Hello and welcome to Jacobin Radio. I'm your guest host Barry Idlin, filling in for your regular host,

Susie Weisman. Since 1979, the organization Labor Notes has been working hard to put the movement back in the labor movement as they're saying goes.

And since 1981, they have been organizing an event like no other, the Biennial Labor Notes Conference.

On the face of it, you might just think that it's yet another Labor Education Conference.

And while you definitely get plenty of labor education and training at the Labor Notes Conference,

there is so much more to it than that.

The Labor Notes Conference is the premier gathering of rank and file labor activists and

organizers from across the U.S. and around the world.

There's no other place where labor activists from all unions at all levels,

from shop floor organizers to international union presidents,

can gather to strategize, share stories, and learn from each other.

The most recent Labor Notes Conference was just held outside of Chicago from April 19th to 21st. And it was the biggest yet. A capacity crowd of over 4,700 people

crammed into packed plenaries and workshops to hear the latest on organizing and

contract victories and learn from seasoned organizers and labor educators

about how to build stronger unions and fight the boss better.

And in a bit of serendipity that would have probably been too much for a Hollywood screenplay if it weren't true.

Labor Notes conference goers got to watch together on the first night of the conference

as vote tallies came in from the union election at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee,

where the United Auto Workers won a historic 3-1 victory,

organizing the first foreign-owned auto transplant in the south.

As big as the conference was, it would have been even bigger if the venue had had more capacity.

Organizers had to cap registration seven weeks ahead of time, even before the early registration

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