Join author Daniel Gross in a dynamic exchange with Miranda Escalante and Jen Hampton of Asheville Food & Beverage United using the 8 building blocks to visionary and sustainable unions in his new book, followed by open discussion with attendees

Work, to state the obvious, is not meeting our needs. There's plenty of beautiful energy among the working class yet the vast majority of us remain screwed on the job. At the same time, when we're not organized in the economy, we're guaranteed the kind of society we have—with billionaires ruling over us.

Unions of Our Own: Eight Building Blocks to Change Work... and the World (Haymarket Books) offers a radically new framework to take on problems in the workplace—and in society—and win. Through practical tools, labor history, his own personal campaign stories, and ample examples to learn from, Daniel Gross lifts the veil on the eight fundamental building blocks of a labor union so workers can discuss, design, and test their own unions or revitalize existing ones.

Unions of Our Own is about maximizing our chance of victory: unions where workers are fully meeting needs, honoring their values, and advancing a transformational vision of the world.
About the Speakers

Daniel Gross has spent over twenty years building unions at his jobs and accompanying thousands of workers building unions at theirs. He is the co-author with Staughton Lynd of Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law, a classic passed around by autonomy minded workers generation after generation, as well as of the graphic booklet Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks with Lynd and cartoonist Tom Keough. He helped convene the groundbreaking IWW Starbucks Workers Union in 2004 as well as Brandworkers, a worker center for food manufacturing workers in New York and New Jersey. He's currently a member and a union-builder on staff at the Solidarity Union Network (SUN), an organization of emerging unions that are led-and-operated by workers, powered by direct action, and aimed at fundamental change.

Jen Hampton is a housing and labor organizer in Asheville for the Asheville Area Tenants Union. She is also a co-founder and leader of Asheville Food and Beverage United, advocating for fair wages, safe working conditions, and collective power for all people. Through organizing, advocacy, and coalition-building, she works to empower people to use their voices and collective power to take back control of the systems that shape our lives.

Asheville Food and Beverage United is the Local 828 of Restaurant Workers United, a worker-led union dedicated to advocacy and organizing for service industry workers in the Asheville area. Learn more at avlfbu.com.