Power inside our workplaces is critical to labor’s future. Management frequently restructures work, introduces new technologies, and promotes ideologies that undermine our collective voice and power. If your management has introduced new technologies or restructuring programs (e.g. lean, 5S, Six Sigma), downsizing, understaffing, speed-up, or “continuous improvement,” come learn a strategy developed by labor educator Charley Richardson. Though Charley died in 2013, his work continues to build worker solidarity and union power.
Pressure to speed up and micromanage your work may come disguised as a new technology to make your job easier or more "efficient." But efficient for whom? Learn how you and your co-workers can decode the boss's plans, recognize the danger signs, and resist.
Rebuilding labor’s power will take more than winning union elections at individual workplaces. Hear insights from veteran organizers and labor strategies drawn from big campaigns including the effort to organize hundreds of thousands of L.A. manufacturing workers, the strike by 40,000 Verizon workers in 2016, and ongoing organizing and contract fights at Kaiser.
A good picket sign helps distill the core message of your campaign into a clear demand with a specific targets. It's also an opportunity for creativity and wit, with the ultimate goal of bringing supporters in and keeping members out one day longer. We'll be making signs in this workshop!
You can maximize the impact of tactics by making them part of a larger strategy. Draft individualized components for reaching your organization’s main goal. Practice activities that will help you recognize members’ strengths, identify community alliances, and align purposeful, escalating tactics to build the power to win.
Your workplace may feel like an unorganized mess, but the truth is you’re not starting from zero. There’s organization there already—though it might have nothing to do with the union. Learn how to map out the existing networks in your workplace, identify the leaders in those networks, and then knit them together into an organizing committee. Based on the popular book Secrets of a Successful Organizer.
Grievances are a lot more than what you write down on a form or what gets said in a hearing. Some of the most important work that goes into winning a grievance happens before you even file, and pays off big time if the grievance ends up going to arbitration. Join stewards and officers from a variety of industries to discuss strategies for grievance investigation and share best practices.
A health and safety committee can transform the workplace: jump-starting your organizing with action that gets a lot of people involved, and victories that people really feel. We'll explore committee models that both union and nonunion workers can use, and the structures and strategies that make committees effective.
Is your union newsletter or flyer a wall of words? Drawing cartoons is a great way to make ideas clearer and materials more appealing. Hear how workplace activists are putting their artistic talents to use—and try your hand at making your own union comics!
Learn to make vertical videos that can help your campaign stand out within seconds on a social media feed—the brutal grace period before it disappears into the doomscroll archives. Learn basic video formats, nail down your script and narrative voice, and get familiar with simple editing techniques.
