I’ve been a union organizer since 2021. I was the lead organizer for my union. I’ve confronted bosses, stood up to billionaires, organized strikes, planned workplace actions, faced retaliation, and helped grow class consciousness within the working class. We won union recognition in March 2024, and I was illegally fired in December 2024. The case to get my job back is still ongoing. I have stories, knowledge, strategy, and more, so ask me anything!
How did you get started? Did you contact an outside union for help? I see you mentioned CWA in the comments, and I think they’re the ones I was eyeing for my area, since they recently got a similar set of employees set up with a union.
The way I got started is a great story! Figuring out the company is left as an exercise for the reader.
In July 2021, my company was sued by California for rampant sexual harassment. This lawsuit triggered a huge worker revolt, over 1000 employees staged a walkout. I had never participated in a collective action before, but I wasn’t about to sit on my hands with the allegations, so I participated. I didn’t know what I could do to contribute, but I decided that I could help draft statements and joined that committee. We clearly laid out our demands to the company, and waited for their response. Weeks went by. Then months.
In September, I decided that we should stage another walkout, so I started drafting a statement for the writing committee to edit and started to build energy in the group. We didn’t get very far before someone influential in the group said that something good is going to come from the company soon, so we should pause the planning. A couple weeks later, we did get some good news! The company gave us some platitudes, and, as a gesture of good faith, the entire company will get the whole week of thanksgiving off as paid time. Then the other shoe dropped.
A bombshell article was published, not only showing that the CEO knew about the sexual harassment, but was complicit and protected harassers. We were furious. Unlike the first walkout that underwent planning, we staged a spontaneous walkout, again with over 1000 participants. We demanded that the CEO be fired. The board of directors responded with a statement that not only didn’t fire him, but reaffirmed total support for him.
We honestly didn’t know what to do. We were discussing our next steps, when one night I decided to say that we should form a union. Of course, when I proposed this, I was expecting someone else to actually do the work. “What could I possibly do?”, I thought, “I’m not a brave person. I’m shy and introverted. I’m not a leader, but I’ll support others”, I concluded. As it turned out, my advocacy got the attention of some of the people doing exactly that.
I was messaged the next day, by a coworker in California that liked what I had to say and invited me to a group that was explicitly trying to form a union. I was the first and only worker from Minnesota to join this group. Not a lot was happening from my perspective, but I was ready.
In December of 2021, some coworkers in Wisconsin seemed to report some good news. They got a raise! Then more coworkers from there reported in saying that they were laid off. Again, we were furious. The workers at that location staged their own walkout. Another day passed, and they still weren’t working. I joined them at this point, along with several other workers. Another day passed, and we still weren’t working. The workers leading this walkout decided to create a gofundme to establish a strike fund, and officially declare it a strike. While the strike went on, I continually volunteered for more stuff to support them. One day, a CWA organizer reached out to me. We talked for a couple hours, and it ended with an action item: get a list of the workers in Minnesota. I reached out to a coworker friend that wasn’t on strike for help, and he produced the list within an hour. It was official, I was a union organizer.
This is a great story. Thanks for sharing it.