Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

How labor union organizing can help leverage today's movements, and why workers need unions more than ever before

Lengthening hours, lessening pay, no parental leave, scant job security… Never have so many workers needed so much support. Yet the very labor unions that could garner us protections and help us speak up for ourselves are growing weaker every day. In an age of rampant inequality, of increasing social protest and strikes – and when a majority of workers say they want to be union members – why does union density continue to decline? Shaun Richman offers some answers in his book, Tell the Bosses We're Coming.

It’s time to bring unions back from the edge of institutional annihilation, says Richman. But that is no simple proposition. Richman explains how important it is that this book is published now, because the next few years offer a rare opportunity to undo the great damage wrought on labor by decades of corporate union-busting, if only union activists raise our ambitions. Based on deft historical research and legal analysis, as well as his own experience as a union organizing director, Richman lays out an action plan for U.S. workers in the twenty-first century by which we can internalize the concept that workers are equal human beings, entitled to health care, dignity, job security – and definitely, the right to strike. Unafraid to take on some of the labor movement’s sacred cows, this book describes what it would take – some changes that are within activists’ power and some that require meaningful legal reform – to put unions in workplaces across America. As Shaun Richman says, “I look forward to working with you.”

1134376899
Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

How labor union organizing can help leverage today's movements, and why workers need unions more than ever before

Lengthening hours, lessening pay, no parental leave, scant job security… Never have so many workers needed so much support. Yet the very labor unions that could garner us protections and help us speak up for ourselves are growing weaker every day. In an age of rampant inequality, of increasing social protest and strikes – and when a majority of workers say they want to be union members – why does union density continue to decline? Shaun Richman offers some answers in his book, Tell the Bosses We're Coming.

It’s time to bring unions back from the edge of institutional annihilation, says Richman. But that is no simple proposition. Richman explains how important it is that this book is published now, because the next few years offer a rare opportunity to undo the great damage wrought on labor by decades of corporate union-busting, if only union activists raise our ambitions. Based on deft historical research and legal analysis, as well as his own experience as a union organizing director, Richman lays out an action plan for U.S. workers in the twenty-first century by which we can internalize the concept that workers are equal human beings, entitled to health care, dignity, job security – and definitely, the right to strike. Unafraid to take on some of the labor movement’s sacred cows, this book describes what it would take – some changes that are within activists’ power and some that require meaningful legal reform – to put unions in workplaces across America. As Shaun Richman says, “I look forward to working with you.”

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Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

by Shaun Richman
Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

by Shaun Richman

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Overview

How labor union organizing can help leverage today's movements, and why workers need unions more than ever before

Lengthening hours, lessening pay, no parental leave, scant job security… Never have so many workers needed so much support. Yet the very labor unions that could garner us protections and help us speak up for ourselves are growing weaker every day. In an age of rampant inequality, of increasing social protest and strikes – and when a majority of workers say they want to be union members – why does union density continue to decline? Shaun Richman offers some answers in his book, Tell the Bosses We're Coming.

It’s time to bring unions back from the edge of institutional annihilation, says Richman. But that is no simple proposition. Richman explains how important it is that this book is published now, because the next few years offer a rare opportunity to undo the great damage wrought on labor by decades of corporate union-busting, if only union activists raise our ambitions. Based on deft historical research and legal analysis, as well as his own experience as a union organizing director, Richman lays out an action plan for U.S. workers in the twenty-first century by which we can internalize the concept that workers are equal human beings, entitled to health care, dignity, job security – and definitely, the right to strike. Unafraid to take on some of the labor movement’s sacred cows, this book describes what it would take – some changes that are within activists’ power and some that require meaningful legal reform – to put unions in workplaces across America. As Shaun Richman says, “I look forward to working with you.”


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781583678572
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Publication date: 05/22/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Shaun Richman spent a decade and a half as a union organizer and representative. He is the Program Director of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies at SUNY Empire State College. His writing has been published in The American Prospect, In These Times, Jacobin, The New York Daily News, and the New York Times, among other outlets.

Table of Contents

Preface 7

1 The System Is a Trap 11

2 Our Peculiar Union Shop 26

3 The Routine of Collective Bargaining 39

4 Two Reasons Why Most Unions Don't Do Large-Scale Organizing 54

5 The Changes That We Have the Power to Make 61

6 Bringing Back the Strike 81

7 An All-in System of Labor Relations 112

8 A Right to Your Job 129

9 Get the Boss Out of the Doctor's Office 137

10 And We Have to Fix the Labor Board … 151

11 Conclusion 172

Appendix: Labor's Bill of Rights 179

Notes 218

Index 234

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