An unorthodox, irreverent, and battle-tested strategy for workers to leverage the power we already have
We know how our workplaces should be, but they’re changing for the worse. We know how we want the world to be too, but billionaires are doing their best to make things fall apart.
In Unions of Our Own, veteran labor organizer and co-founder of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union Daniel Gross provides a radical, step-by-step framework for workers who want to fight for the better workplaces they’ve always envisioned—and dream of bigger changes, too. In a world teeming with union-busters and bad bosses, Daniel Gross reveals the eight building blocks needed to build a sustainable labor union that can actually stand up for workers’ needs.
Through practical tools and real-world examples, Unions of Our Own is an actionable, inspiring, and confidence-boosting handbook on how to win the workplace—and the world—we all deserve.
Arvustused
"I have known Daniel Gross for over twenty years, and I have never met a more indefatigable and stubbornly optimistic organizer. Finally, Daniel has brought us Unions of Our Own, an immensely practical and accessible guide for building workers power. Daniels vast experience organizing with workers comes through in every page of a book that is sure to become an instant classic in an era of increasingly chaotic politics and economics. If your workplace lacks a union, this is the book to read with your fellow workers. If you are already a union member: read this book to expand your ranks and build more power from the bottom up."
Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
"Daniel Gross shares with us what he has learned through decades of experience as a worker and labor organizer. Thought provoking, in-depth, based on values."
Alice Lynd, coeditor of Rank & File: Personal Histories by Working Class Organizers and coauthor of Stepping Stones: Memoir of a Life Together
"Unions of Our Own is the book I wish we had when we were starting our union campaign. It'll be right there with us as we train new organizers and beat back our Nestlé-owned employer. Internationalist, committed to workplace democracy, and unlike anything available to workers today, this book wrests back the full scope of unionism where it belongs: to those of us on the shop floor. Daniel Gross has written a practical guide for union organizing which is committed to a radical vision of how unions can transform society. Essential reading for anyone fed up with work and considering a member-controlled union to do something about it."
Alex "Gonzo" Pyne, barista and president of Blue Bottle Independent Union
"Daniel Gross' Unions of Our Own is an important intervention into how we can organise at work today. Across different sectors and countries, in existing unions or building one from scratch, workers are experimenting with what forms of organisation can build rank-and-file power. This is coming up against both old and new challenges. Unions of Our Own provides important arguments and examples of how we can take these challenges seriously, while building organisation with solidarity at its heart. It is essential reading for anyone organising in a unionor wanting to start a new one."
Jamie Woodcock, author of Troublemaking: Why You Should Organize Your Workplace
"Unions of Our Own is the book so many of us have been waiting for. If you are fed up at work and furious about the direction of this economy and the world, this book offers a new framework and philosophy for building real power within our workplaces to change our working conditions, and the world. Filled with concrete examples of worker-driven organizing, the book puts out there some of the key moves we made in building Rideshare Drivers United, a twenty-thousand-member, driver-centered organization. Daniel Gross has written both a compelling story and a clear road map for confronting authoritarianismon the job and beyond. Read it with your coworkers. Then start building!"
Nicole Moore, Lyft driver and president of Rideshare Drivers United
Introduction
Establishing a connection with the reader, via the miseries of work - lays
out the general framework. Includes some of Daniels experience at Starbucks
and Borders
Part 1 | Considering the Union Journey
Work Problems, Work Solutions
Work is daunting, dont be daunted by organizing. It can be done!
Organizing and Operating a Union at Your Job
General overview of whats involved with a union & contrasting to mainstream
union models
Part 2 | The Foundational Building Blocks to a Union of Your Own
Building Block 1: Constituency | Choose Your People
Pretty self-explanatory: who is it that youre organizing?
Building Block 2: Problem | Whats Most Painful?
Grievances, shared and particular: race, gender, sexualities, status, etc.
and how to build on them.
Building Block 3: Solution | Solve Problems with Solidarity
The importance of an injury to one is an injury to all how to tackle those
questions among co-workers, minority organizing strategies
Building Block 4: Strategy | Power to Win
Becoming coworkers with a sense of collective self; what are our goals, what
does winning mean, and identifying strategies
Part 3 | The Sustainability and Growth Building Blocks
Building Block 5: Mechanism | Hold Your Gains, Define Your Character
How to understand collective bargaining, cease-fire agreements, and
issue-by-issue agreements, among others. Contrasting the cost / benefits of
those for workers interests
Building Block 6: Structure | A Union You Control
What a democratic union is, why it's important, and how to conceive of a
structure that reflects the interests of the workers.
Building Block 7: Funding | Resources to Win
How to conceive of the finances for your new union
Building Block 8: Metrics | Measure Your Model, Focus Your Work
Daniel Gross has been doing worker-led organizing and union-building for more than two decades, accompanying thousands of workers creating unions in their workplaces. Together with his co-workers, Gross helped found the groundbreaking IWW Starbucks Workers Union, which held power for over a decade at the coffee giant and helped revitalize a more inclusive labor movement.
Gross has practiced labor law from a rank & file perspective and served on the board of the National Lawyers Guild and the Food Chain Workers Alliance. He is also the founding director of Brandworkers, the first worker center of immigrant workers in the metro New York local food manufacturing industry.
With Staughton Lynd, he is the co-author of the classic Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law as well as the graphic pamphlet, Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks, with illustrator Tom Keough. He is based in New York City.
