Every worker needs a union, but many workers are disappointed by their union. This course will help you face these heartbreaks and start to transform your union, from the bottom-up.
What To Do When Your Union Breaks Your Heart?
Transforming Your Union from the Bottom-Up
Course Description
Every worker needs a union, but many workers are disappointed by their union. Maybe you don’t know what the union really does, or even how to make contact with a union organizer. Perhaps there are no meetings, or the meetings are pointless. Your elected officers may be much too cozy with the boss! This course will help you face these heartbreaks and start to transform your union, from the bottom-up.
- Teaching: 6 Weekly Online Sessions (on Saturdays) / 1.5 hour per session
- Course Fee: USD$60 (Regular Price) / USD$40 (Students/Workers/Unemployed)
- Class Size: Class Limited to 15 Students
Course Facilitator
Ellen David Friedman has been a union organizer for 50 years, working on the rank & file pole of the US labour movement, primarily in the teacher sector. She is a facilitator of UCORE, the United Caucuses of Rank and File Educators. She spent 10 years living in Guangzhou, China, teaching at Sun Yat-sen University and co-founding an International Labor Research Center. In her retirement, she volunteers to build the rank & file, democratic, militant, and internationalist pole of the labor movement through Labor Notes, where she serves as Board Chair.
Class Time
- 5pm: Pakistan
- 5:30pm: India/Sri Lanka
- 6pm: Bangladesh
- 6:30pm: Myanmar
- 6:45pm: Nepal
- 7pm: Indonesia/Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam
- 8pm: Hong Kong/Taiwan/China/Philippines/Singapore/Malaysia
- 9pm: Japan/Korea
Class Project
The “object of study” in this course is your own union. During the course we will identify specific heartbreaking practices of the union, and understand how they can be changed, step by step. The project will be to set some goals to improve your union, and try them out!
Weekly Class Schedule
Session 1 – April 21, 2025: How is your union breaking your heart? Sharing and solace.
Session 2 – April 28, 2025: What are examples of unions that can earn your respect and love?
Session 3 – May 5, 2025: The different aspects of unions: Welcoming members, meetings, elections, issue campaigns, contract bargaining, strikes
Session 4 – May 12, 2025: Bringing together your co-workers to change your union
Session 5 – May 19, 2025: Facing the intimidation of your union officials
Session 6 – May 26, 2025: Making a timeline for change to heal your broken heart
To contact us: convenor@labourschool.org
