The final event of our The Promise and Perils of Democracy series concerned the very core of democracies – the well-being of its constituent members: fair wages and working conditions for workers, their families, and their communities. To that end, a group of outspoken, activist and effective union and labor organizers from a broad range of industries took the stage: Keith Bullard (COMMUNITY) organizer for the Union of Southern Service Workers; Mark Meinster, director of organization for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE); Sara Nelson (POWER) international president of the Association of Flight Attendants – CWA, AFL-CIO; and Anthony Rosario (SOLIDARITY), organizer from Teamsters Local 804, who is working on the Amazon and UPS campaigns. The event was moderated by Sarah Hughes, organizer, trainer, and writer at Labor Notes, and former coordinator of the Union Semester program at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. The speakers contextualized their work within the logic of the capitalist system and democracy, provided keen insights into their goals, agendas and demands, the state and organization of their unions, and their plans for strikes. They see an upsurge, a storm coming. Presented jointly with the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, this is the inaugural event of the conference “How Workers Win: Rebuilding Labor’s Power.”
Please watch the discussion here: