AUTHOR TALK: Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations

BOOK RELEASE EVENT: Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations

Join us for an in-person event celebrating the release of Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor’s first-of-its-kind book written by and for workers about how to win at negotiations! This event features McAlevey’s co-author Abby Lawlor, former UC Berkeley law student and now organizer and labor lawyer, for a discussion of her new book Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations. Joining Abby in conversation will be Veena Dubal, Professor of Law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. A light reception will follow.

Books will be available for purchase at the event.

Purchase a book in advance here: https://laborcenter-store.berkeley.edu/product/rules-to-win-by-power-and-participation-in-union-negotiations-pickup-order-for-book-event-on-april-18/

About the Book

Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations by Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor is a first-of-its kind book on how to win at negotiations against stiff odds, tough employers and union busting corporations. Long-time organizer and negotiator McAlevey draws on her 25 years of teaching workers how to win brutally hard negotiations, where the fight was first to force the employer to the table, then to win a life-changing collective agreement. McAlevey teamed up with a former graduate student, organizer and now labor lawyer, Abby Lawlor, to produce what Astra Taylor describes by saying, “Whatever cause you are fighting for, let this brilliant book be your guide.”

This book focuses on the nuts and bolts of an overlooked approach to collective bargaining: high-participation negotiations—negotiations that are big, open, and transparent. It features six case studies from the last five years: Boston hotel workers, educators in New Jersey, nurses in rural Massachusetts and Philadelphia, reporters from the L.A. Times and Law360, and hospital workers in Germany fighting for their patients and their own lives in the pandemic. In each of these cases, workers used the collective bargaining process to achieve transformative contracts through deep organizing and member-driven strategy.

About the Speakers

Abby Lawlor is an organizer and labor lawyer based in Seattle, Washington. She is currently a legal fellow at the Public Rights Project.

Veena Dubal is a Professor of Law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. Her research focuses broadly on law, technology, and precarious workers, combining legal and empirical analysis to explore issues of labor and inequality.

This event is co-sponsored by the California Labor Fed, the Center for Law and Work at UC Berkeley, and the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law (BJELL).