Book Review: Secrets Of A Successful Organizer (Labor Notes)
Want to change the world? Learn how to organize.
Secrets of a Successful Organizer is the closest thing I’ve seen so far for a comprehensive how-to book on organizing. The context is in labor organizing, but the lessons of this book can be applied far beyond its niche.
The book is written in a casual, highly accessible style for the very front-line workers that it was written for. In terms of length, we’re looking at 263 pages with a pleasantly readable font size. Many of these pages also include images.
One of the big themes of this book is that workers organize workers, and that nobody needs to wait on any union staffer to come save them.
Social psychology, the art of listening, power relations, interpersonal dynamics, leadership, tactics, and strategy are all covered in this book. Oh, and it doubles down on the whole “you gotta talk to people” bit. No relying on Facebook and non-personal communications.
The book is also filled to the brim with real life examples in the form of short case studies. Unlike many labor books — these case studies are also contemporary. This is a how-to book at its core, not a history book.
When I talk about this book to friends and comrades, I often describe it as “the playbook”. It does a good job at going over what the boss (i.e. management) will do in terms of the array of tactics that they have at their disposal to disrupt worker organizing. It also goes over tactics that workers have to fight back, with a strong emphasis on playing offense. Pages 158 and 159 are literally a tactics bank ranging from “circulate a petition” to “call a strike” and many things in between.
I could write a book heaping praise about this book, and it was very helpful winning a unionization vote that I was personally involved in.
Alas, even this godsend has its shortcomings.
For one, there’s not enough technical process information. Yes, this book does a great job at teaching organizational skills and application — but it doesn’t talk about how to receive and collect cards to force a unionization vote. It also doesn’t talk about how to file a petition for unionization, so the average person has to navigate things like this. FYI the right form is the RC petition.
Without this kind of practical knowledge, the average person is inclined to rely on union staffers for the technical lifting. This shortcut can turn into consequences later. Keep reading.
The next issue is that a timeframe for unionization fights isn’t given much context. The time from the petition being filed to the vote result being certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was over three months in my case. In the meantime, my *former* employer artificially reduced work demand, slashed hours, and used layoffs to knock half of the pro-union employees out of a job (although we could still vote, and we sure as hell did).
There was also a lot of generally illegal things that happened and lawyers are now busy fighting each other at the NLRB.
Lawyers. God, I hate lawyers right now. That gets me to the final and most significant issue:
Decision making isn’t given enough emphasis. Yes, the book briefly mentions that the same people shouldn’t make the decisions over and over again. Yes, the book says that decisions should be made democratically. No, the book does not prepare you for when the business union staff organizers and lawyer decide that they are the democracy.
These people demobilized everything after the NLRB vote win, actively prevented any worker-led efforts to play offense leading up to the vote, and are currently trying to win in a strictly courtroom setting.
Trying to win in a strictly courtroom setting is historically an anti-union employer strategy.
After all the layoffs and other capitalist abuses, when one of the former employees tried to rally people to at least review bomb the employer to make it harder to hire anti-union workers, the main staff organizer proposed leaving positive reviews instead. At the request of the union lawyer.
Contract negotiations are currently ongoing, behind closed doors. I hope the union staff win in spite of themselves. The lead staff organizer is telling people involved in other ongoing unionization efforts that we are a success story. I disagree.
If you want a book about how to make decisions, it’s not this book. It’s this other one.
All said though, Secrets of a Successful Organizer is a must-read for anyone serious about changing the world. Even if that might only mean changing your workplace or your immediate community — this is the book to learn how you can make a difference. I want to personally thank Labor Notes and authors Alexandra Bradbury, Mark Brenner, and Jane Slaughter for putting this together.
Solidarity Forever.