About Us
Bargaining for the Common Good is the organizing arm of the Action Center on Race and the Economy. The BCG network includes unions, community groups, racial justice organizations and student organizations that alongside each other as equal partners in their regions to win bigger and broader demands at the bargaining table and in the streets.
Across the country, labor and community groups are finding alignment in their shared interest to demand that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share, so that our communities have what they need to prosper. Within the BCG network, community organizations and unions work together to identify key compression dates across multiple years—like local elections, union contract expirations, or state budget fights—and leverage their collective power to make gains in each moment. The campaigns that emerge from this strategy move beyond settling a union contract or winning a local election to demanding long-term, structural investments in our communities. Click here to see some examples of the kinds of demands that emerge from community organizations and unions working together.
Elements of Bargaining for the Common Good Campaigns
Strengthen internal organizing, membership and member engagement. These campaigns must deeply engage the memberships of both unions and community organizations, and there must be opportunities for deep relationship-building and joint-visioning between the members of the different organizations.
The campaign doesn’t end once the union settles its contract. Bargaining for the common good is about building long-term community-labor power, not about giving unions some good publicity during a contract fight. The boss doesn’t automatically become a good actor once the contract is settled and the community’s demands don’t become any less important.
Leverage capital in our campaigns. We need to develop strategies that leverage the financial power of workers’ pension funds and endowments in order to win common good demands.
Expand the scope of bargaining beyond wages and benefits. Identify issues that resonate with members, partners and allies and that impact our communities. Put forth demands that address structural issues, not just symptoms of the problem.
Go on offense in your campaign by identifying, exposing and challenging the real villains, the financial and corporate actors who profit from and increasingly drive policies and actions.
Engage community allies as partners in issue development and the bargaining campaign. Bring in community partners on the ground floor and ask them what they need out of the bargaining campaign.
Center racial justice in your demands. Campaign demands should address the role that employers play in creating and exacerbating structural racism in our communities.