6 Creative Ways Workers Are Taking Back Power

When workers align with local constituents to fight for shared goals, it strengthens their campaign.

- By Yasmin Gagne, Pavithra Mohan, Lara Sorokanich, Kristin Toussaint, and Talib Visram

1 BARGAINING FOR THE COMMON GOOD

WHEN WORKERS ALIGN WITH LOCAL CONSTITUENTS TO FIGHT FOR SHARED GOALS, IT STRENGTHENS THEIR CAMPAIGN.

What if unions could help not only their members but also the broader communities where they work? That’s the concept of Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG), a practice in which unions team up with local community groups, racial justice organizations, students, and other stakeholders to establish shared goals and launch targeted action campaigns to see that they are met. When employees aren’t well paid or suffer from poor working conditions, the impact is “not just on workers but on the people that workers serve,” says Stephen Lerner, a senior fellow at the Bargaining for the Common Good Network, an organization born from the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. Here are three cases of BCG in action.

RECLAIM OUR SCHOOLS L.A.

Teachers’ unions are a natural fit for BCG: In 2014, United Teachers of Los Angeles created Reclaim Our Schools L.A., a coalition of teachers, students, and parents that spent more than a year researching and developing a campaign called “A Vision to Support Every Student.” When teachers went on strike in January 2019, parents and students joined in protests, and the six-day action won the districts more school nurses, counselors, and librarians; smaller classes; reductions in standardized testing; and other changes far beyond teacher pay (which also increased 6%).

CHICAGO TEACHERS’ STRIKE