Essential Voice

an Essential Workers for Democracy newspaper to share with your coworkers!

Issue #7 - Summer 2026

Why Are Union Busters SO SCARED of us?

Why Are Union Busters SO SCARED of us?

Recently, the union-busting firm IRI Consultants caught notice of our worker-led attempts for more aggressive worker-led organizing.

To market their services, they wrote a blog post about attempts to strengthen the UFCW. They say that the UFCW Executive Board has been “put on notice” that members expect more. They then proceeded to market their services to fight more aggressive unionization pushes.

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Analysis: Is Member Power Working for Members?
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Analysis: Is Member Power Working for Members?

The UFCW is 1.1 million members strong. That's a huge amount of POTENTIAL member power. Some call UFCW the Sleeping Giant: it's big but isn't flexing its power for members.

We want the International President to have and use the union’s big power to take on employers. Because member employers are giants, too, these days!

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Five Unions With One Member One Vote

Five Unions With One Member One Vote

One member one vote is a basic democratic principle that every member of a union should get to vote directly for executive officers such as President, Secretary-Treasurer, and Vice Presidents.

While some unions have more insular undemocratic processes, more and more unions are moving toward a one member one vote model. Check out these five big unions that have one member one vote and how they conduct their elections.

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Labor Notes: What to Do When Your Union Leaders Break Your Heart

Labor Notes: What to Do When Your Union Leaders Break Your Heart

If you’re a union member, unfortunately the chances are good that you’ve had, or will have, your heart broken at least once by one of your own leaders.Maybe it happened when you first tried to get active in your union, but found that leaders didn’t welcome you into their inner circle. You wondered whether there was some special skill you lacked, and you ended up confused and self-doubting. Maybe you just gave up.

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