Announcements 📜
2024 Sustaining Donor Drive!
On Labor Day, EWOC is launching our 2024 Sustaining Donor Drive! We’re now recruiting volunteers to organize our co-workers, friends, and family to make monthly donations. Anyone who gets five people to make a recurring monthly donation at $5 or more gets a FREE T-shirt (pictured below), designed by Ian O’Hara and Zander Krakowiak! Check it out, and sign up here!
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EWOC Staff
We’re so excited to share that Wes Holing is joining EWOC’s staff as our digital team coordinator. Wes has worked as an EWOC volunteer since 2020, initially building EWOC’s website. Based in Portland, Oregon, Wes is an expert on all things related to media, web content, and digital branding!
Employment Opportunities
Cool lefty job alert: In These Times is hiring an audience engagement editor focused on digital outreach, social media, and article promotion generally. Be sure to mention any EWOC work you’re involved with when applying. More details here!
Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU Local 32) is hiring a full-time business representative! If you live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, or Delaware and want to be a part of negotiating first contracts and moving to a more aggressive form of unionism, please apply!
Upcoming Events 📆
Author Talk: New Labor Book Series | Unite and Win
Tonight! Wednesday, August 28, 2024, 5–6:30 p.m. ET / 2–3:30 p.m. PT
Please join us for an Author Talk featuring our incredible EWOC organizers, Terry Davis, Atulya Dora-Laskey, and Daphna Thier. This free, online event, hosted by EWOC volunteer Siena Chiang, is part of the New Labor Book series at Interintellect. Event attendees will receive a complimentary copy of Unite and Win! Register here.
September! EWOC Foundational Training Series for Workplace Organizers
Wednesdays, September 4–25, 2024, 8–9:30 p.m. ET / 5–6:30 p.m. PT
In four 90-minute weekly sessions, you will learn how to approach your co-workers, build a team of organizers among them, and develop a campaign. You will meet other workers who are organizing and learn helpful tools, practices, and principles for winning workplace improvements and getting a democratic voice over your working conditions. We also welcome those who are interested in joining EWOC as a volunteer and supporting other organizing workers! Space is limited to 120 participants, so register here today!
Celebration of the Life and Work of Jane McAlevey
Thursday, September 5, 2024, 8–10 p.m. ET / 5–7 p.m. PT
Join the UC Berkeley Labor Center for a virtual celebration of the work of Jane McAlevey. Jane’s life’s work was guided by her understanding of the high stakes of the moment we live in, and the urgent need to take organizing seriously by massively scaling up our capacity to win concrete victories. The UC Berkeley Labor Center will celebrate Jane’s immense impact on the labor movement, hear from labor and community leaders who organized, worked with, and trained with Jane, and learn about the ongoing UC Berkeley Labor Center programs that Jane built. Guest speakers will share how Jane’s work transformed their organizing and continues to inform their approach today — from fundamental organizing skills to big and open negotiations, from power structure analysis to whole worker organizing. Please register before the event. There will be simultaneous Spanish interpretation.
Buffalo Labor Notes Social
Thursday, September 5, 2024, 6–8 p.m. ET at Eugene V. Debs Hall
Join local troublemakers for a happy hour in Buffalo, New York (483 Peckham Street, Buffalo, NY 14206). Get to know other union activists and Labor Notes supporters in your area! Beer, wine, cider and pop are available for purchase in the hall, and some food will be provided. If you can make it, RSVP here.
EWOC Trainers Workshop
Saturday, October 5, 2024, 1–5 p.m. ET / 10 a.m.–2 p.m. PT
Are you interested in facilitating trainings for EWOC or running trainings in your community? Sign up for the EWOC Trainers Workshop! The course will cover the principles of EWOC’s Foundational Training series, as well as adult learning and popular education methodology. We will work on our facilitation skills with some of the most experienced EWOC facilitators, learn how to talk through organizing skills and worker rights, and cover how to lead powerful group discussions. The session is four hours long, on Zoom, with a 30-minute break in the middle. Spots are limited, so sign up today! Please note: It is strongly recommended that participants complete the EWOC Foundational Training before registering for this workshop.
There’s still time to sign up for the September series.
Circuit Breakers
October 12–15, 2024 in San Francisco, California
A national tech labor conference for organizers and activists in the tech industry to come together and learn, build community, strategize, and recognize our collective power. We’re hoping to have some EWOC organizer training workshops as part of the mix, along with speakers and panels from many successful (and continuing underground) campaigns over the past few years. Find more information and register here! Please pass it on to anyone who might be interested! Twitter: @techworkersco
EWOC in the News! 📰
Here’s where we celebrate EWOC campaign wins and EWOC mentions in the press.
Bill T. Jones dancers and support staff seek union (The Chief)
Congratulations to New York Live Arts Workers Union and EWOC volunteer organizers, Harry August, Liz Stone, and Debra Bergen! With patience, the workers developed a strong organizing committee and forged connections across job titles. It took leadership and persistence to build the NYLA Workers Union! We’re so proud to stand with them!
Instagram: @nyliveartsunion
Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure
EWOC adjacent win! A few years ago, EWOC’s Eric Dirnbach was supporting a worker at the Queens, NY Guitar Center store. They eventually organized with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), and they have a new contract!
Hybrid/remote employees at WGU receive “return-to-office” mandates (Salt Lake City Weekly)
EWOC is credited in this article as workers at the all-online Western Governors University are organizing right now to push back against this unfair policy, which they see as a ruse to implement mass layoffs while blaming the workers.
Sign and Donate! Support Tabletop Workers United in New York City in their fight for a fair contract. Sign their letter of community support and donate to their GoFundMe page if you can.
EWOC volunteers including Patrick Cate are spotted on the picket line standing with Communication Workers of America (CWA) union in Chattanooga, TN.
Labor’s visibility and influence in this year’s election
Two high-profile labor leaders, Sean O’Brien and Shawn Fain, were featured in the two major political party conventions. Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters made a controversial appearance at the Republican National Convention delivering a speech praising Donald Trump and calling JD Vance “pro-worker,” while also criticizing corporations like Amazon for obstructing contract negotiations.
Shawn Fain, the president of United Auto Workers, delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention condemning corporate greed and calling Donald Trump a scab. Other speakers at the event called for the Democratic party to return to its roots as a political party that delivers for the working class. Tim Walz, the vice presidential candidate, himself a long-time union member, has governed in Minnesota with pro-worker policies.
For the labor movement, the two party system has long posed a significant challenge – how can we demand more if our endorsement of Democratic candidates is taken for granted? As organizers, we know that the fight for better working conditions and a better world involves the day-to-day grind of organizing workers and with it building our political strength. Our power lies in our union members and by raising union density, not by relying on a single politician, political party, or election.
World of Work 🌎
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) passed a resolution to align contract expirations with United Auto Workers (UAW) for May 1, 2028!
First U.S. unionized Apple retail store workers reach historic tentative labor agreement
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) has reached a tentative labor agreement with tech giant, Apple. This is a huge step forward for tech organizing! Read the contract here.
Twitter: @MachinistsUnion, Instagram: @acoreunion
Op-Ed: The DPS School Board Should Adopt a Policy Recognizing Durham Educators’ Rights to Have a Union Voice (INDY Week)
President of the Durham Association of Educators suggests creative ways to get union recognition in a “right to work” state like North Carolina where public-sector collective bargaining has been banned.
Storm King Art Center Workers Celebrate First Union Contracts (Hyperallergic)
Workers at the Storm King Art Center (SKAC), an outdoor sculpture museum in New York’s Hudson Valley, passed their first-ever union contracts in late July after eight months of negotiations. They are joining a wave of recent union gains at Philadelphia Museum of Art, the American Art Museum in New York, and Denver Art Museum.
Dallas theater says dancers were fired over video not union efforts (Dallas News)
Dallas Black Dance Theatre claims that it terminated its entire main company of dancers due to an Instagram video. The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union representing the fired dancers, has issued a “Do Not Work Order” against the theater.
EAS workers have won their union! (Southern Workers Assembly)
Workers at the Environmental Air Systems plant in High Point, North Carolina, which includes welders, fitters, and other skilled workers, voted to unionize with United Association, Local 421. The final vote tally was 28, YES and 15, NO in favor of unionization.
Crooked Media Workers Union on X:
Staff at Crooked Media have changed their name in the work slack to “FAIR CONTRACT TODAY” and are reacting to all messages with “”. This is a thoughtful pressure tactic and structure test for folks who primarily work remotely or online!
Starbucks has abruptly ousted its CEO who approved negotiations on a landmark labor contract with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU). His replacement is Chipotle CEO, Brian Niccol, who has fought unions aggressively.
Organizing Tip of the Month 💡
Your Right to Organize a Union by EWOC
Many thanks to EWOC organizers Jen Brown, Lisa Landry, Greg Bosley, and Jake Gogats for creating this comprehensive pamphlet, now available on our EWOC blog! Please use and share this valuable resource far and wide!
Organizing is how we change the world.
There is power and safety in numbers, and when we come together with our co-workers we can win change at work.
If you’ve started organizing, you may have hit some big questions. Whether you are concerned about the legality of organizing at work or wondering what your rights are when you organize for any issue or a union drive, these questions can derail you and make even a conversation seem intimidating.
That is where this guide comes in. We’ve heard from many workers who have wondered and worried about the same questions. This guide covers a few important questions and topics we’ve come across in our work supporting thousands of workers just like you.
What Are the NLRA and the NLRB?
Passed in 1935, the NLRA, or National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act), protects workers’ rights to unionize, bargain collectively, and strike. Before this, unions were often seen as criminal conspiracies. The NLRA also defined “unfair labor practices” and required employers to bargain in good faith. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enforces it and generally cannot be overridden by local laws.
New on Our Blog and Other Labor Resources 💻
The Supreme Court’s Starbucks ruling is a gift to bad bosses everywhere by Bill Barry
Experienced organizers know how difficult organizing is, especially because the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is like the US Constitution, a series of general principles that are subject to political and judicial interpretation.
Anatomy of a Union-Busting Campaign by Amary Wiggin
Union busting is common, but the silver lining is that it’s also predictable. Bosses pull from a playbook that hasn’t changed much in the past century.
How can I talk to my co-workers about unionizing without losing my job? by Shannon Sheu
Recent wins from labor unions have inspired workers to consider unionizing, but what should you consider when first talking with your co-workers?
My Victory Over Fred Meyer (NLRB Edge)
An article by Matt Bruenig on the significant limits of the NLRB, even when you win. An excellent illustration of why we organize.
Unions Need Both Democracy and Strong Leadership (Portside)
Ben Fong’s interview with Rachel Milkman provides insights on union democracy, the efficacy of militant tactics, and valuable lessons for today’s labor movement.
This Week in Labor History 📚
AUGUST 25
1819: Birth of Allan Pinkerton, whose strike-breaking detectives (“Pinks”) gave us the word “fink.”
Solidarity,
Team EWOC
