John Weber

The streets of Los Angeles are packed with the sights and sounds of collective action this week. Braving the cold rain, some 30,000 United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) members turned out for picket lines across the city yesterday, joined by more than 10,000 parents, students and community members. Every L.A. school site—more than 900—participated in the strike, culminating in a 50,000-person march to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD’s) headquarters.

One of the country’s best-kept secrets is that the American labor movement trains more workers than any organization other than the U.S. military. Apprenticeships and job training programs represent a powerful, life-changing opportunity that unions are in a unique position to provide. When those resources are made readily available to working people, membership growth often follows.

As the midterms rapidly approach, politics is at the top of minds across the labor movement. And as a seemingly endless stream of news flows from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail, it can be easy to lose sight of anything else. But, organizers have been quick to point out that our electoral strength in November depends on our organizing strength year-round.

When working Missourians overwhelmingly defeated "right to work" in August, they landed a gut punch to corporate interests that reverberated across the country.

On this week's episode of Crooked Conversations, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sat down in Missouri for a live recorded conversation with Let America Vote President Jason Kander. The pair discussed the importance of unions, the rise of collective action and the future of the labor movement.