Have you ever thought about fighting climate change while organizing your workplace? Climate demands can help push a campaign forward (even if your coworkers aren't all politically aligned on the issue). Come hear from salon worker-organizers who are incorporating climate and environmental health issues to boost their organizing, bring coworkers on board, and design creative tactics to leverage up worker power against the boss. After hearing from these workers, participants will workshop how making climate connections in your own organizing might supercharge your campaigns!
Even as millions of workers crave union representation, for most, this dream has been elusive. Some are taking things into their own hands and, rather than waiting for established unions to make this dream a reality, they're forming independent unions. There are many challenges to independent unionism, but also opportunities. Come hear workers discuss what it takes to build worker-run unions.
Pre-majority unionism can feel like starting from nothing, but there is always power to tap into and history to learn from. Historians will discuss what it has taken for workers to organize in new sectors and find leverage in new places and how a few dedicated organizers bring in their co-workers to build movements.
Under the Trump administration, federal workers face an unprecedented attack on their right to organize, but these workers are fighting back. Come learn how federal workers are central to the movement for the expansion of public services and democracy and to the right for all workers to organize.
The South has been the breeding ground for the most anti-union tactics in the country, from gutting public sector unions to brutal private sector boss fights. Despite the uphill battle that workers face in states like Florida and the Carolinas, organizers have been experimenting with new tactics to fight back. These lessons and insights can provide a vision for how our organizing models across the country can shift and expand as these anti-union tactics pick up strength nationally under the Trump administration.
Detroit once served as the industrial beating heart of the nation. Despite changes in the labor landscape, organizing and solidarity remains strong. This panel brings together local activists to share challenges, successes, and new campaigns on the horizon. Moderated by Jeremy Milloy.
Building a union is always hard work. But in certain workplaces, winning union certification and a contract may not be viable for many years to come. This panel focuses on an age-old model of unionism we're calling “pre-majority" unionism—something that workers will increasingly need to turn to during this second Trump presidency.
