Organizing can be tough. Co-workers get scared, meetings flop, committees crack, leaders disappoint, and momentum stalls. But when everything feels like it’s falling apart, this book will be your lifeline—helping you get back up, dust yourself off, and figure out your next step.
Are there problems where you work? Maybe your pay is too low, conditions are unsafe, or your boss has it in for someone you work with... and you’re ready to do something about it.
This book will show you how to fight back where you work and win. You’ll learn how to identify the key issues in your workplace, build campaigns to tackle them, anticipate management’s tricks and traps, and inspire your co-workers to stand together despite their fears.
We've distilled generations of organizing know-how into 47 easily accessible secrets. Put them all together and you've got a step-by-step guide to building power on the job.
Also available: a Spanish edition and a companion trainer's guide to this book.
Do you want to know how to run your local union more effectively or how to get more members involved? Democracy Is Power, by Mike Parker and Martha Gruelle, provides a blueprint for building a member-driven union. They demonstrate what member control really looks like, and why it is crucial to labor's future. With a focus on union activity in the workplace, the authors describe democratic approaches to contracts, grievances, communications, and leaders’ relationship with members.
Whether you're a new union steward, or simply want to bone up on your legal knowledge for an upcoming campaign, Robert Schwartz's The Legal Rights of Union Stewards is a welcome addition to your library.
This easy to navigate book is a primer on your rights as a steward and walks you through all the basics from the National Labor Relations Act to the grievance process to Weingarten rights.
Just cause is the keystone of the union contract, protecting members from unwarranted and excessive discipline. But up to now many of its most important secrets have been restricted to arbitrators and labor professionals.
In Just Cause: A Union Guide to Winning Discipline Cases, veteran labor lawyer Robert M. Schwartz—best-selling author of he Legal Rights of Union Stewards—offers a step-by-step guide filled with advice, practical tips, and winning techniques. Grievance representatives can use these methods to compose compelling arguments. Many unions use Just Cause every day to save workers’ jobs and build solidarity.
Topics covered include: Requesting information; Due process; Double jeopardy; Disparate treatment; Hearsay; Zero-tolerance rules; Last chance agreements; Off-duty misconduct; Negligence; Sexual harassment; Sleeping on the job; Dishonesty; and Presenting grievances.
Don't let your boss be the only one who's informed on your rights as a union member to organize a strike, picket, or action. Robert Schwartz's latest book, a revised third edition of No Contract, No Peace: A Legal Guide to Contract Campaigns, Strikes, and Lockouts, walks union members and leaders through their rights to speak out.
An easy-to-read resource and a powerful tool for any union mobilizing its ranks, this book will help you organize your next contract campaign, work grievance action, or picket.
Other Books
Do you think your union needs a new direction? Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work?
Then this book, written by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, is for you. You'll learn how to develop a winning campaign timeline; how to build a slate; the ins and outs of raising money and campaigning; and how to ensure a clean election.
This comprehensive guide includes advice on: Campaign timelines; Picking your slate; Campaigning do's and don'ts; Leaflets, mailings, websites, and more; Raising money; Getting a clean election; Getting out the vote; Dealing with negative attacks;
Designed for new stewards and veterans alike, more than 135,000 copies of The Union Steward’s Complete Guide have been sold since the first edition was published in 1997. This widely-acclaimed resource has been updated once again to reflect changes in today’s workplaces and the ever-shifting challenges stewards face in representing their co-workers.