Over one hundred people gathered for a full-day training on labor organizing with the Inside Organizer School at the Carpenter’s Hall in St. Paul, Minn. Photo courtesy of Inside Organizer School.
Research shows that 60 million workers in the U.S. would join a labor union if they could. However, unionization rates are in decline. One of the reasons for this is employer opposition to unions before and after workers win union representation. Union busting is when employers try to prevent workers from unionizing, or when they try to sabotage unions through legal and illegal means. Sometimes, organized labor fights back in response to these tactics. Other times, workers go on the offensive.
Starting November 6, dozens of people came together to discuss the overall challenge of organizing the unorganized at the Inside Organizer School (IOS), an experimental collective of volunteer labor organizers devoted to growing the labor movement through winning union campaigns. Much of the conversation hinged on the experiences of Starbucks workers, who have used salting to build unions in Buffalo, N.Y., and are now in a battle to force the company to bargain in good faith. One of the oldest practices in labor organizing, salting is when workers get a job with the intention of unionizing at a workplace or company. A similar practice, called peppering, is when workers join a union with the goal of making that union and the labor movement stronger and more militant.
“Inside Organizer brings folks together, those who want to organize the unorganized,” says Jaz Brisack, a union organizer who, as a salt, led the first successful union campaign at Starbucks.
The National Labor Relations Act protects salting and prohibits employers from discriminating against workers for engaging in union organizing. According to Brisack, who salted the first unionized Starbucks store, the salts did not target any stores outside of Buffalo. Over 600 Starbucks stores have unionized across the U.S. since 2021 in what has been called a “generational uprising” by Richard Bensinger, IOS organizer, founder of the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute, and consultant to the Starbucks organizing campaign.
Some union members were present at the IOS events and training, not because they are currently salting, but because they want to organize the unorganized and educate workers about union organizing and union busting.
“Since the pandemic, there is so much alienation, and people feel alone, working two jobs or are unemployed,” said IOS organizer Aminah Sheikh in an interview with Workday Magazine. Sheikh says there is a need for communities like the Twin Cities that are struggling against increased corporate and government abuse of working people to have more spaces focused on workplace organizing, art, and storytelling. “We saw how digital tools have helped organizing, but I believe that this movement calls for us to get offline and be more in person in a healthy and safe way,” she said. “People have so much appetite for it.”
On November 6, a panel of labor organizers local to the Twin Cities gathered with the IOS at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, Minn. The conversation centered on Brisack’s book, Get on the Job and Organize: Standing up for a Better Workplace and a Better World, which was released in April. Packed with labor history, the book is about Brisack’s experience salting at Starbucks, but also about their experience as an external organizer for union campaigns at Nissan and Tesla.
The conversation was not limited to salting. During the event, panelists connected wisdom from the book to their own experiences organizing different industries in Minnesota, and shared tips and stories with audience members about organizing in general. Panelists also discussed why unions resist organizing some industries. IOS organizer Atulya Dora-Laskey spoke about getting a job at a Chipotle in Lansing, Mich., not with the intent to unionize, but to understand what was preventing fast food workers from unionizing. According to Dora-Laskey, three unions were willing to organize at Chipotle, and workers went with the Teamsters, winning their election in 2022 to become Teamsters Local 243. However, workers have yet to reach a first contract, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has charged Chipotle with violating labor law by denying raises to workers at the only unionized store.
Chris Sessions, an independent filmmaker and organizer with the IOS, also was present at the weekend of programming in Minnesota, which included a screening of his documentary, Partners. The film highlights the many worker voices behind the first successful Starbucks Workers United campaign, those who were salts and those who weren’t.
In an interview with Workday Magazine, Sessions said,“What was really special about Starbucks Workers United is it brought organizing to a new generation, and a lot of that was through their social media content.” The film includes footage from Starbucks workers as they documented an onslaught of union busting tactics by the company.
Sessions emphasized the importance of workers documenting labor campaigns as they unfold. He states that not only can the footage be featured in documentaries and other media projects, but it can also be used as an organizing tool for new campaigns, to hold companies accountable, and build workers’ confidence. “Some footage that I filmed in Alabama at an Amazon was used in the trial to show that Amazon broke the law during the election,” he adds.
The filmmaker is in the process of extending Partners into a feature length documentary and is in production for a three-part limited series produced by Means TV documenting the union struggle at Amazon in Bessemer, Ala., in 2020.
At the Saturday training, IOS organizers said there was “incredible” solidarity. “You really see the magic of labor, the past and future of labor,” said Dora-Laskey. “We hope to continue reaching salts.”
Sessions described salting as “the most tried and true tactic for building organized labor, going back to the IWW and industrial unionism.” He goes on to say, “What’s really cool about the school is that it introduces people to the idea of salting and destigmatizes it, because historically, we’ve built the labor movement with salts.”
In an interview with Workday Magazine, Carson Starkey, an organizer with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, discussed why the carpenters union opened their union hall to the Inside Organizer School. Starkey described the Starbucks Workers United as “the Rolling Stones of 21st century organizing” and “the most important private sector union organizing campaign” in his lifetime.
“I want to help other people organize. I want to help them win their unions and win their elections.” Starkey continues, “We want to change the idea that we’re not doing ground up organizing, that we’re not involved in the struggle.”
Over 12,000 baristas represented by Starbucks Workers United currently negotiating for a first contract have voted to authorize an open-ended unfair labor practice (ULP) strike that started on November 13. Two stores in the Twin Cities, one at the St. Anthony location and one in Chanhassen, have been on strike. According to the union, Starbucks has violated labor law over 500 times. The union has filed hundreds of ULP complaints, including retaliatory firings and disciplinary actions against workers like Brisack, IOS organizer Casey Moore, and the “Memphis 7”.
Brisack, now organizing with UFCW Local 770 in California, says they are looking forward to helping build the labor movement’s capacity for salting with the IOS. “The labor movement is one of the only places where we can turn to for hope against fascism.”