Publishers Weekly
September 2026
For this heartening debut guide to workplace unionizing, Labor Notes board chair Friedman gathers tips drawn from her five decades of organizing experience “to help you get started, help you keep going, and help you get unstuck.” She begins with four core principles to use as guideposts: cultivate respect, organize democratically, stay grounded in reality, and stay steady. Of particular focus for Friedman is how to proceed when divisions among workers seem insurmountable; she advises identifying common ground and observes that “it’s in the give and take of group discussion that the confidence, clarity, and courage needed for collective action emerge.” “Begin with the idea that your co-workers have dignity and deserve a say in their own lives, and you’ll start to see the path to building collective power,” she offers as another guideline for connecting with colleagues. Elsewhere, she provides tactics for overcoming apathy, fear, and shame and warns against “complaining to ‘let off steam’ ” with “no action to change the problem.” Pointing throughout to the shortcomings of one-way communication, such as via newsletters, and of bargaining behind closed doors, Friedman emphasizes the importance of open discussions and democratic decision-making, reminding readers that unions “should be laboratories for worker self-governance, including how to resolve real differences through dialogue.” It’s an encouraging view of unionizing’s potential for social uplift.
