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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Much of the U.S. labor movement was built through struggles over safe working conditions. Learn how others have used a reactivated focus on health and safety to win not only a safer workplace but also a revitalized union, and learn new tools and strategies that you can apply in your workplaces and industries.
This meeting is open to all workers from the U.S. South, union and nonunion. We’ll talk about what’s working well and what we’re struggling with, and build solidarity and connections.
