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On Saturday, dozens of labor organizers, union members, and other “troublemakers” descended on First Church Birmingham to learn how to “[take] on the boss” and win. Sponsored by Labor Notes, the pro-worker “media and organizing project,” this weekend’s Troublemakers School was the largest that the organization has held in Alabama to date.
The event’s name suggests the militant, ambitious approach to organizing espoused by its organizers and many of the participants.
“In this world, certainly in Alabama, when you are working people trying to stand together and improve your lives, you are going to get called a troublemaker by managers, and obviously by politicians,” Labor Notes staff organizer Keith Brower Brown explained. “So we are reclaiming that proudly.”
“You know, this world needs more good trouble in the spirit of justice,” he continued, referencing the words of late Civil Rights activist and Congressman John Lewis.
One attendee, Chris Nelson, told APR he decided to go because he “wanted to learn more about how [fighting for change without waiting on politicians is] done in practice, through unions, and to meet like-minded people.”
Praising the Troublemakers School, Jacob Jones, a steward for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1858, said that “it is important for working people to have the information, organizing knowledge, and tools to support working class mobilization for our interests, especially in Alabama where only the interests of the business class are represented.”
Brown said that there was a “strong presence from building trades, particularly iron workers,” on Saturday, but also “a smattering” of service workers, Amazon workers, government employees, and machinists. Members of the United Campus Workers of Alabama, an organization seeking to unionize the state’s public colleges, were in attendance as well.
Whitney Washington, an Alabama Arise employee and a member of their staff union, said attendees ranged “from young people just entering the workforce to decades-long union members and professors to line cooks.”
“Alabama’s labor movement looks like Alabama, and it’s only going to keep growing,” she claimed.
The event featured panels and workshops about labor organizing in Alabama. Jeremy Kimbrell, one of the workers who helped organize the United Auto Workers’ unionization campaign at the Vance Mercedes plant, was a featured speaker.
Brown explained to APR that they wanted to make sure the training and topics offered were relevant to Alabama workers.
Talking about “inoculation, preparing for the repression that managers, as well as politicians, are going to throw at union campaigns,” was one adaptation he highlighted, specifically referencing backlash to the ultimately unsuccessful Mercedes unionization campaign earlier this year. Additionally, every event included at least one working Alabamian as an instructor or facilitator.
They also put on a race and labor workshop. “We heard a lot of interest in how to build solidarity across certain divisive topics around race … and how to build unions that build solidarity and help people find common ground,” Brown said.
The panels and workshops were not the only benefit of attending, however. Brown explained that he feels “Labor Notes fills a pretty unique niche in the labor movement by bringing together members of unions, and not just officers or staff, across a ton of different industries all in one place to learn from each other.”
Adam Keller, a union stagehand, cohost of The Valley Labor Report, and political director for the North Alabama Area Labor Council, stated that “events like this are critical to building a working class movement here, which we need if we’re ever gonna make things better.”
For Chris Nelson at least, getting to meet fellow people and workers interested in organizing was one of the major highlights of the day.
“Hearing the stories of the Waffle House employees that were organizing under the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) stuck with me,” Nelson said. “Seeing their motivation to push back on the corporation to demand better was inspiring, and they gave good examples of how they were encouraging their fellow workers to join them.”
Nelson also told APR that he plans to keep in touch with several people he met who are interested in organizing around some of the issues he cares about.
For those who couldn’t make it on Saturday and are interested in organizing, Brown recommended reaching out to local unions, labor councils, or union activists, or participating in one of Labor Notes’ free virtual workshops.
