Directly confronting the boss over workplace issues is a great way to make the union visible and vocal—with the added benefit of resulting in victories that matter. This workshop will teach participants the step-by-step process of organizing a march on the boss!
To cut costs, employers are imposing aggressive discipline policies like zero tolerance. Unions must be equally aggressive in insisting on time-honored just-cause principles. This workshop will help you to prepare and present grievance and arbitration cases, raising defenses such as disparate treatment, lax enforcement, and double jeopardy. A model request for information will be distributed.
The package business is booming, as ordering everything online becomes the norm. Public and private parcel companies influence each other’s standards and sometimes even handle the same packages in a complex supply chain. Panelists will compare their workplace concerns—including workload and staffing, unsafe conditions, supervisory harassment, and growing temporary workforces—and discuss strategies to fight back, in bargaining and through shop floor action.
Increased surveillance, outsourcing, and attacks on pensions and health benefits are putting the squeeze on transit workers. But there’s also a growing spirit of resistance, and efforts to ally with passengers and communities to push for enhanced public transit systems. Join a discussion of these challenges and opportunities with bus drivers and other transit workers from across North America.
Join Black activists to discuss what unions are doing and could do to address the issues affecting Black workers and communities most. How can we get our unions in gear and how can we build stronger connections across unions?
Women work in every industry and lead many unions, but we’ve still got a ways to go. Connect with other women workers to talk about what strategies we’re using to tackle the issues we still face on the job (and sometimes in the union)—including the pay gap, discrimination, harassment, isolation, family-unfriendly policies, and barriers to developing our leadership.