Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor join us today. They discuss how to extract concessions from intransigent employers and why the workers themselves (not an aloof, unresponsive team of professional negotiators) need to be at the heart of any negotiation.

As Kresge observes, unions in the U.S. are currently in the throes of negotiating for limitations on how data can be used by employers and against the unnecessary uses of countless surveillance technologies in the workplace

As Jane McAlevey argues in No Shortcuts, mobilization and advocacy should not replace organizing, which involves mass, long-term involvement, democratic decision-making, and structural change to relations of power. What organized but unrecognized unions are showing is that even without collective bargaining, unions can upset power imbalances and see wins that immediately improve people’s lives.