Nearly 4,700 attendees gathered in Chicago this past weekend for the biennial Labor Notes conference despite disruptions from 17 tornadoes across the Midwest. Organizers and workers from unions including Amazon, meatpacking, nursing, and federal agencies shared strategies amid ongoing challenges from automation, policy shifts, and enforcement actions.
The event drew participants who traveled long distances, including Xavier Villerol from an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, who drove 12 hours after flights were canceled. Sessions covered contract bargaining, workplace surveillance, and responses to AI-driven changes, with the largest recorded gathering of Amazon workers from multiple countries.
Barbara Madeloni of Labor Notes opened the plenary by noting the weather as an analogy for the conditions workers face. Speakers highlighted recent actions, such as the 41-day nurses strike at Montefiore Hospital and the first major meatpacking strike in decades at a JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, where workers secured wage gains 33 percent above the initial offer.
Federal workers discussed the loss of collective bargaining rights for over a million employees in 2025, while teachers from the Twin Cities described efforts to support immigrant communities during enforcement operations. Attendees emphasized building rank-and-file power through democratic decision-making within unions.
The conference, organized since 1979 to strengthen shop-floor organizing, featured nearly 350 workshops and translation in eight languages. Participants left with renewed focus on coordinating across industries ahead of future contract talks.
