Workers at Mauser Packaging Solutions in Chicago, who handle dangerous chemicals with what they’ve said is insufficient safety equipment, have been on strike since June 9.

These workers, members of Teamsters Local 705, have been on an unfair labor practice strike after Mauser also illegally surveilled union members who were speaking with their business agent during a break, according to the union. 

Labor Notes Organizer Luis Feliz Leon joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann.

Stories we talk about in this episode:

1. ‘Toxic’ Laundry, Melting Aprons: Mauser Strike Hits Two Months

2. Dispatch from the Employer Offensive: Mauser Teamsters Strike Back

3. “Want to Defend Immigrant Workers in Your Contract? Here Are Some Suggestions.”

In their book, Get on the Job and Organize, former Starbucks worker and organizer Jaz Brisack tells the story of the seemingly improbable success of organizing baristas scattered in small stores across the country.

A good companion to Brisack’s account is What the Boss Doesn't Want Us to Know: Discovering Power and Winning Campaigns, by Tom Juravich, Olivia Geho, and Andrew Gorry, a book-length adaptation of research techniques outlined on the website strategiccorporateresearch.org.

If you want to learn who finances your employers, who its key decision makers are, where your employer makes most of its profit, you’d want to start here. 

Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann.

Meeting with management is never fun. And worse, those meetings can become another place the bosses try to push workers around.

But we can take control back in the meetings by showing up united and acting like a union.

Labor Notes Organizer Joe DeManuelle Hall joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann as they discuss how we can make labor-management committees and other meetings with management work to our advantage.

For more in-depth advice, don't miss this guide by the late labor educator Charley Richardson. 

Talking to neighbors about the issues they care about can be a lot like organizing coworkers to make your workplace better. The goal is to listen, cultivate relationships and build power as a working class.

Tune in to hear pod co-hosts Natascha and Danielle talk about Danielle's experience volunteering on the Zohran campaign and why it's meaningful for workers everywhere.

Francisco Ortiz, president of United Teachers Richmond in California, and Chris Spurlock, a steward in Teamsters Local 135 at Zenith Logistics (a third-party operator for Kroger), shared how their unions organized to coordinate on bargaining and contract expirations.

They shared their experiences in a recent Labor Notes online webinar. Hear the main highlights in this episode.

On the cover of the upcoming Labor Notes August/September issue is the divided, tentative response of building trades union leaders to the Trump administration’s assaults on immigrant members and equity initiatives, and its cancellation of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of construction projects. Labor Notes organizer Keith Brower Brown joins the pod.

There's a perception that unions shouldn’t take up “divisive” issues like immigration, and should focus instead on bread-and-butter topics members already agree on. We think that’s bad advice!

Organizing around social issues like the defense of immigrant workers is an opportunity for open, productive conversations based on mutual respect—and it can mobilize members who feel left behind by their unions. 

Ryan Andrews, an English teacher and member of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) put it this way: “Anybody who thinks we have to ignore certain issues or avoid certain political conversations in order to grow the base, they don’t understand what it means to grow the base.” 

As Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Sarah Lazare report in a collaboration with Workday Magazine, workers across the country are taking up the fight against ICE, and strengthening their unions in the process.

As the GOP budget bill formalizes this administration’s large-scale attacks on government agencies and programs meant to support working people, it’s worth remembering the labor struggles that built them in the first place. Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown joins the pod.

What's the secret of winning a strong contract? Hint: You won't find it at the negotiations table!

Peek into the upcoming July issue of the Labor Notes magazine, featuring stories about grocery workers in Indiana fighting for a strong contract, and stories on the running theme of what it means to live under attempts at authoritarian rule and how working people are organizing right now. 

Get the Labor Notes magazine! To start with the August issue, subscribe by July 22: labornotes.org/store/labor-notes-subscription