Eric Dirnbach is a union researcher and socialist. He lives in New York City.
When it comes to reversing labor’s decline, union elections through the National Labor Relations Board have proven woefully insufficient. We need strategies for building workplace power that aren’t dependent on the NLRB.
In 2022, Amazon workers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island became the first in the US to win a union election. The new documentary Union gives a compelling glimpse behind the scenes of the victory — and the challenges that have come since.
Two key questions confront labor: should unions focus on organizing workers with major strategic leverage in the economy? Or should they welcome any workers willing to fight, since that organizing can constitute a major catalyst for other workers?
Millions of workers want a union. The Emergency Worker Organizing Committee, a project launched by socialists and the United Electrical Workers at the beginning of the pandemic, offers insights into how to organize them.
Four decades later, the 1979 pro-labor movie Norma Rae still holds up.
Halfway through the year, the number of large strikes in the United States is at the highest level in decades.