The Labor Notes Podcast

If you’ve been to a Labor Notes event before, you’re probably familiar with “Secrets of a Successful Organizer,” one of our main workshop series that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can take to your union and start using in your campaigns.

It’s also based on our bestselling manual of the same name where we explore the basics of bringing members into the union, understanding how your co-workers are already organized, and identifying leaders who can amplify members’ demands and help build power.

Our “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” online workshop series usually takes place in three sessions where we focus on different themes: Beating Apathy, Assembling Your Dream Team, and Turning an Issue Into a Campaign.

In this first of a three-part pod series on our “Secrets” training, we’ll focus on the theme of “Beating Apathy,” i.e. Your Co-Workers Actually Care About Making Your Workplace Better!

Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes, who often leads “Secrets” trainings and teaches union members to run them too, joins the pod.

This next one's for soup lovers, haters, and everyone in between. You will learn a little about soup and less about what makes something a soup movie. But if you're here for the organizing take on The Birdcage (1996), American Psycho (2000) and Ratatouille (2007), grab a big spoon and a napkin, because soup's on! 🍜

Update on 4/6: JBS workers have agreed to go back to work and the company is returning to the table, Mother Jones reports. 

Listen to / read our previous coverage on this strike, which workers had extended last week: Nearly 4,000 workers at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked off the job on March 16, launching a two-week unfair labor practice strike that they had extended then into a third week. 

Workers spoke to Caitlyn Clark, an organizer at Essential Workers for Democracy, and Lisa Xu, a Labor Notes Organizer, who both join the pod this week.

Read Caitlyn and Lisa’s Labor Notes story on the strike here.

Learn more about the 1980s Hormel strike here. 

Support striking JBS workers by contributing to their strike fund, supporting Essential Workers for Democracy’s fundraiser, and learning more about the strike here. 

And learn more about the movement to revitalize the United Food and Commercial Workers in our podcast episode from June: “Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union.”

The new Labor Notes guide to Organizing a Union Reform Caucus spells out some basic concepts and definitions around reform caucuses and organizing, but will also be useful to anyone who has been on this path for a while.

Labor Notes Organizers Lisa Xu and Barbara Madeloni (who is retiring) join the pod to talk through some deeper questions around running for office, the relationship between caucuses and leadership, and building democratic structures that can help members work through decision-making and conflict.

This is part 2 of a two-part series on this new resource, which you can find on labornotes.org/caucus.  

Listen to part 1 here.

Have you and your co-workers been shut out of bargaining? Have you felt pressured to vote yes on a contract you really didn't like? Do you feel like there aren't a lot of ways to address issues in your union besides filing complaints or grievances that seem to go into a void? 

Rank-and-file members win more and build power in their workplaces when they also have a voice in their unions! 

It’s the lesson that hundreds of thousands of workers—including educators, building trades workers, Hollywood film production crew members, Teamsters, United Auto Workers members, letter carriers and grocery workers— have held onto as they’ve fought for better from their unions and waged militant fights against the bosses. 

If you and your co-workers are on this path, you’ll love the new Labor Notes Guide: How to Build A Union Reform Caucus. Find answers to questions like: What’s a reform caucus? Is that even the right option for me and my co-workers? How would it work? What about running for union office? 

This is part 1 of a two-part series on this new resource, which you can find on labornotes.org/caucus.  

Labor Notes Organizer Lisa Xu and and retiring Labor Notes Organizer Barbara Madeloni join the podcast.