What is a Union?
A union is a partnership, an agreement between workers, to stick together, to protect each other and to win change.
It’s easy to think that employers are all powerful, especially the big multinational companies and billionaires that many of us work for today. But ultimately they all still rely on our work to make their money. Sure, they can ignore us, or even threaten us, when we speak out alone. But when we all speak out, back each other up, and take action together, we’re stronger than they’d ever admit.
A union provides us with a vehicle, an organisation, to stand up together and fight for change. A union means we have legal protection for our campaigns, but more importantly we have strength in numbers. A union means we don’t have to take big risks and reinvent the wheel, because we can pass on the collective experience of past struggles and victories through our training and organisers.
Don’t take our word for it. Check out some of our members’ stories, and read our proud history of creating change.
Thanks to our Fellow Workers from the UK for this text: https://iww.org.uk/about/what-is-a-union/
Learn more about experiences of resistance
Colleagues of the IWW and it’s friends tell us about their losses and wins of their daily workplace organizing and other related topics such as unemployment, migration, sexism and so on.
What is organizing?
We call the systematic building of solidarty together with our colleagues “organizing”. If you will, you could say it they are combined methods of self-organization. What we mean by that we’ll tell you here.
How to organize your workplace
Without strong relations you’re on your own and a better target for the bosses. That’s why we can only change things together. That is easier said than done. We give you some advice for your daily work and the people you can reach if needed.
