Stewards’ Corner: Move Your Co-Workers Without Annoying Them!

Are you and your co-workers looking for ways to defend and support immigrants on your shop floor? Maybe you’re trying to practice organizing skills that you’ve picked up at a Labor Notes workshop or Troublemakers School?  Or your bargaining unit is building toward a strike? You and other union-members are talking about having more of a voice in your union? You’re organizing in the South?  There’s a Labor Notes Resource for that!  Along with our regular shop floor coverage and magazine, Labor Notes has created resources, including special issues, How-To guides, and book handouts for stewards, reformers, contract action team and bargaining committee members, and all rank-and-file activists fighting for more. In this episode, pod co-hosts Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Danielle Smith talk about two in particular: Winning protections in your contract for immigrant workers and Using our handouts that accompany the hit Labor Notes book “Secrets of a Successful Organizer.” 

They’re calling it the Be Normal challenge. Sure, an important goal of an organizing conversation with a co-worker is to move them toward action. But there are ways to do that while treating them with respect, and continuing to build a relationship that keeps them connected to the union.  Order your copy of Ellen’s new book for Labor Notes! Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It’s Hard

You and your co-workers have worn boo-nion pins. You’ve sent reply-all emails demanding a “Fair Contract Now and For All of Eternity.” But to take your ghoul-idarity to the next level, get ready to march on the boss and read your list of demands off the ritual book.   Three spooky season classics—Beetlejuice (1988), Halloweentown (1998), and The Exorcist (1973)—have bone-chilling yet practical tips to build power on even the most cursed shop floor, and sure to leave the boss’s head spinning 360 degrees.    PLUS: Don’t miss these upcoming trainings! Spanish language online training: Serie de Capacitaciones: Secretos de un Organizador Exitoso, los jueves 5, 12 y 19 de noviembre Online Workshop: How To Beat Tiers And Rebuild Unity In Our Unions, Tuesday, Nov. 17 Stewards' Workshop: How to Have a Good Meeting, Wednesday, Nov. 18

In honor of The Strokes’ ongoing Reality Awaits tour, which the Labor Notes pod cares about a normal amount, we talk about organizing lessons we’ve pulled from films of the grimy Lower East Side dive bar era of 2006-2013 with our favorite indie rock needledrops: Marie Antoinette (2006), 500 Days of Summer (2009), and The Bling Ring (2013).  If you’re a fan of Secrets of a Successful Organizer and have complicated feelings about Zooey Deschanel and Sofia Coppola, you are the target demographic for this episode.   PLUS: Don’t miss these upcoming trainings! -Secrets of a Successful Organizer online training series on Mondays, Oct. 26, Nov. 2 & 9! -Spanish language online training: Serie de Capacitaciones: Secretos de un Organizador Exitoso, los jueves 5, 12 y 19 de noviembre

Mexican Volkswagen workers who build the Jetta, Tiguan, and Taos at the company’s Puebla plant are poised to strike, after rejecting the company's latest contract offer on October 15. The 6,500 workers work at the largest Volkswagen facility outside of Germany and belong to SITIAVW, one of Mexico's most storied independent unions. Read pod co-host Natascha Elena Uhlmann’s report on the campaign: Mexican VW Workers Weigh Strike as Company Cuts Jobs Globally

Eight hundred workers at a distribution center in Mississauga, Ontario, organized with Unifor Local 252 a couple years ago, and have now won a two-year contract with Walmart, a major first in the North American retail giant. Kari Thompson, who reported on the successful campaign for Labor Notes, joins the episode.  Read the story: Canadian Walmart Workers Make History: A Union Contract

When workers at the parts retailer AutoZone organized to form the company’s first ever union, their boss pulled out the big guns—but they still won their election! Also in this episode: Video Game Workers at Blizzard have won their first contract and 1,400 solar manufacturing workers have joined the Steelworkers. Labor Notes Podcast co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann break down the big lessons (and some important firsts) in three key organizing stories.   Also check out:  AutoZone Workers Are Trying to Form the Company’s First-Ever Union Video Game Workers Win First Contract at Microsoft-Owned Blizzard Fourteen Hundred Solar Manufacturing Workers Join the Steelworkers

If you’re holding bad meetings, caving to management, and trying to do everything yourself, congrats—you’re already well on your way to fumbling your shot!    On the other hand, if you want to actually advance a positive vision for your union that energizes members, you can ground your next union election campaign in tried and true organizing principles.    Also check out:  How to Lose Your Next Election, A Step-By-Step Guide, by Dan Campbell

They lure people into their campaigns, grow phone trees, and machete a path out of fear. It turns out some of our archetypal evil heroines—Amy Dunne of Gone Girl, sisters Sally and Gillian Owens of Practical Magic, and Merricat Blackwood of We Have Always Lived in the Castle—have some positively devilish organizing tactics (disclaimer: not all of which we endorse!) up their dark, trumpet sleeves. Also check out: 1. All Horror Movies Are About Organizing, Actually: The Labor Notes Podcast  Hallowepisode 2. Steward's Corner: A Path Out of Fear 3. Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It's Hard  

Tyson workers at a meatpacking plant in Joslin, Illinois, arrived at work one day in mid-August to discover that it was suddenly closed and that 2,500 of them would be out of jobs.  These workers—members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546—are now rallying to demand that the plant reopen, or that they at least be given six months of severance pay rather than the two the company has offered.  Caitlyn Clark of Essential Workers for Democracy reported on the plant closure for Labor Notes, and joins this episode.  A representative for UFCW Local 1546 did not respond to emailed requests for comment.  Relevant reading:  2,500 Tyson Workers Laid Off, Plant Shutters Overnight The First Major Meatpacking Strike in 40 Years Extends into Third Week Learn more about the movement to revitalize the UFCW in our podcast episode from June 2025: “Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union.” The incoming new CEO of Tyson just purchased $1 million in Tyson stock, almost immediately after an announcement of low projected earnings due to the beef sector. (Read more here)