#labour organizing

[sturionic]

Your post "Activism is Not Cold-Calling" came across my dash. The point about building community to persuade makes a lot of sense to me.

You mentioned several trainings you've taken and taught as a volunteer labor organizer that discusses the specific nuts and bolts of it. I am wondering if there are resources you'd recommend for someone wanting to add tools to the toolbox. I'm not organizing labor; I'm a parent interested in improving equity in the local schools. But I think at least some of the strategies should transfer well, and I'd like to learn more.

Thanks.

Hi there! Your instinct is very, very correct: a lot of the organizing principles used in union drives transfer well to different forms of organizing. Things like structured organizing conversations and workplace mapping are incredibly useful skills.

Personally, I think the best comprehensive top-down view of effective organizing for a beginner is Jane McAlevey's works. Jane passed away this past summer. We really lost a true titan, an absolute force of nature; but she's left behind a wealth of invaluable materials - books, articles & other writings, interviews, speeches. The first few pages of No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age rewired my brain and made me think about organizing in a whole new way, and I've read that book practically to death, it's barely hanging on lol. You can find McAlevey's works here: https://janemcalevey.com/

Of course, McAlevey's oeuvre is very union-focused and goes deep. If you're just looking for some quicker concepts, Labor Notes has tons of study guides, handouts, and other bite-sized materials that explain organizing concepts. You can buy them on the site (support them if you can!), but they're mostly also pretty easy to find online, or modified versions other people have made. Labor Notes also runs regular online trainings which are excellent.

Lastly, I know you said you're not specifically doing union stuff, but on the off chance anyone reading this is interested in unionizing their workplace: check out Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee. You can contact EWOC directly and they will help you organize your workplace, and they also have their own excellent resources and run regular trainings. You can also get involved by becoming a trained organizer (like me!) and volunteering for them. (EWOC is, of course, American; if any other Canadians are reading this and interested in organizing, feel free to DM me and I can put you in touch with people.) EDIT: I'm seeing people in the notes of my post recommending IWW's materials, and they are so right! Look up "IWW Organizing Manual" and "IWW Organizing Basics." They are great & digestible reads, and IWW has many more resources on their site and archives. (If anyone else has resources to recommend, have at 'er!)

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Canada’s Unions are Organizing to Defend Workers From Far-Right Anti-2SLGBTQ+ Hate Groups

How Canada’s labour movement is fighting a wave of anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate

The Canadian Labour Congress has launched an emergency task force to address escalating anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate as unions across Canada begin mobilizing to defend queer and trans people in workplaces and beyond.

Unionized workplaces, such as libraries and schools, have become battlegrounds in far-right attacks against queer and trans people across the country.

Gina McKay, president of CUPE Manitoba and CLC equity vice president for 2SLGBTQ+ workers, said she’s seen hate affect workers at many levels, from hostile parents to anti-drag protests to book bans.

But the role of unions goes beyond protecting individual workers facing this hate in the workplace. The labour movement has the power to mobilize on-the-ground support, something the 2SLGBTQ+ community needs right now, McKay explained.

“That kind of organizing is exactly what we need because we know that the right is organized,” McKay told PressProgress. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[ecology-of-the-inhuman]

The garage workers at Fredericton Toyota have been fighting for four months to be certified as a labour union. In

[The garage workers at Fredericton Toyota have been fighting for four months to be certified as a labour union. In February, 80 per cent of the workers signed membership cards in an application to form a union, but they’ve been awaiting recognition.

Since the filing, pro trade union employees say they have dealt with a campaign of pressure and harassment from management, including re-arrangement of their duties, disciplinary action that could lead to termination, and intimidation.

Michael Myshrall, a mechanic, says he’s being targeted for being pro-union. “Management started filing complaints against me after they found out I was organizing,” says Myshrall. “I’ve never been written up before that.” Myshrall is currently on stress leave until June 30th.

The workers are forming a union to bargain for fair compensation and workplace health and safety. “We’re not really asking for too much, we just want a safe workplace and pay for time worked,” says Myshrall.

In New Brunswick labour law, the Labour and Employment Board typically recognizes applications based on the amount of worker support: if 40-50 per cent of workers in the bargaining unit support the application, recognition goes to a vote. If 50-59 per cent of workers support the application, the board can decide whether to hold a vote or recognize the union. At 60 per cent, the Labour and Employment Board certifies the formation of a union without a vote.

A hearing to recognize the union is scheduled for June 17, 2021.]

[sovietjewry]

Bread Upon the Waters (1944) by Rose Pesotta (by Tamiment Library, NYU)

Rose Pesotta (1896-1965) was an anarchist, feminist labor organizer and vice president within the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

Born Rakhel Peisoty in Derazhnia, Ukraine in 1896 to a family of grain merchants, Pesotta was well educated during her childhood and, influenced by the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), would eventually adopt anarchist views. In 1913, at the age of 17, Pesotta emigrated to New York City and found employment in a shirtwaist factory, quickly joining the ILGWU, a union representing the mostly Jewish and Latina female garment workers. Working hard to educate her fellow workers, Pesotta was elected to the all male executive board of ILGWU Local 25 in 1920.

Pesotta also contributed occasional articles to the anarchist newspaper Road to Freedom (the successor to Emma Goldman's Mother Earth), where she found herself on more than one occasion debating other anarchists on the merits of working within traditional union structures, and was heavily criticised for such activities by Marcus Graham.

Pesotta played a key role, together with Lea Roback, in the unionization of Montreal's women's garment workers, in the ILGWU, in April 1937.

In 1944 Pesotta resigned from the executive board of the union in protest of the fact that, despite 85% of the union's membership were women, she was the sole female executive member. She had repeatedly complained to David Dubinsky, then president of the union, that she felt uncomfortable being the token women on the board but the union continued to not allow other women to rise to leadership positions, despite the fact that Dubinsky had voiced a similar protest years earlier about being the only Jew on the executive board.

(via Wikipedia)