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Season 3, Episode 76

Lower wage workers benefit from grassroots union approach

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Guest Name:

Malcolm Harris

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Nation Magazine Contributor Malcolm Harris joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed his article, “We Can Thank the Wobblies for the Biggest Labor Story of the Year,” which details how efforts by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to organize Starbucks nearly 20 years ago contributed to the recent union wins versus the coffeehouse conglomerate.

The article explores why the anti-establishment tactics of the IWW, or Wobblies as they are called, are ideally suited to organize lower wage workers like employees at Starbucks and Amazon, at least compared to mainstream trade unions.

Harris said the state of union organizing in America is at a unique time considering the headline to his article, published in March, is already out of date, as the recent union win by workers at the Amazon Staten Island Fulfillment Center now stands as the biggest labor story of the year. While the Amazon workers did not receive help from the IWW, the Amazon Labor Union used similar grassroots tactics, he explained.

Unskilled and low wage jobs will require a more unconventional approach than the trade union organizing playbook, Harris explained. These campaigns will need to be led by the rank and file, an approach that will become increasingly prevalent in the labor movement as more lower wage workers seek the benefits of unionization, he added.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about this topic.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

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