Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

by Shaun Richman

Lengthening hours, lessening pay, no parental leave, scant job security... Never have so many workers needed so much support. Yet the very labor unions that could garner us protections and help us speak up for ourselves are growing weaker every day. In an age of rampant inequality, of increasing social protest and strikes - and when a majority of workers say they want to be union members - why does union density continue to decline? Shaun Richman offers some answers in his book, Tell the Bosses We're Coming.



It's time to bring unions back from the edge of institutional annihilation, says Richman. But that is no simple proposition. Richman explains how important it is that this book is published now, because the next few years offer a rare opportunity to undo the great damage wrought on labor by decades of corporate union-busting, if only union activists raise our ambitions. Based on deft historical research and legal analysis, as well as his own experience as a union organizing director, Richman lays out an action plan for U.S. workers in the twenty-first century by which we can internalize the concept that workers are equal human beings, entitled to health care, dignity, job security - and definitely, the right to strike. Unafraid to take on some of the labor movement's sacred cows, this book describes what it would take - some changes that are within activists' power and some that require meaningful legal reform - to put unions in workplaces across America. As Shaun Richman says, "I look forward to working with you."

Genres: Labor

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 22, 2020

Reviews

[gabriel]

Belongs in an important group of books everyone interested in revitalizing the US labor movement should be reading.

[Andrew Hutchinson]

Good analysis of labor law and solid proposed reforms. I disagree with his recommendations to eliminate exclusive representation - but generally like the rest of it. It definitely gets you thinking.

[Nicholas Rea]

Richman makes a lot of somewhat contrarian or unorthodox arguments in this book. He opens by arguing that much of the current labor movement operates on received wisdom from a bygone era when workers and unions were operating in completely different circumstances than today, and his willingness to be critical of some sacred cows in American labor makes this a refreshing and invigorating book. The second half goes deep into labor law and the Supreme Court, which was a little over my head, but I enjoyed this work as a counterpoint to Jane McAlevey and a lot of other lefty labor writers.

[Tyler K]

From the first chapter — titled ‘The System is a Trap’ — Richman draws on his experience as a union organizer (with the AFT) to critique the largely unquestioned pillars of contemporary American labor relations and unionism. The ‘Trap’ (of which there are many, from exclusive representation to ignoring the plight of non-union workers), in Richman’s world, can be undone through a program of legal reforms and political reorientations of unions, too many to list here. Many parts I would like to see developed further, but worth a read by anyone who wants to engage with fresh ideas about how to reinvigorate the labor movement.

[Lluviahombre Kano]

The book was great it gave me a lot of tactics and the books he used for reference will be written down for future reading. I now know that a lot of people living in America don't know the history of Labor and the current labor laws and we can fight them.

[Jimmy]

In this challenge to revive a the US Labor movement, all of Richman's suggestions are bold, some strike me as pretty dangerous. None the less this well-written volume is worthy of serious study and debate among all who are interested in the survival of our labor movement.