You’ve learned the passes on the campaign mountain, figured out your co-workers’ most widely and deeply felt issues, and polished up your 1-1 skills. It’s time to start bringing in your co-workers—with the humble spreadsheet. 

List-building is a foundational organizing function that helps you map your workplace, reach out to members, and assess the strength of the union you’re building together.

This episode is based on a recent piece by Labor Notes Organizer Lisa Xu, “List-Building 101, or How to Expand Your Reach as a Troublemaker.” 

It’s natural to feel overwhelmed by the boss’ relentless union busting (it’s why they do it!) and to get discouraged by lapses and disengagement by union leadership.

It can also compound the difficulty of organizing—figuring out how to make a meeting worthwhile, how to connect with members when it feels like your shop floor is in disarray, or even getting through concrete tasks like drafting agendas and to-do lists when everything starts feeling heavy. 

That’s when a return to basic organizing principles—and coming up with structural solutions with our co-workers—may be the way forward. 

Teamsters Local 804 Organizer Antonio Rosario and Sarah Slichter from the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators, join the pod.

A.I is a management power grab, disguised as an inevitable technical upgrade. To fight it, workers can use four strategies proven in the past: name the real problem; unionize it; ransom it; and block it.

Also read the piece by Labor Notes Organizer Keith Brower Brown: Four Union Strategies to Fight on A.I.

The Fair Share Amendment in Massachusetts, which passed in 2022, has helped offer free community college to tuition residents, provide free school meals for students, run free regional buses, and has helped to fund a multi-billion-dollar capital program for public higher education and vocational high schools.

It’s a tax on the rich that brought in $3 billion in 2025 and went toward public education and transportation. Read more in the piece by MTA president Max Page: “We’re Making ‘Tax the Rich’ More Than a Slogan.”

There’s no magic formula for moving your co-worker (nor should there be)! Organizing is about building real relationships across the shop floor based on mutual trust and a shared vision for a better workplace—and having good 1-1 conversations is an important first step! 

“Secrets of a Successful Organizer” is a core Labor Notes workshop that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can start using in your union campaigns. 

“Secrets of a Successful Organizer” is a core Labor Notes workshop that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can start using in your union!

This workshop series, based on our bestselling manual of the same name, usually takes place in three sessions focusing on different themes: Beating Apathy, Assembling Your Dream Team, and Turning an Issue Into a Campaign.

In this second of our three-part pod series on our “Secrets” training, we’ll get into the theme of “Assembling Your Dream Team.”

Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes joins the pod. Listen to Part 1 of this series here. 

If you’ve been to a Labor Notes event before, you’re probably familiar with “Secrets of a Successful Organizer,” one of our main workshop series that packages a member-led organizing philosophy into a concrete action plan that you can take to your union and start using in your campaigns.

It’s also based on our bestselling manual of the same name where we explore the basics of bringing members into the union, understanding how your co-workers are already organized, and identifying leaders who can amplify members’ demands and help build power.

Our “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” online workshop series usually takes place in three sessions where we focus on different themes: Beating Apathy, Assembling Your Dream Team, and Turning an Issue Into a Campaign.

In this first of a three-part pod series on our “Secrets” training, we’ll focus on the theme of “Beating Apathy,” i.e. Your Co-Workers Actually Care About Making Your Workplace Better!

Labor Notes Organizer Sarah Hughes, who often leads “Secrets” trainings and teaches union members to run them too, joins the pod.

This next one's for soup lovers, haters, and everyone in between. You will learn a little about soup and less about what makes something a soup movie. But if you're here for the organizing take on The Birdcage (1996), American Psycho (2000) and Ratatouille (2007), grab a big spoon and a napkin, because soup's on! 🍜

Update on 4/6: JBS workers have agreed to go back to work and the company is returning to the table, Mother Jones reports. 

Listen to / read our previous coverage on this strike, which workers had extended last week: Nearly 4,000 workers at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked off the job on March 16, launching a two-week unfair labor practice strike that they had extended then into a third week. 

Learn more about the 1980s Hormel strike here. 

Support striking JBS workers by contributing to their strike fund, supporting Essential Workers for Democracy’s fundraiser, and learning more about the strike here.