Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations

by Jane F. McAlevey, Abby Lawlor

Rules to Win Participation and Power in Union Negotiations is a book for anyone who wants to understand how to build the power required to effectively challenge and reverse income inequality and attacks on democracy. Drawing insights from recent hard-won unionization and contract negotiation fights, Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor use lessons from some of the toughest fights today--preparing a durable, all-out strike in a union-hostile environment--to provide a masterclass in participatory social change, indispensable both within and beyond the workplaces where we spend half of our waking lives.

In an era of polarization, big lies, and massive legislative setbacks, changemakers in every arena need to learn the skills and lessons honed in pitched battles against experienced and ruthless union busters. Rules to Win By is a book for workers, unionists, racial justice and climate campaigners, academics, policymakers and everyone who wants a more fair and democratic society.

Genres: Labor, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 17, 2023

About the author

Jane F. McAlevey is a union and community organizer, educator, author, and scholar. She’s fourth generation union, raised in an activist-union household. She spent the first half of her organizing life working in the community organizing and environmental justice movements and the second half in the union movement.

She has led power structure analyses and strategic planning trainings for a wide range of union and community organizations and has had extensive involvement in globalization and global environmental issues.

She is currently a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center, part of the Institute for Labor & Employment Relations.

Reviews

[Walt Ochab · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning is a little stiff because it has to establish its premise, but the case studies are all very interesting. Some good sample material in the appendices.

[Jollene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially a instruction book for workers, step-by-step from start to finish, on how to win big victories and strong contracts through high-participation actions both at and away from the negotiations table. I haven’t read another text as comprehensive as this on how to win society-changing victories with the most amount of workers at the helm. This is a must-read for all unionists.

[marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is both well-organized and insightful. The first section goes into strategies helpful for union negotiations as well why they're effective; the second section is a bunch of case studies. Even though I'm not organizing at the same scale as some of these workers are, I still find it helpful.

[Sonoma Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was engaging and educational. Highly recommend for anyone who wants to know more about labor organizing and/or is interested in organizing a workplace.

[Big Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, McAlevey is charting a course for a future where the working class has not just decent wages and benefits, but respect and dignity. We’re so often used to reading about the historic victories of a past generation. We loosely understand what the labor, civil rights, and social movements won for us in the twentieth century. And since then, we’ve been slowly watching those gains be chipped away. Now, in this era of unleashed, unrestrained capitalism, our democratic and social decline feels almost inevitable. Yet, McAlevey masterfully tells us of working class victories against all odds that are taking place right now by courageous workers. More importantly, she teaches us how the rest of us are just as capable. Big, open, high-powered, high-participation negotiations, where workers own their campaigns and will fight like hell to win using the organizational structure they themselves built with their coworkers. This structure enables workers to execute supermajority actions that escalate in risk, including strikes if necessary. Our ability to create a true crisis for the boss is the base of our power. It’s really simple. It’s just extremely hard. But transformative contracts require this approach. And thankfully, McAlevey gives us all the tools and strategies for getting there.

[KT · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical and useful collection of case studies of unions in the USA that captures the author's process of praxis in applying and iterating theorisation on unions and practising the best ways to win power and participation in union negotiations.
The author notes the historical context that workers in Germany and Sweden didn't achieve their decent living standards because of sectoral bargaining. They achieved the sectoral organisational power by fighting like mad, up to and including attempted revolutions in the earlier half of the 20th century. The sectoral bargaining system that emerged was a reflection of that newfound power.
Like all institutions of democracy, collective bargaining depends on active, mass participation, whether it happens at a national, sectoral, or enterprise level.
Should be required reading for anyone involved in union negotiations.

[Sarah Harmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Most negotiations today function a bit like our mangled democracy: people believe that voting every four years in the presidential election cycle is all they must do to live in a democracy. Similarly, unionized workers are told that their role in negotiations is to vote to ratify or reject a contract presented to them at the end of lengthy, opaque contract negotiations. When workers haven’t been deeply engaged in the process, turnout for the ratification votes is minimal and apathy becomes the norm”

Read for class! This was a really nice intro to her work and I’m excited to read more

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating is based on importance and utility rather than the experience of reading it, which is fine but a bit repetitive. The most important chapter is the one that actually lays out the 20 rules, and the rest serves to illustrate some cases, not necessarily to make particular points, but more to familiarize the reader with how union contract negotiation works and what patterns to be aware of. This was a very helpful guide for my union to read together in preparation for this process.

[Ken Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title makes a person think of some trashy airport leadership book by a dude who thinks he’s Sun Tzu, but it’s not. It is a meticulously researched approach to identifying what factors go into organizing an effective contact campaign for new and existing labor unions. Through a series of case studies, the authors illustrate what these tactics look like in practice. It is occasionally dry, but frequently riveting.

[tyler h · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for simple writing and a great guide to organizing and esp negotiations (good intro for new organizers who don’t do internal/contract work), but Jane M is annoying and writes so pretentiously

conflicts with Joe Burns’ analysis that labor focuses too much on technique rather than class struggle

[Juan Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an organizer I give this 5/5 stars. This book has definitely been invaluable to my growth. Great way to structure campaigns after. Importantly, these principles can and should be used by labor organizers and activists to achieve wins!

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been the essential blueprint for the ongoing transformation of my union. Our first foray into open bargaining led to the largest strike in our history. We are implementing and/or debating additional ways to involve members in every step of the bargaining process.

[K]

Listened on audiobook. Similar experience as No Shortcuts—I think to get the full experience and absorb McAlevey’s fantastic, incisive insights I’m gonna need a hard copy and a pen in hand to annotate. Great stuff here either way.

[Hunter Akridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so politically necessary! (perhaps more than any of her other books)

[Kyle]

Drier than her previous books, but it's a series of academic case studies, not a biography or polemic. A vital intervention in labour studies. We'll miss you Jane.

[Lauren]

Too early to read this now.

[Mrtfalls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good! Will write a proper review at some point.

[Kevin Daws · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about trade union organising

[M W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good. McAlevey starts off by presenting her high-participation organizing model for unions by describing its twenty components and why they are important in an abstract fashion. She then transitions to looking at several case studies to see how those components are all vital for a successful negotiating campaign. All of them are interesting in their own rights, but I think for me the German example of Charité and Vivantes hospital staff was particularly good. Not only did it show German and/or European readers that Jane's methods are highly applicable outside of a US specific context and underscored the importance of translating her work into as many languages as possible, it also showed American readers that Europe, while better in that regard than the US, is not some workers utopia where organizing is not important anymore. Unsurprisingly, there is some overlap with Jane's previous books, but this one is still definitely worth a read!