Philly Troublemakers Get Schooled

Philadelphia’s Troublemakers School saw classrooms full of union activists eager to work together and share. For many of the 125 participants, the opportunity to communicate with each other about their experience as organizers in the workplace was rare and important.

Troublemakers Schools, the one-day regional conferences that Labor Notes holds across the country, help activists think through big-picture responses to big-picture problems while they learn tactics, skills, and strategies they can use in their unions and workers centers to fight back and win. The September school in Philadelphia was the eighth nationwide this year.

Pat Fahy, a member of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 827, came to the school fresh from the Verizon strike.

“The Beating Apathy workshop reminded me that one of the best ways to get my union brothers and sisters moving is to find out what level of commitment each person has,” he said, “and try to get them to take action based on what they are willing to do.”

Many attendees agreed they wanted less rigid and more horizontal unions.

Dan Lutz, an organizer with Teamsters for a Democratic Union, was impressed with the level of discussion at the school between union stewards, officers, organizers, staff, and concerned members “about what we can do to take responsibility for our unions and rebuild union culture at work.”

“People were ready to roll up their sleeves and get down to work,” Lutz said. “For me, that's what Labor Notes is all about.”


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“I really wanted a day off,” he added. “I’m glad I didn't take it and came to the school!”


Zac Steele of Juntos, a group organizing in the immigrant Latino community, said the leaders who came to the school struggled with the same questions facing the entire labor movement.

“Our leaders think it is important to stand with unionized workers for labor rights, but they questioned the makeup of unions, and what strategies should exist to build solidarity between union and non-unionized—particularly undocumented—workers,” he said.

The Troublemakers School was an excellent glimpse into what workers are doing on the ground to fight for the respect, dignity, and compensation they deserve, said Dani Noble of the Swarthmore Student Labor Action Project.


Noble collaborated with rank-and-file leaders, organizers, and students to host a discussion on students in the labor movement, calling it “a rich, honest conversation about the possibilities of as well as challenges in campus organizing and student involvement in campaigns.”

“We realized how much has actually been happening,” she added, “and how much potential there is.”

Fulvia Serra teaches philosophy at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.