How To Start A Union: Step By Step | The Class Room ft. Sohla & Ham

Over the last couple of years, record numbers of American workers have walked off the job. That makes it sound easy, but as anyone who has done it knows, that’s a big decision. A recent survey found that 63 percent of workers who quit their jobs or left for a new job in 2021 did so because their pay was simply too low, and 57 percent said it was because they “felt disrespected at work.”

Does this sound familiar? Is there something happening in your workplace now, or in your workplace in the future, that you want to change?

Maybe you feel like you’re ready to take action to solve some of these problems in your workplace. More Perfect Union has covered many union drives and labor actions. But the statistical odds are, if you’re watching this from the United States, you probably aren’t in a union, or haven’t had the opportunity to join one. So where do you even start? How do you actually form a union?

We created this video to help provide a simplified guide to the basics of the process. While no short video or guide could give you all the organizing or legal advice you might need throughout the process, we hope this can be a good jumping-off point for you to learn the basics!

Resources:
Visit unionsforall.org
Get in touch with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
Research examples of unions at jobs similar to yours or explore Cornell’s list of labor unions in the U.S.
Visit AFLCIO.org to search directories of local labor councils and AFL-CIO-affiliated unions
Visit unitworkers.com
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