L&EC EVENTS
at the
2013 AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee
Annual Conference


The 2013 AFL-CIO LCC Annual Conference took place from June 2-5, 2013, in Pittsburgh, PA. 

NLG Labor & Employment Committee - BREAKFAST at the LCC

Organizing Outside the NLRA: New Efforts at Work and in the Community

Worker organizing has been in a box, with four walls called the N – L – R – and A.  But workers with limited or no collective bargaining rights, from fast food workers, warehouse workers, washeros, taxi drivers, domestic workers, and tomato pickers to children of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi have begun using new organizing methods and other laws (such as FMLA, ADA and FLSA) to address violations of workplace standards and rights.

Over the past decade, traditional unions have begun supporting "worker center" organizing to address the civil and human rights of workers who are unrepresented but ready to fight for a voice at their job and in their community. Are we now seeing the emergence of new and different organizational forms and strategies? Can networks of "stewards" be established to build worker power and give them tools to agitate and speak out without recognized bargaining rights? Will "minority" unions have legal relevancy in the future? What are organizations such as Working America, UE, the USW Associate Members Program, and AFL-CIO thinking about new approaches for organizing workers in the informal sector and those in temporary low-wage industries?

SPEAKERS

Click here for a leaflet for the breakfast

Jenn Jannon is the national Mobilization Director for Working America, the 3 million member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO and the fastest growing organization for working people in the country.  Click here for information about Working America.

Margot Nikitas is Associate General Counsel for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) in Pittsburgh.  She will speak about their warehouse campaign.

Below are several articles related to this topic:

BACKGROUND MATERIAL

The following articles touch on issues related to increasing organizing and new forms of organizing.  They supplement the June 3 breakfast program in Pittsburgh. 

Labor chief Richard Trumka: "We won't be taken for granted" by Josh Eidelson.  November 12, 2012.  The AFL-CIO president talks Obama's win, the struggles ahead, and the movement's evolving political role.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article on Salon.com.

Get a Union, Get a Ticket to the Middle Class by Mike Hall.  February 1, 2013.  The Union difference is the ticket to the middle class.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article on AFL-CIO Now's Blog.

As Union Membership Declines, Organizers Must Adapt by Matthew McDermott.  January 24, 2013.  Dear labor folks: if your response to today's statistics is anything other than "ORGANIZE" you lose.  Click here for a copy of this article. 

Alt-Labor by Josh Eidelson.  January 29, 2013.  Nonunion workers’ groups are gathering strength across the country. But will they ever make the kind of impact that traditional labor once did?  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article in The American Prospect.

How to Build a New Labor Movement, One Step at a Time by Abby Rapoport.  May 22, 2013.  Earlier this month, labor-rights group Working America launched FixMyJob.com .  Click here for a copy of this article from AlterNet.  Click here for the AlterNet link.  Click here for the original article published in The American Prospect.

In Walmart and Fast Food, Unions Scaling Up a Strike-First Strategy by Jenny Brown.  January 28, 2013.  Small but highly publicized strikes by Walmart retail and warehouse workers last fall set the labor movement abuzz and gained new respect for organizing methods once regarded skeptically.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here to read the original article at The Bullet.

Do You Give As Much Thought to Restaurant Workers as You Do to Your Organic Chicken? by Amy B Dean.  January 28, 2013.  An interview with organizer Saru Jayaraman of Restaurant Opportunities Center.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article on Truthout.

Workers of the World, Sit Tight by Adam Davidson.  January 29, 2013.  What will an America with no private sector unions look like?  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article in the New York Times Magazine.

7 Amazing Fights for the Rights of Workers by Laura Gottesdiener.  January 2013.  From Houston janitors to Chicago teachers, 2012 will be remembered as the year workers played their most powerful card: the strike.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article on Alternet.org.

New "Unity Unions" Self-Organize to Confront Workplace Abuses by Amy Dean.  October 24, 2011.  The last five years have been grim and isolating ones for immigrants and working people, right?  Overall, this may be the case, but with you talk with organizers at Fuerza Laboral [...] you might get a different impression.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article on Truthout.

Seven Unions Petition NLRB to Mandate Minority Bargaining by Carl Horowitz.  September 10, 2007.  Click here for a copy of this article.  Click here for the original article on National Legal and Policy Center.