Rand Wilson is a long-time union organizer and strategic adviser to the CHIPS Communities United coalition.
Nothing is more important for unions right now than organizing Amazon. Organizers can learn from the Fight for 15’s success at building pressure through a broad public campaign — and its failure to build a real organization of, by, and for workers.
In the latter half of the 20th century, labor leader Tony Mazzocchi fought for a progressive political vision that put working-class concerns front and center. His example continues to be invaluable for labor and the Left today.
Unions have the resources to organize Amazon and are already working to do so. Building Amazon “labor tables” in key metro areas — regular meetings where unions agree to coordinate their efforts — will be crucial to advancing organizing efforts further.
Chipmaker Intel has been laying off thousands of its American workers — as it rakes in billions in subsidies from the US government and lavishes multimillion-dollar severance and compensation packages on its former and current CEOs.
The late and legendary Teamsters reform leader Ron Carey briefly succeeded in a monumental task: turning around a corrupt and conservative union. Today’s aspiring reformers looking to revitalize their own unions can learn from his career.
At Starbucks, Amazon, UPS, and many other workplaces, there are enormous opportunities for radicals to organize on shop floors. If you want to rebuild the labor movement, get a job and start organizing with your coworkers.
A wave of collective bargaining agreements are set to expire across the public and private sector this year. It will be a perfect opportunity to build class consciousness — and for labor to show the unorganized why it’s so important to have a union.
Amazon is one of the most important companies in the American and global economies. If enough out-of-work socialists and other fed-up workers got jobs at the company and organized, they could build real working-class power in the 21 century economy.
Thirty years ago this summer, 60,000 telephone workers walked off the job in New York and New England — and stayed out for seventeen weeks. Their struggle against NYNEX, a telecom giant, became one of labor’s few big strike victories, during a decade that began with the disastrous defeat of PATCO, the national air traffic controllers union.
Amazon plays a key role in the twenty-first-century economy and has shown it’s vulnerable to pressure. Socialists should get jobs there and organize.
An organizer with Labor for Bernie argues that the gains won within the Democratic Party must be defended and expanded.
The movement for labor to endorse Bernie Sanders is part of an effort to bring political decision-making back to the rank-and-file.