Review of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big by Eric Blanc (University of California Press, 2025).
This review is part of a series of reviews of Eric Blanc’s We Are the Union. You can read additional reviews in the series here and here. You can read an outline of Blanc’s argument in the book here.
There is no doubt that the “worker-to-worker organizing” model outlined by Eric Blanc in his new book, We Are the Union, is key to union organizing success. Since 2018, my organizing mentor Richard Bensinger, the former AFL-CIO organizing director who has since helped workers organize at companies ranging from Starbucks to Canada Goose, has been kicking off Inside Organizer School trainings by declaring that there are two components to every successful campaign: a strong, representative organizing committee within the workplace; and a hammer — the leverage to force a company to recognize workers’ right to organize. Blanc’s book provides a deep dive into aspects of the former: how workers can take the lead on building vibrant and dynamic union campaigns at their workplaces.
Blanc writes, “Three things in particular define the new model: 1) Workers have a decisive say on strategy, and 2) Workers begin organizing before receiving guidance from a parent union, and/or 3) Workers train and guide other workers in organizing methods.” At times, this definition seems not only expansive but also paradoxical, encompassing everything from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)–affiliated Burgerville campaign in the Pacific Northwest to the new leadership of the United Auto Workers (UAW), who came to power through the efforts of a reform movement…
Auteur: Jaz Brisack
