Labor Notes

Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979. Through our magazine, website, books, conferences and workshops, we promote organizing, aggressive strategies to fight concessions, alliances with workers’ centers, and unions that are run by their members. Labor Notes is also a network of rank-and-file members, local union leaders, and labor activists who know the labor movement is worth fighting for. We encourage connections between workers in different unions, workers centers, communities, industries, and countries to strengthen the movement—from the bottom up. That movement is needed because workers are being hit hard by their employers. We have lower real wages, less job security, and smaller, weaker unions than our mothers and fathers did. For the most part, our leaders are doing a poor job of navigating us through the crisis. Some can’t get beyond business-as-usual; others see the need to organize by the millions, but don't believe that workers themselves need to have a say in their unions. Some unions operate only to service their members’ bread and butter needs instead of encouraging their involvement in a movement to fight the employer offensive and transform our society. With more than 30 years of movement building behind us, Labor Notes exists as a resource for leaders and union members who want to combat these trends and chart a new course for the labor movement.