McAlevey maintains that well-planned strikes are not only a union’s most potent weapon, but also the public’s best chance of forcing substantive policy changes to improve working conditions, living conditions, and the health of the planet. And making sure communities and other allies understand key tactics to support striking workers is a big part of that strategy.
“It’s going to take workers walking off the job in very serious numbers to create the kind of crisis that forces the capitalist class, the corporate elite in this country, to the table,” argues McAlevey. “And that’s not going to happen by workers isolated alone on picket lines. It’s going to happen when the whole community begins to rise up and support them, broadly.”
Below are five ways you can support striking workers: