Principles and Tactics

Principles

escalating, intentional asks to bring in new people to do outreach, come to meetings and actions, etc. of an increasingly larger share of the workforce

plans, strxuctures, and strategies built by rank-and-file members and not by staff or worker leadership alone

According to Staughton Lynd and Daniel Gross (73):

Rank-and-file control;
Direct action;
Members carry their union membership with them, regardless of majority status or when they move on to other jobs (particularly important in high turnover sectors like retail or food service).

conversations constructed to move people to action; including issue and leadership identification, hard asks, and inoculation against anti-union messaging (source)

the long process of identifying who are (often titleless) social leaders in the workplace (source)

increasingly public, increasingly escalating collective direct actions–petitions, rallies, marches, etc.–to test union support, commitment, and militancy

all members should be invited to attend bargaining sessions–when else do they have the opportunity to speak up for better working conditions?

‘Who were the powerful forces [in the area] and why? Which would be allies and which would be obstacles? How could we enhance the power of our friends and neutralize that of our opponents? The idea was to measure power two ways—first in absolute terms, but also in relation to goals. It is conceived to be as much a political education tool as anything. Just like we “chart” workplaces as a crucial step to organizing, we need to “chart” real leadership and power in the community to understand how to hem in the boss.’ – Jane McAlevey