Archives

The resources found on this page provide women and those who support them tools to organize and become effective effective leaders in their organizations and in the labor movement. There were created with the generous support of the Berger-Marks Foundation, which has made them available at no cost. Read more about the Berger-Marks Foundation and its legacy.

A Guide to Organizing Women’s Committees: Everything You Need to Know to Make a Difference

January 2015 | Jane LaTour, Lois Gray, and Maria Figueroa

A Guide to Organizing Women’s Committees provides step-by-step instruction for forming women’s committees in unions and worker-centered organizations. Union and worker center members can use this Guide to plan and implement women’s committees at their organizations.

Women’s Committees in Worker Organizations: Still Making a Difference

January 2014 | Lois Gray and Maria Figueroa

This report summarizes findings from interviews and data collection on six programs sponsored by national unions and case studies for six local unions and two non-traditional workers organizations. The material gathered describes the continuing role of women’s committees, women’s departments, and other similar programs in amplifying the voices of women in unions and labor organizations.

The Next Generation: A Handbook for Mentoring Future Union Leaders

April 2012 | Institute for Women’s Policy Research

The handbook defines and describes various types of mentoring, outlines strategies for addressing potential roadblocks in the mentoring process, and presents key lessons from programs that actually work about how to make mentoring programs effective and sustainable. This guide can be used to begin a new mentoring program or to shore up one that’s already in place.

Stepping Up, Stepping Back: Women Activists Talk Union Across Generations

July 2010 | The Berger-Marks Foundation

Stepping Up, Stepping Back presents an honest and complete reflection of how women activists–half under 35 and half over 35–view social justice, the American labor movement and the role of younger women in unions, and it pulls no punches in its critique of today’s unions. Its prescription for change includes practical, yet bold, steps to help make the labor movement a “safe space” for tomorrow’s women workers and activists.

July 2010 | Labor Project for Working Families, Cornell ILR Labor Program, and UC Berkeley Labor Center

This report gives specific examples of how young organizers use Internet websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and texts to connect to a new generation of workers. While cautioning that these approaches are no substitute for personal contact, the report highlights the benefits to organizers in using new and innovative technologies to reach new workers with new concerns.

No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing

May 2009 | Kate Bronfenbrenner

This report gives the most comprehensive look ever at company tactics during union organizing campaigns and in bargaining contracts. In addition to studying five years of organizing drives that led to National Labor Relations Board-run elections, her research team also held in-depth interviews with 562 organizers. They found that the vast majority of companies use extreme tactics, legal and illegal, to thwart workers.

Women Organizing Women: How Do We Rock the Boat Without Getting Thrown Overboard?

January 2005 | The Berger-Marks Foundation

Women Organizing Women highlights the experiences and insights of a group of highly skilled union organizers during a retreat in November 2004. Facilitated by National Labor College President Sue Schurman, 19 participants explored the best ways to increase the ranks of women organizers and support them in their work. The report includes participants’ recommendations for improving the position of union organizer and sets a roadmap for the Foundation as it looks ahead.

Union Organizing Among Professional Women Workers

March 2005 | Kate Bronfenbrenner

Presented at the DPE Conference on Organizing Professionals in the 21st Century, at Crystal City, Virginia, on March 14-16, 2005, this Berger-Marks-funded study is the most thorough investigation of union organizing among professional women ever conducted. Its conclusions emphasize the importance of professional women to the labor movement’s future.

Follow Us