Jane McAlevey (10/12/64-7/7/24): Scholar, Author, Organizer for Labor, Environment and Community Issues

I want to invite everyone to embrace the legacy of Jane McAlevey. Jane was a ferocious organizer for labor, environment and community issues, a scholar and an author. Most importantly she recognized that only groups of rank and file workers-through the power of organizing-have the adequate force to significantly change our work places and society at large.

Jane spent her career developing her model of “Whole Worker Organizing” that recognizes the importance of seeing workers and their communities as a whole. By realizing that we have more in common with our community than with our employers, we are taking the first step to success. This concept, as an organizing model, gave rise to the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) recruiting Jane to work for their organizing department. 

From 1997-2001, Jane was the head of an experimental multi-union campaign in Stanford, Connecticut. This was a multi-union campaign that brought together union members and their communities, proving that they were not two separate groups. Jane recognized that in order for unions to build power – they need to organize their members as members of their own communities. She taught workers to transform their unions from within.

Jane’s teachings in her book “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” describe the three common approaches to gaining power as advocacy, mobilization, and organization. Advocacy relies on experts, lawyers and lobbyists to promote a cause. Mobilization is a method of motivating “like-minded people” to act on their current beliefs. The most difficult but most effective method is organizing.

Organizing is what we need to build our union into a formidable power for change. Change in the contracts we win, and change in how we are treated in the workplace. When I think back on the strike and what we were able to pull together, it was because we had a shared vision and unwavering dedication to making it happen. Everyone pulled up their sleeves and worked tirelessly to start a movement for safe staffing in the state of New Jersey. We had leaders who were not afraid to challenge the status quo, and brave enough to stand up for our patients and ourselves – and we did, together.

But there is so much more to accomplish and we need every single member to understand that our power comes from them. Our power magnifies when we embrace our communities. Our communities benefit from aligning with other labor unions, and that is how we build real power to fight corporations. We don’t have billions of dollars at our disposal, but we do have billions of workers. Imagine a world where we come together as workers-and are able to win strong contracts with real raises- stopping the efforts of corporations to diminish our value and quality of life.

This is my proposal for a path towards building our power. By engaging and making real relationships with each other and doing the hard work of sharing the teachings of Jane McAlevey, this is attainable. Then we will be harnessing our collective power, and reaping the benefits of our hard work. Together this is possible, starting now.