Member Perspectives: #HotLaborSummer [Part 2]
In our Member Perspectives series, we ask our members to write about their union experiences. In Part 2 of this 4 part series, Bobby Madamanchi reflects on what it was like to be at the 2022 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago.
Bobby Madamanchi
Ann Arbor | School of Information | Lecturer III
Attending LaborNotes was an amazing experience in so many ways. There was a buzz in the building and an overall sense that organized labor was in an ascendant moment. Everywhere you looked, you saw members and organizers wearing memorabilia from unions at John Deere, Starbucks, Chicago Teachers Union, Kelloggs, and Amazon — the people at the center of the reawakening labor movement in America. I had an opportunity to talk to activists and organizers who have been working in the labor movement for decades, who had attended LaborNotes during darker times when there were only a few hundred hard core activists. They marveled that this year there were over 4000 attendees, a record for LaborNotes.
The optimism at this year's LaborNotes came from recent high profile victories at Amazon, Starbucks, and John Deere. Those victories were a result of countless organizing conversations centered around the fundamental principle that workers deserve fair compensation AND a say in how their workplaces operate. Whether that’s staffing levels for nurses, safety standards in factories/warehouses, or adequate resources for educators, all workers are in the same fight against a management class that is constantly cutting costs in service of short-term savings. I’m coming back from LaborNotes with a resolve to help tackle the same issues at home by having more member conversations to spread the message that workers rights matter and are worth fighting for.
As a last note, one of the most rewarding aspects of the conference was the feeling of community and solidarity with other union members — both in LEO and other locals. Now that we’re back in Michigan I’ve wanted to continue to build the social part of our social movement and get to know our amazing members and allies even better.
This June, LEO was able to send four members to the 2022 LaborNotes Conference in Chicago, Illinois. The conference broke attendance records, with 4,000 attendees and a live-streamed component, and featured over 100 meetings and workshops. For more information about Labor Notes, visit: https://labornotes.org/