Power in a Union: Organizing your Campaign, Organization or Firm
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Saturday, Aug. 4 9:00 AM (Central)
Ends: Saturday, Aug. 4 10:15 AM (Central)
Room: 214
2018 has seen an invigorated movement to unionize campaigns with the launch of the Campaign Workers Guild and the unionization of large progressive consulting firms like Revolution Messaging and M+R. Learn about how and why to unionize your workplace from the wide-ranging experiences of the campaigns, organizations, firms, and labor experts who’ve done it.
Moderator
Carla Aronsohn
Carla Aronsohn has a background in field organizing and lobbying around the country for progressive issues and candidates. Carla is the SVP of Strategy at Revolution Messaging, leading their rapid response Revere Suite team and working with clients like MoveOn, ACLU, Color of Change, Giffords, Beto for Texas, Presente, and many more. Carla was the lead mobile strategist for Bernie Sanders 2016 which won two Reed awards and one Pollie award for mobile. Carla helped conceptualize and launch Daily Action, which uses mobile and calling to make civic engagement easy and effective by having one call action per day. Carla worked with Black Out for Human Rights to use mobile tools to raise $150K in 24 hours for communities affected by the Flint water crisis. Carla is on the board of directors of WERK for Peace, an organization that holds LGBTQ+ dance party protests, notably in front of Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump’s houses.
Panelists
Neha Mathew-Shah
Neha is the President of Progressive Workers Union (PWU), which is striving towards equity and justice for workers, by harnessing the collective power of its membership. Neha is also the International Representative for the Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships Program at the Sierra Club.
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Founded in 1992, the Progressive Workers’ Union (PWU) represents over 200 staff across the United States and Puerto Rico. PWU’s membership base includes organizers, fundraisers, campaign representatives, communications professionals, digital strategists, policy experts, legal assistants, and IT professionals.
Aneta Molenda
Aneta got started in the labor movement as a field organizer with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance before helping to launch an alt-labor organizing program at Working America. She spent the next few years at M+R where she consulted on digital organizing strategy for various clients including the Fight for $15 and Planned Parenthood. As the Digital Director at United for Respect (formerly OUR Walmart) she explored new and innovative ways to scale national organizing including the successful campaign winning severance pay for Toys R Us workers. Aneta was born and raised in Poland and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. When she’s not organizing, she is making ceramics and fostering neonatal kittens.
Meg Reilly
Meg Reilly is the Vice President of the Campaign Workers Guild, a new independent national union representing non-management workers on electoral and issue-based campaigns.