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.
"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.
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.
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.
Hear how worker leaders and organizers are using workplace safety issues to build worker power on the shop floor at Amazon. Learn about different models that union and not-yet-union workers can use to challenge abusive workplace practices and improve safety conditions. We’ll explore strategies for comprehensively addressing worker demands around health and safety, the structures and tools that work best, and how to make health and safety campaigning effective across industries and workplaces.
Authoritarianism and corporate power converge through the system of courts and prisons to keep wages low, undermine organizing, and make profit. A clip from the award-winning documentary "The Alabama Solution" opens this session, spotlighting incarcerated organizers who are leading work stoppages against brutal repression inside Alabama prisons. Panelists will discuss the continuum from prison labor on the inside to sub-minimum wage temp work on the outside. Hear why organizing criminalized workers—in and after prison—is essential to building working-class power.
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.
When we build power on the job, we’re taking power from those who already have it—so it’s no surprise they tend to fight back! Learn how to “inoculate” your co-workers, that is, prepare them for a crackdown and help them interpret the boss fight as it goes along. This training is relevant for anyone who is forming a union, but also for anyone who is stepping up the level of activity in an existing union.
With facilities on every continent except Antarctica and more than 1.5 million employees, Amazon is the infrastructure that makes the global economy move, from the virtual to the physical world. One click can set in motion a vast network of warehouses, cargo ships, planes, and delivery vans. Get a glimpse of how Amazon workers in Spain, Germany, Poland and France are organizing against a corporate giant.
Strategic corporate research is a powerful tool, but it can't be used on its own. Union victories depend on developing a serious analysis of a company, and using that information to build a comprehensive, multifaceted, escalating campaign. Bring your knowledge of your company, union, and allies, and we'll work from there to learn how to move from research to a winning campaign.
How can you build any lasting organization in a workplace where the annual turnover is 150 percent? This panel is about sharing and developing strategies to organize with our co-workers at large employers like Amazon, despite the churn.
Most Amazon delivery drivers are employed by third-party subcontractors. In a typical last-mile warehouse, the workforce is divided among several of these small companies, plus some Flex drivers using their personal vehicles and a phone app. How do you organize under these conditions? We'll hear from drivers who are doing it, and strategize how to hold Amazon accountable through collective action.
Frequent collective action builds power. In this participatory workshop for Amazon workers, learn how to evaluate workplace problems to find which ones are ripe for organizing, and how to involve more members and build union power.
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.
Smart targeting of employers for a union drive begins with research. But that doesn’t just mean sitting at a computer; gathering on-the-ground intelligence is key. Learn what types of information to look for, and tools to gather it.
Learn how to use a chart, assess co-workers, and build a team to unionize your workplace. The Organizing Committee is the backbone of any union drive, and the chart is the best way to track your progress. This workshop is for workers forming a union.
Survey data suggests that over 60 million people in the U.S. would join a union if they could, but pulling off a successful organizing campaign is still no easy feat. Hear from workers who have built their unions from the ground up on how they fostered relationships with co-workers and overcame the boss's scare tactics.
Rebuilding the U.S. labor movement will require serious advances in the South, long the area where unions have been weakest. Hear from leaders on the front lines of organizing at Amazon warehouses, auto plants, and universities.
Inside organizing—a.k.a. organizing your own workplace—is the most critical way to rebuild the labor movement. Whether you're organizing a workplace you're already in or getting a job with the goal of organizing ("salting"), building relationships with co-workers, understanding how to overcome employer opposition, and identifying the hammer to bring down on your company are all essential skills. Veteran organizers from the Inside Organizer School will give tips on inside organizing and discuss the role of salts in recent campaigns.
How do you build power and solidarity on the job when workers are scattered and working from home? Hear how the panelists have overcome the obstacles of distance and isolation to organize their shops.
