''Labor Notes'' is a trade magazine supporting collective bargining in the United States. It is part of the

Labor Education and Research Project ''Labor Notes'' is a trade magazine supporting collective bargining in the United States. It is part of the Labor Education and Research Project, an American non-profit organization and network for wikt:rank and file, rank-and-file trade union, ...

, an American non-profit organization and network for rank-and-file union members and grassroots labor activists. The magazine reports news and analysis about labor activity or problems facing the

labor movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. In its pages it advocates for a revitalization of the labor movement through

Social Movement Unionism Social movement unionism (SMU) is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, social movement unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism ...

and

union democracy Union democracy refers to the governance of trade unions, as well as the protection of the rights and interests of individual members. Modern usage of the term has focused on the extent to which election procedures ensure that the executives of a u ...

. ''Labor Notes'' is based out of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, with an East Coast office located in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. ''Labor Notes'' is the product of a strategy by labor activists seeking to make grassroots connections across unions and industries. ''Labor Notes'' sought to bridge the gap between isolated rank-and-file caucuses and reform groups (the most notable being

Teamsters for a Democratic Union Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is a grassroots rank and file organization whose goal is to reform the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), or Teamsters Union. The organization has chapters nationwide in the United States and Canada ...

) in major unions such as the

Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a di ...

, the

Steelworkers Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high elastic modulus, yield strength, fracture strength and low raw material cost, steel is one of the m ...

, the

United Auto Workers The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...

, the

Communications Workers of America The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 loc ...

, the

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 pe ...

, and others.

History

Labor Notes was launched as an attempt to help further those linkages, following the

Bituminous Coal Strike of 1977–1978 Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American English, the ma ...

and the wide-scale cross-union solidarity and energy it produced. The hope was that these reform efforts would strengthen and consolidate the more widespread waves of union militancy found earlier in the decade. Headlines in the first year of Labor Notes had themes like, "Teamster Steelhaulers Show Muscle in Three Week Wildcat Strike". The Reagan-era rollbacks on labor law protections put the labor movement on the defensive. Fledgling rank-and-file groups and Labor Notes began to refocus on how labor leaders seemed incapable of addressing the free fall for unions and working people in this decade. As the fight against the employers’ offensive gathered force, Labor Notes provided information and arguments over concessions. In 1982, the first Labor Notes conference—''Organizing Against Concessions''—attracted hundreds of activists. Shortly after, in 1983, Labor Notes published one of its first books, ''Concessions and How to Beat Them'' by Jane Slaughter. Though these trends continued in the 1990s, there were also seen some signs of hope for labor. The

AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

’s leadership changed hands and the federation began devoting more resources to organizing new members, including Latino and other immigrant workers that the labor movement had traditionally ignored. Reformers briefly took control of the Teamsters union and led the 1997 strike at

UPS UPS most commonly refers to: * Uninterruptible power supply, a device which provides continuous power to electronics * United Parcel Service, an American courier company UPS or ups may also refer to: Companies and organizations United Parcel S ...

, one of the largest and most successful strikes in recent memory. Throughout the 1990s, Labor Notes focused on issues like cross-border organizing and

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...

. Labor Notes came out strongly against the

North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (, TLCAN; , ALÉNA), referred to colloquially in the Anglosphere as NAFTA, ( ) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The ...

(NAFTA), publishing ''Unions and Free Trade'' by

Kim Moody Kim Moody (born 1940) is an American socialist activist and writer on labor who advocates social movement unionism, a revitalized labor movement of mobilized and militant rank-and-file workers, rather than business unionism, structured from the top ...

and Mary McGinn in 1992. The year 2000 saw the flowering of the

Global Justice Movement The global justice movement is a network of globalization, globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “Economic globalization, corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of econo ...

at massive protests against corporate globalization in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, and around the world. Labor Notes participated in many of these events and supported the union members and global justice activists who formed alliances with these movements. At the same time, Labor Notes was supporting the union victories of the Charleston Five longshore workers and telecommunications workers at Verizon. In the immediate aftermath of the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, Labor Notes reported on the massive public employee strike in Minnesota, where workers defied those who called them unpatriotic for striking, demanded a fair contract, and won. As immigrant workers centers grew as new forms of worker self-organization, Labor Notes reported on them and brought together the leaders of those centers to share views at its bi-annual conference. More recently, Labor Notes reported on the massive immigrant demonstrations for immigrant rights and covered the development of U.S. Labor Against the War.

Books

Labor Notes has published a number of books on labor-related themes. Its most well-known book is ''A Troublemaker’s Handbook: How to Fight Back Where You Work and Win'' by

Dan La Botz Daniel H. La Botz (born August 9, 1945) is an American labor union activist, academic, journalist, and author. He was a co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and has written extensively on worker rights in the United St ...

, in 1991 and its sequel in 2005, ''A Troublemaker’s Handbook 2'' by Jane Slaughter. Another popular book is ''Democracy is Power'', by Mike Parker and Martha Gruelle, printed 1999 and re-released in 2005.

Conferences

Every two years, Labor Notes holds a national conference that attracts over a thousand union members and leaders from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and abroad. The purpose of these conferences is to help activists build networks based on common issues.

References

External links

Official website

{{Authority control Labor movement in the United States Political magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1979 Workers' rights organizations based in the United States Magazines published in Detroit 1979 establishments in Michigan Organizations based in Detroit Union democracy