A “march on the boss” is a direct action tactic in which workers collectively and publicly confront their boss to make one or more demands. Whether you are using it in the context of a direct action plan aimed at winning a specific demand or set of demands or to apply pressure in the lead up to an election or during contract negotiations, knowing how to effectively deploy a march on the boss should be in every organizer’s toolkit.
Any sort of disruptive action in the workplace, like a march on the boss, carries the risk of discipline and retaliation. The primary goal of the march should be to advance the workers’ plan to win on the issues they care about the most. A march on the boss is usually one step in a sequence of escalation tactics, preceded by other smaller tactics and followed by others, increasing the pressure each time.
When should we march on the boss?
Using the march on the boss tactic is best right after an important galvanizing event: a boss fires or disciplines a co-worker, or negotiations reach a deadlock, for example. At times like these, it’s particularly useful to increase pressure in a public show of force.
Marching on the boss simultaneously shows off the depth and commitment of your union’s organization, while also serving to test your organizing capacity. Union organizing involves a lot of uncertainty on both the side of the boss and the workers. It also shows that you can plan a march and rally your co-workers in solidarity, which can help get the boss to budge on the target you’ve chosen ahead of time.
Properly timing the march in the context of the overall campaign is important too. The campaign will be a lot more effective during later stages of organizing once most of the employees connect and commit to the organizing effort.
What does the march actually look like?
A march on the boss depends on a lot of factors, but your primary consideration should be the number of workers in question. Remember, this is an intimidation tactic, so the collective of employees must be imposing enough to have an effect on the boss and cause them to rethink their position. You must remain aware of the power balance at play and ideally think through it yourselves:
- How many people do you need to mobilize for the demand in question?
- Does some specific department of our workplace have a stronger PR effect than the others?
Consider, for example, maternity ward workers in a hospital organizing a march on the boss: Materially, they might represent a smaller fraction of the hospital’s profits than the surgery department, but they hold a lot of sway in the public eye and are typically paid worse and thus easier to organize.
How do we win?
There are several ways you can maximize your chances of success, but the necessary components are commitment, inoculation, and a constructive debrief.
Securing commitments
You must secure commitments from your co-workers through one-on-one conversations. Talk with them, ask what motivates them, and tie it into the campaign. If they feel that joining in on the march can meet their demands, you’ll have the numbers that matter. Once they commit, ask them to join you in planning the action and talking with more co-workers. The more involved they are, the more they will feel empowered by the action’s success, and they will be more likely to work with you on future escalations in the union campaign.
Inoculation
You must also prepare your co-workers for all possible outcomes. The workers involved must be aware of the potential retaliation and narrative that will come from the boss and choose to remain committed despite it. Before the action itself, you and your co-workers should role-play through the events and make sure everyone involved knows their tasks and where things may go wrong.
Constructive debrief
Once the march is over, it will be crucial to take a step back. Review the following:
- Did you win what you wanted going into the action?
- What worked? What didn’t?
- By going through this together, did you learn anything about the employer and their strengths or weaknesses?
This last question can help inform further action down the line.
You’ll also want to make sure everyone knows what the next steps are and how you’re preparing to respond to whatever the boss comes back with. Remember, this is a mere step in a larger campaign, so everyone involved must be ready to continue cranking up the pressure as the campaign moves forward.
