Thursdays – May 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2025
5pm-7pm Pacific via Zoom
How unions negotiate is a strategic choice. Union members seldom directly participate in the process of collective negotiations over issues that are crucial, urgent, and relevant to their own lives. This workshop will discuss how negotiations can be different––very different––from what has become the norm.
We will draw from Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Negotiation by Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor to stimulate a robust conversation about collective bargaining: how it is practiced, how it can be improved, and how the practice and process of negotiations relate to power, union governance, and democracy in the workplace and beyond. At a time when workers’ rights are under increasing threat from the federal government and large corporations, and when workers are fighting to win first contracts at Starbucks, Amazon, and elsewhere, Power and Participation in Negotiations will teach urgently-needed skills to expand union members’ collective negotiations practices to build unity, commitment, and power, and strengthen union democracy.
This four-session workshop will focus on the “why” and “how” of moving towards high-power, high-participation negotiations. It is designed for unions at all stages of contract negotiations, including workers organizing for first contracts and workers organizing for new successor agreements, whether for a second, or even a fortieth, contract. Through examining the book’s case studies, participants will learn how workers can use the collective bargaining process to achieve transformative contracts through deep organizing and member-driven strategy. The workshop will show how an organized membership and high-power, high-participation negotiations are key to an effective system of collective negotiating. By the end of the workshop, each group will produce a plan to open their collective negotiations practice using the skills they have learned.
