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Chris Brooks for @jacobinmag.bsky.social “Unions Are Going to Die Unless Something Big Changes Soon”

www.instagram.com/reel/DW7D6fe...

is it too soon to say that @chactivist.bsky.social has another 🔥 piece for Jacobin

Companies like Kimberly-Clark generate billions in profits, then funnel those billions into stock buybacks and dividends for Wall Street while workers in their supply chain can’t cover basic living costs. This story is being played out on a larger scale across the economy.

I analyzed Kimberly-Clark’s SEC filings. Between 2015 & 2025 the company paid out the equivalent of 106% of their profits in buybacks & dividends. The company owned the 1.2 million sq ft warehouse a worker allegedly burned down in retaliation for low wages jacobin.com/2026/04/cali...

Will More Warehouses Burn? A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay. The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure into a deeply unequal system before it blows.

A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay.

The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure into a deeply unequal system before it blows.

Seizing the Moment: Lessons from the Front Lines of the UAW’s Fight to Scale Up - New Labor Forum The United Auto Workers’ 2023 Stand Up Strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis delivered historic gains for our members. But just as significant is what came next. Before the strike even e...

🚨ATTN: Labor People 🚨 we’ve got a nice debate going at @cunyslu.bsky.social’s New Labor Forum on the UAW’s recent efforts to scale up new worker organizing. First up is @chactivist.bsky.social with his take on organizing in higher ed and Southern auto (1/2)
newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/01/15/s...

Will More Warehouses Burn? A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay. The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure ...

A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot in anger over low pay. My latest for @jacobinmag.bsky.social connects the dots between financiaization, extreme inequality, the affordability crisis, and the desperation many are feeling.

jacobin.com/2026/04/cali...

Economic Update: The Great U.S. Pension Crisis YouTube video by Democracy At Work

CWD Senior Research Fellow Teresa Ghilarducci is featured on “Democracy at Work” ! Tune in as she discusses “the Great U.S. Pension Crisis” with host, Richard Wolff.
youtu.be/ySjzlmyVSe0?...

A Lack of Democracy in the United Farm Workers Gave Chavez Immunity In 2011 Frank Bardacke published an 800-page history of the Farm Workers union: Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. It opened many eyes to the reasons...

"Democratic unionism is essential to union strength. The lack of democratic organization not only gave Chavez immunity in his abuse of girls and women, but is also what caused the downfall of the UFW."

Read more from longtime labor activist Frank Bardacke:
labornotes.org/2026/04/lack...

Congratulations, Webasto Workers, on winning your union! Welcome to the UAW family!

Rustin's Challenge There was no more trenchant and substantive critic of the Left from the Left in the 1960s and 1970s than Bayard Rustin. Some liberals and leftists today valorize Rustin on the basis of his multiple op...

Ben Fong and Paul Prescod have just released a new collection of writing from Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin, with commentaries from contemporary writers on the left.

Buy your copy of “Rustin’s Challenge” here. shop.damagemag.com/products/Rus...

Lil Monday pick me up from 1978:

“Anybody tries to bust my union they’re in for a fight… one helluva fight!”

TSA Is on a Brown-Bag Strike — and Crippling Airports TSA agents across the country are engaged in guerrilla organizing: an illegal, partial wildcat strike in protest of the government shutdown that has left them working for weeks on end without pay.

Chris Brooks is back in @jacobinmag.bsky.social with reflections on the current wildcat strike being undertaken by TSA employees after working for weeks without pay, an action that he refers to as a "brown-bag strike.

Read more: jacobin.com/2026/03/tsa-...

Look at that. Illegal wildcat strikes work.

I love an intelligent thread on how to use the grievance process to fight for dignity on the job. Top notch. Highly recommend 👇

Photo of New York Times headline that reads: “The war will push U.S. inflation above 4 percent this year, according to a new forecast”

The UAW winning COLA back at the Big Three (which many people said was impossible) & then winning it in heavy truck, aerospace, higher education, etc continues to be a massive deal. Hundreds of thousands of workers will have their wage gains protected. That’s the power of a union

Members of Contract Faculty United, a @uaw.org local at NYU, have won a tentative deal for their first contract that includes—

✅ 95% of members will get >$100,000
✅ Lowest-ranked faculty will get $91,000
✅ Every member will get a raise of ≥$14,000 starting the next academic year

#ShareGoodNewsToo

PS: ICE agents are now scabs…

TSA Is on a Brown-Bag Strike — and Crippling Airports TSA agents across the country are engaged in guerrilla organizing: an illegal, partial wildcat strike in protest of the government shutdown that has left them working for weeks on end without pay.

Thousands of TSA agents are calling out sick in an organic, bottom-up wildcat partial strike that defies the government and the law. My latest for @jacobinmag.bsky.social 👇 jacobin.com/2026/03/tsa-...

Thoughtful response to my recent @jacobinmag.bsky.social article on first contracts here from @dskamper.bsky.social — a smart guy with smart things to say! 👇

Thanks man!

Should Unions Radically Rethink First Contracts? If unions are serious about reversing their decline, then shorter, smaller, faster first contracts might be what is needed to scale.

This is a really excellent piece for @jacobinmag.bsky.social by @chactivist.bsky.social, and I've been really excited by what he's been writing for them. He's upending a lot of conventional wisdom with smart, strategic analysis. jacobin.com/2026/03/chip...

Good piece and it's true a lot of unions would be better off going for slimmer and shorter first contracts, focused on winning union security. Caveat is if a company sees you walk in with this modest goal, they'll fight it just as hard as any first contract. We must conceal our modesty with threats.

This is a thoughtful piece by @chactivist.bsky.social that merits your attention if you're a labor person. I'll have more to say about it later today or tomorrow, but this is good thinking and I hope folks talk about this within their unions.

Each @chactivist.bsky.social labor-strategy piece is a jewel, and this one's no exception.

Here, Chris argues that new unions should consider seeking first contracts that don't turn into all-or-nothing fights but rather help—

• Sustain their existence and
• Improve their power to scale.

Should Unions Radically Rethink First Contracts? If unions are serious about reversing their decline, then shorter, smaller, faster first contracts might be what is needed to scale.

My latest for @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social explains how labor’s approach to 1st contracts is contributing to labor’s terminal decline & asks: how can unions structure 1st contracts to expand the power needed to win more over time? Are shorter 1st CBAs sometimes better? jacobin.com/2026/03/chip...

Reuters: A record 129 journalists were killed in 2025. Two-thirds were killed by Israel.

Hats off to those workers and to the Teamsters for backing them. But we can’t sugarcoat the real lesson here. If workers can’t credibly disrupt the company at scale, the company has little incentive to settle. Density across the employer isn’t optional — it’s the precondition for winning.

First contracts are often a second bite at the union-busting apple. Without strategic leverage and deeper organizing density, employers can and will stall indefinitely. Recognition alone doesn’t force a deal. Labor law won’t compel it to happen. Only worker power can get it done

What Will It Take to Unionize Chipotle? Workers in Michigan became the first Chipotle employees to ever win union recognition. Three years of fighting management for a contract they didn’t get taught them everything the next Chipotle union ...

Interesting read. After 3 years of bargaining, only union Chipotle store in the US has called it quits on push for a first contract. That’s not a moral failing, it’s a structural one. 1st contracts require leverage & a single shop of 12ish workers simply didn’t have it jacobin.com/2026/02/chip...