Advertise on podcast: The Labor Notes Podcast

They’re calling it the Be Normal challenge. Sure, an important goal of an organizing conversation with a co-worker is to move them toward action. But there are ways to do that while treating them with respect, and continuing to build a relationship that keeps them connected to the union.  Order your copy of Ellen’s new book for Labor Notes! Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It’s Hard

You and your co-workers have worn boo-nion pins. You’ve sent reply-all emails demanding a “Fair Contract Now and For All of Eternity.” But to take your ghoul-idarity to the next level, get ready to march on the boss and read your list of demands off the ritual book.   Three spooky season classics—Beetlejuice (1988), Halloweentown (1998), and The Exorcist (1973)—have bone-chilling yet practical tips to build power on even the most cursed shop floor, and sure to leave the boss’s head spinning 360 degrees.    PLUS: Don’t miss these upcoming trainings! Spanish language online training: Serie de Capacitaciones: Secretos de un Organizador Exitoso, los jueves 5, 12 y 19 de noviembre Online Workshop: How To Beat Tiers And Rebuild Unity In Our Unions, Tuesday, Nov. 17 Stewards' Workshop: How to Have a Good Meeting, Wednesday, Nov. 18

In honor of The Strokes’ ongoing Reality Awaits tour, which the Labor Notes pod cares about a normal amount, we talk about organizing lessons we’ve pulled from films of the grimy Lower East Side dive bar era of 2006-2013 with our favorite indie rock needledrops: Marie Antoinette (2006), 500 Days of Summer (2009), and The Bling Ring (2013).  If you’re a fan of Secrets of a Successful Organizer and have complicated feelings about Zooey Deschanel and Sofia Coppola, you are the target demographic for this episode.   PLUS: Don’t miss these upcoming trainings! -Secrets of a Successful Organizer online training series on Mondays, Oct. 26, Nov. 2 & 9! -Spanish language online training: Serie de Capacitaciones: Secretos de un Organizador Exitoso, los jueves 5, 12 y 19 de noviembre

Mexican Volkswagen workers who build the Jetta, Tiguan, and Taos at the company’s Puebla plant are poised to strike, after rejecting the company's latest contract offer on October 15. The 6,500 workers work at the largest Volkswagen facility outside of Germany and belong to SITIAVW, one of Mexico's most storied independent unions. Read pod co-host Natascha Elena Uhlmann’s report on the campaign: Mexican VW Workers Weigh Strike as Company Cuts Jobs Globally

Eight hundred workers at a distribution center in Mississauga, Ontario, organized with Unifor Local 252 a couple years ago, and have now won a two-year contract with Walmart, a major first in the North American retail giant. Kari Thompson, who reported on the successful campaign for Labor Notes, joins the episode.  Read the story: Canadian Walmart Workers Make History: A Union Contract

When workers at the parts retailer AutoZone organized to form the company’s first ever union, their boss pulled out the big guns—but they still won their election! Also in this episode: Video Game Workers at Blizzard have won their first contract and 1,400 solar manufacturing workers have joined the Steelworkers. Labor Notes Podcast co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann break down the big lessons (and some important firsts) in three key organizing stories.   Also check out:  AutoZone Workers Are Trying to Form the Company’s First-Ever Union Video Game Workers Win First Contract at Microsoft-Owned Blizzard Fourteen Hundred Solar Manufacturing Workers Join the Steelworkers

If you’re holding bad meetings, caving to management, and trying to do everything yourself, congrats—you’re already well on your way to fumbling your shot!    On the other hand, if you want to actually advance a positive vision for your union that energizes members, you can ground your next union election campaign in tried and true organizing principles.    Also check out:  How to Lose Your Next Election, A Step-By-Step Guide, by Dan Campbell

They lure people into their campaigns, grow phone trees, and machete a path out of fear. It turns out some of our archetypal evil heroines—Amy Dunne of Gone Girl, sisters Sally and Gillian Owens of Practical Magic, and Merricat Blackwood of We Have Always Lived in the Castle—have some positively devilish organizing tactics (disclaimer: not all of which we endorse!) up their dark, trumpet sleeves. Also check out: 1. All Horror Movies Are About Organizing, Actually: The Labor Notes Podcast  Hallowepisode 2. Steward's Corner: A Path Out of Fear 3. Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It's Hard

Tyson workers at a meatpacking plant in Joslin, Illinois, arrived at work one day in mid-August to discover that it was suddenly closed and that 2,500 of them would be out of jobs.  These workers—members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546—are now rallying to demand that the plant reopen, or that they at least be given six months of severance pay rather than the two the company has offered.  Caitlyn Clark of Essential Workers for Democracy reported on the plant closure for Labor Notes, and joins this episode.  A representative for UFCW Local 1546 did not respond to emailed requests for comment.  Relevant reading:  2,500 Tyson Workers Laid Off, Plant Shutters Overnight The First Major Meatpacking Strike in 40 Years Extends into Third Week Learn more about the movement to revitalize the UFCW in our podcast episode from June 2025: “Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union.” The incoming new CEO of Tyson just purchased $1 million in Tyson stock, almost immediately after an announcement of low projected earnings due to the beef sector. (Read more here)

After five weeks on the picket line, 80 public transit workers in Jackson, Mississippi, members of ATU Local 1208, have won a 5 percent wage increase; beat back a plan for “microtransit,” a private on-call service that would have brought in drivers without a commercial driver’s license at a lower-tier wage; and stopped cuts to Saturday service.    Labor Notes Organizer Paul Prescod joins the pod.   Check out Paul’s coverage of the strike on labornotes.org   Jackson Transit Workers Win Strike, Save Saturday Service Mississippi Transit Workers Strike for Better Protections and Service

The Labor Notes Podcast is taking a Summer Friday. We’ll be back next week!

The Trump Administration has been surveilling and investigating unions including the Communications Workers (CWA) and Service Employees (SEIU), as part of its targeting of groups resisting immigration raids in Minnesota, according to a report this month in the New York Times. But union members and representatives have since told Labor Notes that they are undeterred. “We are proud of our work and will never apologize or back down because of these dirty tricks and intimidation,” said CWA Local 7250 President Kieran Knutson. Read the story by Luis Feliz Leon: Federal Spies Hunt Minnesota Unions in Search of Conspiracy, But Find Solidarity. Also check out our episode back in February about the uprising in Minnesota, featuring Luis and Diana Varenik: “How Workers Pulled Off a Mass Strike in Minnesota.”

This fall, 200,000 members of the Letter Carriers will get the chance to vote (perhaps fittingly, by mail ballot) for new leadership.  For many postal workers fed up with low pay, forced overtime, dangerous heat, and robberies—conditions they see their opaque, undemocratic leadership failing to address—the upcoming election is a focal point for recent reform currents brewing in the union.   They’ll be voting on 10 officers, three trustees, and 15 regional business agents. Labor Notes Editor Al Bradbury joins the episode.  Also check out:  Letter Carriers Set to Deliver Change in Upcoming Union Election by Alexandra Bradbury, July 29, 2026 On the Labor Notes Pod, in April 2025: Facing Privatization And DOGE Attacks, Postal Workers Are Fighting Back Labor Notes Online Workshop: What to Do When Your Union Breaks Your Heart, Tuesday, August 18  Labor Notes Online Workshop: Running for Union Office, Tuesday, September 15  New Labor Notes Book: Running for Local Union Office

You want more members to share the work of your contract action team? Win more grievances? Commit to wearing Hawaiian shirts together to the Jaws screening? You know what we're about to suggest: Think like an organizer. It's a common Labor Notes refrain to many organizing conundrums—but what does it mean? A problem-solving approach that engages and involves more people? More direct asks of our fellow union members?  Union movie club? Labor Notes Organizer Joe DeManuelle-Hall joins the pod. And don't miss our upcoming online Stewards' Workshop on this topic: Thinking Like an Organizer! Monday, August 10, 8 p.m. Eastern. SIGN UP HERE!

For over four decades now, workers have seen their steady, reliable pension payouts replaced by more uncertain returns from 401(k) plans—where employees’ payments are invested in retirement accounts that are vulnerable to the stock market. But just this month, power workers in Pennsylvania did something that worked—workers at PECO, the electric company for the Philadelphia region and Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility, won defined-benefit pensions for 600 newer hires who had been offered 401(k)s, and they won full medical coverage in retirement, Mindy Isser reported for Labor Notes.  Pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann talk about Mindy’s piece on how they did it.