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A riveting account of labor's bottom-up resurgence, providing a roadmap for workers, unions, and social movements to win widely.
After decades of union decline and rising inequality, an inspiring wave of workplace organizing—from Starbucks stores to Amazon warehouses to southern auto factories—has thrust unionization into the national spotlight. By analyzing this surge and telling the stories of the courageous workers driving it forward, We Are the Union makes a case for how to overcome business as usual in both corporate America and organized labor.
Eric Blanc shows that recent struggles have developed a new organizing model, worker-to-worker unionism, which builds scalable power by giving rank-and-filers an unprecedented degree of leadership. Through digital tools and ambitious campaigns, young worker leaders are turning the labor movement back into a movement—and they're winning. Rigorously researched and compellingly written, We Are the Union illustrates how this new grassroots approach can exponentially grow the power of working people to overcome economic exploitation, racial injustice, and authoritarianism at work and beyond.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Prologue
Introduction
PART ONE: ANALYSIS
1. Defining Worker-to-Worker Unionism
2. Organizing on a Dispersed Terrain
PART TWO: EXAMPLES OF VICTORY
3. Three Worker-to-Worker Wins
4. Many Ways to Win (Beyond First Contracts)
5. Starbucks Workers’ Big Breakthrough
PART THREE: HOW TO WIN BIG
6. Which Model Can Win Widely?
7. Tactics to Win Big
PART FOUR: DRIVING FORCES
8. Government Policy
9. Digital Tools
10. Youth Radicalization
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Survey and Interview Methodology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Description
A riveting account of labor's bottom-up resurgence, providing a roadmap for workers, unions, and social movements to win widely.
After decades of union decline and rising inequality, an inspiring wave of workplace organizing—from Starbucks stores to Amazon warehouses to southern auto factories—has thrust unionization into the national spotlight. By analyzing this surge and telling the stories of the courageous workers driving it forward, We Are the Union makes a case for how to overcome business as usual in both corporate America and organized labor.
Eric Blanc shows that recent struggles have developed a new organizing model, worker-to-worker unionism, which builds scalable power by giving rank-and-filers an unprecedented degree of leadership. Through digital tools and ambitious campaigns, young worker leaders are turning the labor movement back into a movement—and they're winning. Rigorously researched and compellingly written, We Are the Union illustrates how this new grassroots approach can exponentially grow the power of working people to overcome economic exploitation, racial injustice, and authoritarianism at work and beyond.
