What is inflation, why is it important, and what can we do about it? As union members we have little control over prices, but we do have the power to bargain for pay that keeps up with the cost of living. We’ll cover the basics of inflation, including how it’s calculated and what we mean by good and bad inflation. The session will also equip organizers with strategies to win strong wage clauses that stay strong even as costs rise.
Learn about the tricky web of health care profits and money-making schemes, clearly explained in a way you can break down for your fellow members. But it's not all doom and gloom: you'll also hear how health care unions are fighting for well-funded workplaces and better patient care.
Bring your burning organizing questions and labor knowledge to the first-ever live episode of The Labor Notes Podcast, our weekly show on rank-and-file news and organizing tactics! With special guests: two casino dealers who helped lead a remarkable recognition strike at the Horseshoe Indianapolis Casino last fall.
Despite promising to be the “peace president,” Trump is using our tax dollars to wage illegal wars and regime change operations in Latin America and the Middle East, bringing suffering to our fellow workers abroad and endangering everyone’s future. Join a discussion with an intergenerational group of unionists who have been at the forefront of labor’s antiwar organizing at key moments in our recent history—from Reagan’s nuclear arms buildup to Bush’s invasion of Iraq to the ongoing Gaza genocide.
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.
Workers centers are waging bold fights for fair wages, immigrant defense and more. Learn about tactics others are taking up and how to build power in your community.
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.
Build practical skills for bargaining in this hands-on workshop. We'll examine how employers use technology and its effects on work, then work through a structured exercise to define a bargaining problem, draft targeted information requests, and develop enforceable demands and contract language. We'll draw on examples from the UC Berkeley Labor Center's Negotiating Tech inventory to highlight real-world provisions and bargaining strategies.
You could have a great contract campaign and powerful strike... and lose all that leverage because your contract language was poorly drafted before you even got to the bargaining table. We'll identify the words that create ambiguity and expensive arbitrations, and management's favorite wiggle words and hedge words, which all seem perfectly reasonable. Reasonable is a hedge word. Zipper clauses waive bargaining rights; no-strike clauses waive member rights; your arbitration language could waive member rights.
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.
