Public Speaking

TED, Vancouver, 2019

Media Appearances

I've always believed that all working people are part of the labor movement, whether or not they've ever been in a union. But for too long, labor leaders have responded to worker frustration with "join a union," as if that were a realistic option for most people. It isn't, and that gap has cost the movement.

Speaking directly to workers about their power, their rights, and what collective action actually looks like in their lives is one of the most underleveraged tools we have. At a moment when wages have stagnated, wealth inequality has exploded, and federal labor law still looks like it was written for a mid-century factory floor, workers deserve leaders who meet them where they are and tell them the truth: they already have more power than they know.

Public Speaking is Organizing

All working people can be part of the labor movement. For more than a decade, I’ve been appealing to workers in industries not typically represented by the labor movement — gig workers, tech workers, finance workers, workers in Congress — to spur interest in the labor movement and drive conversations about how labor is still relevant today. In this 2016 talk at the invite-only gathering Foo Camp attended by people working in tech, I reframed the labor movement as an engine of social innovation, and invited everyone in the room to think about themselves as workers.

Panels & Conferences

I speak at labor conferences, academic institutions, and social innovation gatherings about the future of worker organizing. My focus: how we build new infrastructure for worker power, what innovation looks like in the labor movement, and why the next century of organizing won't look like the last.

Public Thought Leadership

The labor movement desperately needs a broader public conversation about worker power. I give talks to educate people on the practical value of workplace organizing, but also to push the movement itself toward innovation. Our structures are nearly a century old. Our economy is not. If we’re going to reverse the decades-long decline in labor union membership rates, we need new ideas in wide circulation, not just more campaigns running on old infrastructure.