The Labor Notes Podcast

There’s no magic formula for moving your co-worker (nor should there be)! Organizing is about building real relationships across the shop floor based on mutual trust and a shared vision for a better workplace—and having good 1-1 conversations is an important first step!  If you’ve ever been to an organizing training, you’ve probably also heard the mantra to listen more than you talk. But what does that mean? You’re not just here to be someone’s therapist or provide a parallel HR service or create endless surveys! You want to transform your workplace into one that meets your bargaining unit’s needs on the job by building power together.  To do that, it helps to understand what makes a good organizing conversation. Drawn from decades of tested tactics that have worked in shop floors across industries, here are some ways to have great 1-1 conversations that will leave you and your co-workers energized and more connected to the union you’re building together!   Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes joins the pod.

“Secrets of a Successful Organizer” is a core Labor Notes workshop that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can start using in your union campaigns.  It’s also based on our bestseller of the same name where we explore the basics of bringing members into the union, understanding how your co-workers are already organized, and identifying leaders who can amplify members’ demands and help build power.  Our “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” online workshop series usually takes place in three sessions on different themes: Beating Apathy, Assembling Your Dream Team, and Turning an Issue Into a Campaign.  In this third and final episode in a three-part pod series on this training, we’ll focus on “Turning an Issue Into a Campaign.”   Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes joins the pod. Listen to Part 1 and to Part 2 here!

“Secrets of a Successful Organizer” is a core Labor Notes workshop that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can start using in your union! This workshop series, based on our bestselling manual of the same name, usually takes place in three sessions focusing on different themes: Beating Apathy, Assembling Your Dream Team, and Turning an Issue Into a Campaign. In this second of our three-part pod series on our “Secrets” training, we’ll get into the theme of “Assembling Your Dream Team.” Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes joins the pod. Listen to Part 1 of this series here. 

If you’ve been to a Labor Notes event before, you’re probably familiar with “Secrets of a Successful Organizer,” one of our main workshop series that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can take to your union and start using in your campaigns. It’s also based on our bestselling manual of the same name where we explore the basics of bringing members into the union, understanding how your co-workers are already organized, and identifying leaders who can amplify members’ demands and help build power. Our “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” online workshop series usually takes place in three sessions where we focus on different themes: Beating Apathy, Assembling Your Dream Team, and Turning an Issue Into a Campaign. In this first of a three-part pod series on our “Secrets” training, we’ll focus on the theme of “Beating Apathy,” i.e. Your Co-Workers Actually Care About Making Your Workplace Better! Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes, who often leads “Secrets” trainings and teaches union members to run them too, joins the pod.

This next one's for soup lovers, haters, and everyone in between. You will learn a little about soup and less about what makes something a soup movie. But if you're here for the organizing take on The Birdcage (1996), American Psycho (2000) and Ratatouille (2007), grab a big spoon and a napkin, because soup's on! 🍜

Update on 4/6: JBS workers have agreed to go back to work and the company is returning to the table, Mother Jones reports.  Listen to / read our previous coverage on this strike, which workers had extended last week: Nearly 4,000 workers at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked off the job on March 16, launching a two-week unfair labor practice strike that they had extended then into a third week.  Workers spoke to Caitlyn Clark, an organizer at Essential Workers for Democracy, and Lisa Xu, a Labor Notes Organizer, who both join the pod this week. Read Caitlyn and Lisa’s Labor Notes story on the strike here. Learn more about the 1980s Hormel strike here.  Support striking JBS workers by contributing to their strike fund, supporting Essential Workers for Democracy’s fundraiser, and learning more about the strike here.  And learn more about the movement to revitalize the United Food and Commercial Workers in our podcast episode from June: “Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union.”

The new Labor Notes guide to Organizing a Union Reform Caucus spells out some basic concepts and definitions around reform caucuses and organizing, but will also be useful to anyone who has been on this path for a while. Labor Notes Organizers Lisa Xu and Barbara Madeloni (who is retiring) join the pod to talk through some deeper questions around running for office, the relationship between caucuses and leadership, and building democratic structures that can help members work through decision-making and conflict. This is part 2 of a two-part series on this new resource, which you can find on labornotes.org/caucus.   Listen to part 1 here.

Have you and your co-workers been shut out of bargaining? Have you felt pressured to vote yes on a contract you really didn't like? Do you feel like there aren't a lot of ways to address issues in your union besides filing complaints or grievances that seem to go into a void?  Rank-and-file members win more and build power in their workplaces when they also have a voice in their unions!  It’s the lesson that hundreds of thousands of workers—including educators, building trades workers, Hollywood film production crew members, Teamsters, United Auto Workers members, letter carriers and grocery workers— have held onto as they’ve fought for better from their unions and waged militant fights against the bosses.  If you and your co-workers are on this path, you’ll love the new Labor Notes Guide: How to Build A Union Reform Caucus. Find answers to questions like: What’s a reform caucus? Is that even the right option for me and my co-workers? How would it work? What about running for union office?  This is part 1 of a two-part series on this new resource, which you can find on labornotes.org/caucus.   Labor Notes Organizer Lisa Xu and and retiring Labor Notes Organizer Barbara Madeloni join the podcast.

In this first year of the Labor Notes Podcast, our weekly show on rank-and-file news and organizing tactics, we’ve covered mass strikes, contract fights, and organizing breakthroughs even in this era of escalating repression at work and on the streets. Retail workers are leading organizing drives. Building trades workers, letter carriers and grocery workers are pushing for more transparency and democracy in their unions. Immigrant workers and allies are strategizing ways to build power with their co-workers and neighbors to fight back against the brutality of immigration raids. In this anniversary episode, we look back at a year of workers banding together and raising expectations for what we can win. Here are links to past episodes we highlight in this one:  How Workers Pulled Off a Mass Strike in Minnesota (February 6, 2026) Casino Dealers Brought Back the Recognition Strike and Won (December 19, 2025) Starbucks Workers are on a Nationwide Strike for a First Contract (November 14, 2025) Are the Democrats F*cking Up the Shutdown? (October 24, 2025) Stewards’ Corner: Workplace Safety Is Not a Game (October 17, 2025) Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union (June 6, 2025) Stewards’ Corner: What if Union Meetings Were Actually Good? (May 30, 2025) Facing Privatization And DOGE Attacks, Postal Workers Are Fighting Back (April 11, 2025)

The antidote to despair, even in this era of extraordinary assaults against working people, is organizing. From autoworkers in Chattanooga, TN, winning their first contract to the trolleybus operators in Mexico City preparing to go on strike, there are pockets of labor everywhere building momentum.

Are you a new steward trying to find your footing and avoid rookie mistakes? Are you a veteran steward trying to grow your stewards’ network and make sure newbies stick around? This episode has advice for new stewards and old stewards alike and anyone else who is looking to build power in their workplace. Labor Notes Organizer Kari Thompson joins the pod.

Walking through your union halls or scrolling through social media in 2026, you’re probably encountering a stream of anti-immigrant propaganda. These views bleed into the workplace, where pushing back can feel daunting. But with immigration agents ramping up their assaults at workplaces and on daily commutes, workers are figuring out how to take up this conversation in a way that builds solidarity in their unions. IBEW Local 11 member Francisco “Paco” Arago and IBEW Local 666 steward Chris Anders join pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann to share how electricians are having organizing conversations around immigration. Read Natascha’s piece on dispelling anti-immigrant myths in the workplace. Paco is a member of the Latin American Electrical Workers Alliance or LAEWA, a new caucus formed in 2025, which Natascha and our co-worker Keith Brower Brown have previously reported on. LAEWA is working on revitalizing Latino member organizing in the union. Follow LAEWA on Instagram at @laewa.local11 Chris and Paco are both also members of Caucus of Rank-and-File Electrical Workers, or CREW, which is a new member caucus that launched in September, as our co-worker Keith reported at the time. Follow CREW on Instagram at @rankandfile_crew

We bet that when you’re watching Valentine’s classics like Mamma Mia, Wuthering Heights, or The Princess Bride, you’re thinking not just about yearning, intrigue and some very gloomy hills, but also about collective action, the campaign mountain, and building power from the ground-up!   If not, here are some classic Labor Notes pieces to get you falling in love with your union all over again:  Don’t Complain, Organize!   Info Requests Can Cool an Overzealous Boss!  Slingshot: Take the High Road Taking Bottom-Up Action Changes the Balance of Power

More than 75,000 people, including teachers, food service workers, Uber drivers and many others marched through downtown Minneapolis on January 23, where federal agents have staged a military occupation in the Twin Cities since December.  The march was part of a day of action in Minnesota, and the culmination of a call for “No Work. No School. No Shopping,” by unions, houses of worship and other civic organizations. For many who participated, it was a foray into flexing economic disruption muscle, and an escalation from large demonstrations like “No Kings,” which have drawn millions to the streets. Joining this episode are Labor Notes staffers Luis Feliz Leon and Diana Varenik, who were there with workers in Minneapolis on January 23 and that weekend. Read Luis’ dispatch from Minneapolis: In the Twin Cities, A Massive Strike Against ICE

More than a million workers across the manufacturing, telecomms, health care, grocery, higher education and other sectors will be taking on their bosses in major contract expiration fights this year. These campaigns are an opportunity for rank-and-file workers to build power on the shop floor and in their unions. They can also help workers strengthen connections across the labor movement to fight existential threats in this new era of deadly immigration raids and billionaire assaults against workers and the public sector. Labor Notes organizer Keith Brower Brown joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann. Keith and Natascha wrote the piece, One Battle After Another: The Big Contract Fights Coming in 2026.

Thousands of nurses, members of the New York State Nurses Association, are heading toward the third week of their open-ended strike, an uncommon strategy among nurses and a rare show of organized strength and resolve. They’re defending the safe staffing ratios that nurses have fought hard for and won through prior strikes; they’re fighting for better conditions for patients at underfunded hospitals like Montefiore in the Bronx; they’re demanding better protocols against workplace violence; and they’re fighting to make sure that management won’t just recklessly force the use of A.I. to replace the medical judgement of skilled and experienced human nurses. Read Labor Notes' coverage this month of the NYSNA strike.  Follow us on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for labor news updates! 

The documentary Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution charts the seemingly improbable course set off by a group of workers in Buffalo, New York, who organized the first Starbucks location in 2021 and helped to grow a highly visible, energetic movement. The film casts Starbucks workers as a symbol of persistence in the face of vicious union-busting, and projects hope for renewed militancy among rank-and-file workers everywhere. Director Chris Sessions and Andy Myers from Working Films join pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann. Support Striking Baristas!  1. Organize a screening of "Partners" in your community! Learn more: https://www.partnersthefilm.com/   2. Sign the "No Contract, No Coffee" pledge and don't buy from Starbucks during the strike: nocontractnocoffee.org   3. Contribute to the Starbucks Workers United national strike fund.   Check out our previous episode on the SBWU strike from November, featuring barista Sabina Aguirre and Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown.

Listen here to part 3 of our webinar in November with Haymarket Books and The American Prospect, featuring contributors to our Roundtable Series on how unions can defend worker power under Trump 2.0. You can read all the articles in the series here! Hear perspectives from Baltimore Teachers Union President Diamonté Brown, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter, and UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla. This webinar was co-moderated by pod co-host Natascha and David Dayen from The American Prospect. Listen to Part 1 here.  Listen to Part 2 here. 

Making new year’s resolutions we can actually keep *and* working on rebuilding the labor movement? That’s two birds with one handful of birdseed, as our gentle-hearted editor Al Bradbury would say. What would other Labor Notes staff say? Tune in to hear their voice note resolutions!  And if you too are going into the new year with a fresh sense of resolve and vigor—and maybe more than a few battle scars—you're not alone, and we want to hear from you!  Send us your resolutions, organizing questions, and even your holiday movie organizing takes, and we’ll try to tackle them on air! You can record a voice note on your phone or computer and email it to [email protected].

What do a "Charlie Brown Christmas," "Love Actually," "Little Women" and many of your other holiday faves have in common? We at the Labor Notes pod have played them backwards to decipher their coded organizing messages. 

You can count cards, mute your poker tells, or patiently coax the windfall out of a slot machine that someone just gave up on—but the house always wins, right?  And yet, 200 casino dealers at the Horseshoe Indianapolis Casino in Shelbyville, Indiana, just found a surefire strategy to stack their odds: solidarity. Dealer Tera Arnold joins the pod, along with our editor Al Bradbury, who reported last month on what has since become a victorious strike for union recognition, as members voted  overwhelmingly on Dec. 5 to join Teamsters Local 135.

Listen here to part 2 of our webinar last month with Haymarket Books and The American Prospect, featuring contributors to our Roundtable Series on how unions can defend worker power under Trump 2.0. You can read all the articles in the series here! Hear perspectives from Baltimore Teachers Union President Diamonté Brown, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter, and UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla. This webinar was co-moderated by pod co-host Natascha and David Dayen from The American Prospect. Listen to Part 1 here. 

Mail and parcel delivery workers at Canada Post, who are members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, have been bargaining for two years against an intransigent management whose stonewalling is being supported by the Canadian government.  CUPW members have mounted full on strikes twice in just the past year, and taken several other disruptive actions. Management meanwhile has largely ignored their proposals and advanced policies that would end vital services and slash jobs.  This story reflects a phenomenon of the privatization era: the rhetoric of fiscal responsibility is being used to erode affordable, quality public services, and to eliminate stable middle class jobs. And the way that CUPW members are organizing to fight back has lessons for workers everywhere.  Read the story by pod co-host and staff organizer Danielle Smith: “Canadian Postal Workers Strike Again.”

Listen here to part 1 of our webinar this month with Haymarket Books and The American Prospect, featuring contributors to our Roundtable Series on how unions can defend worker power under Trump 2.0. You can read all the articles in the series here! Hear perspectives from Baltimore Teachers Union President Diamonté Brown, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter and UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla. This webinar was co-moderated by pod-cohost Natascha and David Dayen from The American Prospect.

International solidarity more than just a chant. It’s how we will raise conditions for workers across borders without allowing the bosses to play us against each other.  Few things make that more explicit than the story of what auto workers in Mexico have been dealing with—from their employers, from some of their unions, and from U.S. trade policy. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), passed in 2020, was tasked with reviewing the implementation of Mexico’s labor reforms. But those reforms have proved challenging to implement, demonstrating the limits of legal solutions to problems that ultimately call for organizing. Read the story by Labor Notes pod co-host and staff writer Natascha Elena Uhlmann: "We Can’t Bridge the U.S.-Mexico Wage Gap Without Supporting Organizing in Mexico."

As of Thursday morning, members of Starbucks Workers United were on strike in 65 stores across the U.S., a massive escalation in their fight for a first contract. They are asking customers not to buy coffee at any Starbucks location during their strike. Starbucks baristas have been in bargaining for over a year and half now, after striking regularly to get the company to the bargaining table in February 2024, as our editor Jenny Brown reported at the time. Baristas have said that they are subjected to low pay (starting at $15 to $19 an hour) that leaves them dependent on SNAP and Medicaid, and that they are dealing with dire understaffing that's led to overwork for them and long wait times for customers. Joining the pod this week are Jenny Brown, and Starbucks barista Sabina Aguirre, who works in Columbus, Ohio. Learn more about how members organized to get strike ready in Jenny’s recent piece, “Strike Captains and Practice Pickets: Starbucks Workers Aim to Bring a Contract Home.” Starbucks Workers United members are asking customers to show solidarity by:  Not crossing the picket line — don’t buy Starbucks from any of its locations during the strike. Joining a picket line near you by using the Starbucks Workers United picket line map.  Joining the allies call on Monday, November 17  Amplifying their posts on Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, and Bluesky.  Learn more at nocontractnocoffee.org.

The current moment in the U.S.—marked by billionaire assaults on the working class, the Trump administration’s authoritarian maneuvers, and widespread voter dissatisfaction with both major political parties—presents new challenges and opportunities for the labor movement.  Rank-and-file members can and are demanding more of their leaders, and unions are being challenged to think about how they should be mobilizing their roughly 14 million members right now.  If the goal is to lift up independent working-class leaders and organizations, what should unions be doing differently to rebuild union density and democracy?   Eric Blanc, one of the contributors to the Labor Notes Roundtable series, where we have invited organizers and scholars to address that question, joins the pod to discuss his piece, “After No Kings, How Can We Escalate?” Blanc is an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and an organizer trainer in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.

What can horror movies and fiction teach us about fighting back against the real life horrors of our bad bosses? Tune in to our Hallowepisode to hear about the organizing lessons we saw in the 1988 cult classic from John Carpenter, They Live, and Shirley Jackson’s 1959 pillar in the horror genre, The Haunting of Hill House. Plus, a little Stewards Corner with… Nosferatu (2024) Gulp! But don’t worry, we don’t bite.

Federal Workers organizing with the Federal Unionists Network have been using the shutdown to organize within their unions, and to push the message that workers should collectively stand firm against cuts to vital programs and executive overreach. Their actions are bringing clarity and organization to the fight at a time when leading Democrats are framing the shutdown as an inconvenience and Donald Trump as its perpetrator.  Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown joins the pod.

Employer-run safety games are not merely instructional or even “fun.” They’re there to trivialize workplace hazards and to pass the buck onto individual workers for their own safety, instead of listening to workers about how to eliminate the dangers they encounter at work every day.  Labor Notes Organizer Kari Thompson joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann to talk about a Stewards’ Corner piece we ran on this topic, titled, “Workplace Safety is Not a Game.” This piece was adapted from the UE Steward, a project by the United Electrical Workers Education Department that publishes how-to articles. Browse them all at bit.ly/UESteward.

Workers at Wells Fargo are organizing the first union at a major U.S. bank—in one of the least-organized industries in the country. Labor Notes Editor Dan DiMaggio, whose story on their organizing efforts is on the cover of our October issue, joins the pod. You can also read his piece,“Wells Fargo Workers Push to Bring A Union to the Banking Industry,” on our website. Subscribe to the Labor Notes magazine by Tuesday, October 14, to start receiving it from the November issue onwards: labornotes.org/subscribe

Announcing the New Labor Notes Resource: May2028.org Are you and your co-workers organizing against attacks on our democratic rights as workers? Are you, like an estimated 250,000 workers so far, committing to heed United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain’s call for a coordinated strike? Are you already planning other ways to be part of a nationwide show of power less than three years from now? Visit May2028.org for new Labor Notes guides on organizing with your fellow union members, co-workers, and members of your community. Labor Notes organizers Luis Feliz Leon and Keith Brower Brown join the pod. 

We're taking a break from the pod this week as our staff meets in person to make plans for the next six months of Labor Notes programming! We'll be back to our regular schedule next week with a new episode on Friday, 10/3. In the meantime, send us voice notes of your organizing questions to [email protected]! We can't wait to feature them on a future episode and answer your questions. See you back here next week!

Last month, workers at some of the Los Angeles and Santa Monica locations of Sugared + Bronzed, a salon chain offering spray tanning and sugaring hair removal services, voted to unionize with Communications Workers Local 9505. Workers say the job is an arduous balancing act of delivering a comfortable, safe experience providing intimate services to customers, while navigating a breakneck pace of appointments. Inside the fight to build a beauty salon chain union. 

Union members have Weingarten rights, stemming from a Supreme Court ruling in 1975, to ask for a steward at any meeting they believe could lead to discipline. Stewards can do a lot to support members in these meetings, and also organize against patterns of unfair discipline. Labor Notes Organizer Kari Thompson, who leads some of our Stewards’ Workshops, joins the pod.

Air Canada flight attendants, who in August had voted 99.7% to strike, were hit with a back to work order within a day after they walked out last month.  But 10,000 of them defied the order and held the line, highlighting their campaign to get paid for all their uncompensated work when the cabin doors are open. Plus: the Labor Notes Troublemakers School is coming to Toronto in October, and will spotlight the rank-and-file militancy of our union siblings up North! Sign up here to join workers in Toronto on Saturday, Oct. 18!

Workers at Mauser Packaging Solutions in Chicago, who handle dangerous chemicals with what they’ve said is insufficient safety equipment, have been on strike since June 9. These workers, members of Teamsters Local 705, have been on an unfair labor practice strike after Mauser also illegally surveilled union members who were speaking with their business agent during a break, according to the union.  Labor Notes Organizer Luis Feliz Leon joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann. Stories we talk about in this episode: 1. ‘Toxic’ Laundry, Melting Aprons: Mauser Strike Hits Two Months 2. Dispatch from the Employer Offensive: Mauser Teamsters Strike Back 3. “Want to Defend Immigrant Workers in Your Contract? Here Are Some Suggestions.”

In their book, Get on the Job and Organize, former Starbucks worker and organizer Jaz Brisack tells the story of the seemingly improbable success of organizing baristas scattered in small stores across the country. A good companion to Brisack’s account is What the Boss Doesn't Want Us to Know: Discovering Power and Winning Campaigns, by Tom Juravich, Olivia Geho, and Andrew Gorry, a book-length adaptation of research techniques outlined on the website strategiccorporateresearch.org. If you want to learn who finances your employers, who its key decision makers are, where your employer makes most of its profit, you’d want to start here.  Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann.

Meeting with management is never fun. And worse, those meetings can become another place the bosses try to push workers around. But we can take control back in the meetings by showing up united and acting like a union. Labor Notes Organizer Joe DeManuelle Hall joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann as they discuss how we can make labor-management committees and other meetings with management work to our advantage. For more in-depth advice, don't miss this guide by the late labor educator Charley Richardson. 

Talking to neighbors about the issues they care about can be a lot like organizing coworkers to make your workplace better. The goal is to listen, cultivate relationships and build power as a working class. Tune in to hear pod co-hosts Natascha and Danielle talk about Danielle's experience volunteering on the Zohran campaign and why it's meaningful for workers everywhere.

Francisco Ortiz, president of United Teachers Richmond in California, and Chris Spurlock, a steward in Teamsters Local 135 at Zenith Logistics (a third-party operator for Kroger), shared how their unions organized to coordinate on bargaining and contract expirations. They shared their experiences in a recent Labor Notes online webinar. Hear the main highlights in this episode.

On the cover of the upcoming Labor Notes August/September issue is the divided, tentative response of building trades union leaders to the Trump administration’s assaults on immigrant members and equity initiatives, and its cancellation of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of construction projects. Labor Notes organizer Keith Brower Brown joins the pod.

There's a perception that unions shouldn’t take up “divisive” issues like immigration, and should focus instead on bread-and-butter topics members already agree on. We think that’s bad advice! Organizing around social issues like the defense of immigrant workers is an opportunity for open, productive conversations based on mutual respect—and it can mobilize members who feel left behind by their unions.  Ryan Andrews, an English teacher and member of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) put it this way: “Anybody who thinks we have to ignore certain issues or avoid certain political conversations in order to grow the base, they don’t understand what it means to grow the base.”  As Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Sarah Lazare report in a collaboration with Workday Magazine, workers across the country are taking up the fight against ICE, and strengthening their unions in the process.

As the GOP budget bill formalizes this administration’s large-scale attacks on government agencies and programs meant to support working people, it’s worth remembering the labor struggles that built them in the first place. Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown joins the pod.

What's the secret of winning a strong contract? Hint: You won't find it at the negotiations table! In our "Winning a Strong Contract" workshop series, we talk about how we can build power away from the table to win our demands in bargaining.   Labor Notes Organizer Lisa Xu joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Ulhmann for an overview of the workshop, including concepts like the campaign mountain and campaign power spiral. "Winning a Strong Contract Parts I & II" will be running the next two Mondays (July 7 and July 14th), and you can sign up at labornotes.org/events.

Peek into the upcoming July issue of the Labor Notes magazine, featuring stories about grocery workers in Indiana fighting for a strong contract, and stories on the running theme of what it means to live under attempts at authoritarian rule and how working people are organizing right now.  Get the Labor Notes magazine! To start with the August issue, subscribe by July 22: labornotes.org/store/labor-notes-subscription

Auto executives are well aware of what could be won should Mexico's independent auto union continue its winning streak: there hasn’t been a shared contract at 2 facilities in the Mexican auto industry’s 100-year history, a precedent SINTTIA is determined to break.  The union made headlines when 6,500 workers voted overwhelmingly to join at GM’s Silao, Guanajuato plant in 2022. On the eve of a union election at a second GM facility, the company is flagrantly favoring a competitor union, SINTTIA says—a union that some allege has ties to organized crime.  “It’s no use having a little plant with great working conditions and pay,” said Willebaldo Gómez Zuppa, a SINTTIA advisor. “Because ultimately, across the auto sector, all of the other plants are pushing conditions downward.” Improving standards for the long haul will depend on independent unions like SINTTIA building density in the sector as a whole, starting with key players like GM.

California educators across the state are joining forces in their fight for full staffing, safe and stable schools, and competitive compensation in their contract negotiations this year. The “We Can’t Wait” campaign involves 32 locals covering 77,000 public school educators in California. That’s about a quarter of the California Teachers Association’s total membership, and those educators serve 1 million students.  Educators spoke with Labor Notes organizer and pod co-host Danielle Smith about how they united around common issues, lined up their contracts and organized their coworkers to maximize their leverage.

What grocery workers are organizing for, and the way they’re doing it, can be a model for working class unionism. In recent years, reform-minded members of the United Food and Commercial Workers—UFCW, one of the largest unions in the U.S.—have ramped up their campaigns to make their union more democratic and responsive to the needs of its 1.3 million members. These members have organized toward resolutions at the 2023 convention, including to have direct elections of the international union’s top officers. They sued the international in the spring of 2024 over other union democracy issues, pointing out how the UFCW allocates fewer delegates to larger locals.  And they’re leading more vigorous contract fights and campaigns than we've seen in these sectors in decades. Their fight can tell us a lot about how vital a reform current can be in transforming a union to actually represent its members’ interests, and fight for the working class as whole.    

Most union meetings are, frankly, pretty dry and ineffective. To an outsider, the agenda looks more or less the same every month, and it seems like the usual suspects show up to either pat themselves on the back, or fight. Labor Notes Organizer Joe DeManuelle-Hall joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann as they share ideas to make union meetings more engaging and useful.