Five Books on the Democrats and Labor
We asked scholar Eric Blanc to recommend reading on the party’s contentious relationship to the trade union movement.
103 Articles by: Eric Blanc
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Eric Blanc is an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. He blogs at the Substack Labor Politics and is the author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big.
Labor’s Resurgence Can Continue Despite Trump
Donald Trump will do his best to undermine unions. But the labor movement still has momentum on its side and numerous opportunities to seize. Trump’s presidency has to be a time for labor action, not despair.
Don’t Despair: Trump Isn’t Invincible
Donald Trump’s reelection is awful, but wallowing in misery only benefits his far-right agenda — and risks squandering the many opportunities we actually have to stop the worst of his plans.
Biden’s Labor Board Is Boosting Bottom-Up Union Organizing
To the surprise of many labor activists and leftists, Joe Biden’s National Labor Relations Board has boosted bottom-up unionism since 2020 — a fact that has key strategic implications for union revitalization efforts.
The New Labor Organizing Model of EWOC
Interest in unions and workplace organizing is high, but proactive workers have few opportunities to launch their own organizing drives. The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee is trying to change that.
Jane McAlevey Believed Workers Can Win Everything
The late labor strategist Jane McAlevey’s horizons were never limited to winning particular campaigns or even to revitalizing unions. What she wanted above all, and what she believed was possible if our side got “serious,” was for workers to take power.
Unions Need to Lose More If They Want to Win More
The UAW’s defeat at a Mercedes plant in Alabama was crushing. It’s also the cost of waging risky, potentially transformative fights. If labor wants to win big, it can’t be afraid to lose big.
Labor Can Scale Up Its Recent Wins
Can the new models of union organizing coming out of recent high-profile campaigns like Starbucks be a potential way to capture the current upsurge of support for and interest in unions? Labor scholar Eric Blanc thinks they can.
Worker-to-Worker Unionism: A Model for Labor to Scale Up
At the heart of the current uptick in union organizing at companies like Starbucks has been “worker-to-worker unionism.” That model could be key to scaling up organizing and revitalizing the labor movement.
Workplace Fragmentation Demands New Organizing Strategies
In recent decades, structural changes in the US economy have dispersed workers across workplaces and geographic areas. Labor’s decline can’t be reversed without addressing this new reality.
Seven Lessons from Starbucks Workers’ Historic Victory
The entire labor movement should wake up and pay attention to the lessons from Starbucks workers’ victory this week.
The US Labor Movement Had a Banner Year in 2023
From logistics to Hollywood to higher ed to auto, 2023 saw a promising upsurge in US labor militancy. Unions must seize this historic opening to reverse decades of decline.
Young Workers Can Provide the Organizing Energy That Unions Desperately Need
Gen Z and Millennial workers overwhelmingly support unions, and they’re at the forefront of the current organizing upsurge. Labor can take advantage of this opening — if union leaders get off the sidelines and devote massive resources to new organizing.
Can Boycotts Help Workers Win?
Consumer boycotts have a storied history in labor struggles like the United Farm Workers’ organizing campaigns in the 1970s. But they’re difficult to pull off. Veteran union organizer Stephen Lerner explains when a boycott can work for workers.
The Momentum Is on Labor’s Side Right Now
The US labor movement has a long way to go to reverse its decades of stagnation and decline. But it’s undeniable that things are currently looking up for unions — particularly in rank-and-file workers’ interest in organizing.
Workers Want to Unionize. Will Union Leaders Respond?
Conditions are ripe for labor’s revitalization. So why aren’t unions stepping up with massive financial and organizational support for workers’ organizing efforts?
A Trader Joe’s Worker Says She Was Fired for Organizing a Union. We Spoke to Her.
The latest union hot spot is a Trader Joe’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As at union drives at companies like Starbucks and Amazon, workers say Trader Joe’s has fired a key organizer for union activism. We talked to the fired worker about the campaign.
10 Years Ago Today, the Chicago Teachers Union Strike Changed Public Education
When the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike against Mayor Rahm Emanuel ten years ago, corporate education reform was on the march. The CTU won that strike, beat back the neoliberal Democrats, and turned the tide in favor of public education.
Chipotle Workers on How They Won the First Chipotle Union in the United States
Last month, Chipotle workers in Lansing, Michigan, became the first workers at the corporation to unionize. We spoke to three of the Chipotle workers and union activists about how they did it.
Comrade Thomas Piketty, Welcome to the Socialist Movement
For years, Thomas Piketty has articulated a cogent critique of 21st-century capitalism. He now appears to be moving beyond just critique to call for a 21st-century socialism.