yes to all of this, and would also love to see your take on something and folding right now in California, specifically the CAPS strike (CAPS is the union for state employees who work under the scientist classifications for the state). This is the first time that state employees have ever gone on strike to my knowledge, and it's a really big deal, although of course the media coverage has been kind of awful as expected (eg, saying that their demands are unrealistic and that kind of thing). this is the website for the union action: https://capscontract2023.org/
UNITE HERE spends nearly half its budget on external organizing, grew 34% in the 2010s, and despite 98% of membership being laid off in 2020 still managed to organize 15k new members. We've been doing for a number of years what many advocate for in the rest of the labor movement.
Well said. As a Lifetime member of the NEA and EdMN, I could not agree more with the assessment of the dire need to look at the Big Picture and the call for Ambition! I still haven’t forgiven Reagan for breaking the air traffic controllers’ union!
"So while it is understandable that the average person who is not in a union sees the topic of “union organizing” as some esoteric niche unrelated to them, that is not the case. " - really important point.
Having recently written about the economic research on this topic, unionization has major spill-over effects that impact outcomes of non-unionized. Over 20% of the increase in inequality can be attributed to spill-over effect of lowering unionization rates (another 20% is the direct effect of lower unionization rates).
I know the UAW organizers are busy, but what if some of the architects of this recent UAW win actually helped organize other labor unions...CLEARLY the UAW has some stellar leadership capital that other less focused and atrophied unions could benefit from...
Teamsters and RWDSU have already done Amazon organizing. Plus obviously ALU. Which is a good counterexample-- UAW got a ton of organizing leads from their strike and now they're rolling them all into a big campaign, whereas ALU got a bunch of leads after it won that union election but never has managed to turn them into another win.
Teamsters and RWDSU have already done Amazon organizing. Plus obviously ALU. Which is a good counterexample-- UAW got a ton of organizing leads from their strike and now they're rolling them all into a big campaign, whereas ALU got a bunch of leads after it won that union election but never has managed to turn them into another win.
The RWDSU election in Bessemer was and actually still could be winnable. A few key decisions would have made the 168 vote difference. Getting a first contract? That’s a whole other mountain to climb. Which gets at your other article about structure. We need the ambition you write about, we need relentlessness (the employers usually just hope we go away when organzing gets really difficult) and we need smart structure and targeting. Change to Win was trying to figure it out. Unfortunately I think CTO is doomed from the get-go. I hope the good folks working on that team prove me wrong but the structure they operate in already lacks organizing ambition and relentlessness.
Agree on both-- it's winnable in Bessmer and a first contract is going to take probably the federal government to force it. CTO is a nice idea structurally but they've had $11 million for a year and haven't done anything with it yet which makes me pessimistic.
yes to all of this, and would also love to see your take on something and folding right now in California, specifically the CAPS strike (CAPS is the union for state employees who work under the scientist classifications for the state). This is the first time that state employees have ever gone on strike to my knowledge, and it's a really big deal, although of course the media coverage has been kind of awful as expected (eg, saying that their demands are unrealistic and that kind of thing). this is the website for the union action: https://capscontract2023.org/
Shout out to the scientists. We need more science experiments on the picket line.
*something unfolding
Tech workers interested in organizing: check out https://techworkerscoalition.org/ and https://www.techworkersunion-1010.org/.
UNITE HERE spends nearly half its budget on external organizing, grew 34% in the 2010s, and despite 98% of membership being laid off in 2020 still managed to organize 15k new members. We've been doing for a number of years what many advocate for in the rest of the labor movement.
Yes. Two chapters in my book about Unite Here! Shout out to you.
🫡
Unions also need more media coverage of how organizing help people. Please keep writing about this.
I want to see the UAW get as much support as it possibly can. I love what they're doing!
Well said Hamilton! Or, as I have been putting it, "It's about time!!!
Well said. As a Lifetime member of the NEA and EdMN, I could not agree more with the assessment of the dire need to look at the Big Picture and the call for Ambition! I still haven’t forgiven Reagan for breaking the air traffic controllers’ union!
Bravo! Proud to be a subscriber!
"So while it is understandable that the average person who is not in a union sees the topic of “union organizing” as some esoteric niche unrelated to them, that is not the case. " - really important point.
Having recently written about the economic research on this topic, unionization has major spill-over effects that impact outcomes of non-unionized. Over 20% of the increase in inequality can be attributed to spill-over effect of lowering unionization rates (another 20% is the direct effect of lower unionization rates).
https://www.nominalnews.com/p/unions-strike-action-and-the-economy
I know the UAW organizers are busy, but what if some of the architects of this recent UAW win actually helped organize other labor unions...CLEARLY the UAW has some stellar leadership capital that other less focused and atrophied unions could benefit from...
Teamsters and RWDSU have already done Amazon organizing. Plus obviously ALU. Which is a good counterexample-- UAW got a ton of organizing leads from their strike and now they're rolling them all into a big campaign, whereas ALU got a bunch of leads after it won that union election but never has managed to turn them into another win.
Teamsters and RWDSU have already done Amazon organizing. Plus obviously ALU. Which is a good counterexample-- UAW got a ton of organizing leads from their strike and now they're rolling them all into a big campaign, whereas ALU got a bunch of leads after it won that union election but never has managed to turn them into another win.
Well I accidentally deleted the main comment here then posted my reply twice. Good job.
This is censorship actually
The RWDSU election in Bessemer was and actually still could be winnable. A few key decisions would have made the 168 vote difference. Getting a first contract? That’s a whole other mountain to climb. Which gets at your other article about structure. We need the ambition you write about, we need relentlessness (the employers usually just hope we go away when organzing gets really difficult) and we need smart structure and targeting. Change to Win was trying to figure it out. Unfortunately I think CTO is doomed from the get-go. I hope the good folks working on that team prove me wrong but the structure they operate in already lacks organizing ambition and relentlessness.
Agree on both-- it's winnable in Bessmer and a first contract is going to take probably the federal government to force it. CTO is a nice idea structurally but they've had $11 million for a year and haven't done anything with it yet which makes me pessimistic.