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.
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.
"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.
A chance for grassroots labor activists from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea to exchange with their counterparts in the Asian diasporic community in the U.S.
Friday June 12, 2026 5:10pm - 6:40pm CDT Rosemont B
Queer and trans workers have long been at the forefront of intersectional solidarity, bridging identities and social movements. We’ll share highlights of LGBTQIA+ labor culture, comics, and current dispatches, and connect towards building queer futures and vibrant multiracial unions, in style.
Culture is how movements build identity, sustain energy, and make change imaginable. An upsurge of new alliances—fusing politics and culture—is transforming organizing, labor, and community activism. Drawing on historical and contemporary campaigns, artists and activists on the front lines will share the cultural strategies they deploy to build power, win campaigns, and resist authoritarianism.
Employers impose aggressive discipline policies like “zero tolerance” to reinforce their authority. Unions must be equally aggressive in insisting on the time-honored principles of just cause. This workshop will help you to prepare and present grievance and arbitration cases, raising defenses such as disparate treatment, lax enforcement, and double jeopardy. A model request for information will be distributed.
State repression isn't new for the labor movement, but the tone has shifted with the rhetoric of the current administration. Bosses are finding new ways to sow fear and distrust. Yet union activists are pushing back and getting stronger through organizing. Their experiences offer insight that can help us all prepare for the next wave of challenges.
Tune in for a screening of "We Build Power," a short film about how United Teachers Los Angeles has been building coalitions with students, parents, the community and other unions for the past decade to increase their collective leverage. After the film, there will be a panel discussion with educators building power in their communities to fight for better public education from California to Canada.
Privatizing public schools and public colleges is a long-term goal of the right, including market fundamentalists, neoliberals, the religious right, and white nationalists.This participatory workshop will help school and campus workers recognize both covert and overt forms of privatization that are steadily replacing bargaining unit work and eroding worker autonomy, and provide case studies of how school and campus unions have begun to organize against privatization.
