In many workplace situations, the issue chooses you. Management is doing something awful and you feel the need to stop it: too much ovetime, an unfair rule, discrimination. But maybe there are so many problems where you work, you hardly know where to begin. You're angry about a lot of things. You sense that others are angry too--but maybe about different issues than you. If you're thinking long-term, you want to get beyond solving just one problem. You want to create an atmosphere where people feel and exercise their power, so anyone can nip problems in the bud. You want to make unionism a living presence in the workplace. Your first fight should reinforce the organizing impulse and give people confidence to go further. The issue you choose should be widely and deeply felt, winnable, and build the group.
- KBOO