to bargain more than two to three hours a week, and propose frustratingly long management rights clauses. After an exhausting organizing drive, what's a newly organized group to do? We'll get into different strategies such as transparent and participatory bargaining, doing a power analysis during the organizing drive, having most proposals ready to go right away, and planning communications and actions.
Contract time is an opportunity for a rank-and-file caucus to expand its reach within the union and demonstrate a more powerful way to fight the boss. Hear how caucus activists built successful contract campaigns despite opposition from local union leaders, and grew their network in the process.
