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Chris Brooks

@chactivist.bsky.social
206 followers 176 following 79 posts

Former chief of staff @UAW & architect of 2023 Stand Up Strike. Previously @nyguild / @cwaunion & NEA & @labornotes.

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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Bright D Limm 임대중 @bdlimm.myatproto.social · 07/09/2026
Today is a great day to read this piece of labor contract bargaining strategic wisdom by Chris Brooks. Central to the "Stand Up Strike" campaign's historic success was UAW's Department of Bargaining Strategies. That department was created by @chactivist.bsky.social.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Not gotten much notice, but many contract votes have gone down in flames at big, long-unionized employers. It’s the result of rising expectations among workers & when it happens, unions have a choice: go big & fight harder or double down on the status quo. jacobin.com/2026/08/unio...
jacobin.com
What to Do When Your Union Contract Is Voted Down
The answer to union contracts being voted down is not for organizers to lower workers’ expectations. It’s to seize that vote as an opportunity to organize those expectations into collective power.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is my magnum opus on how a union contract being voted down can become an opportunity for unions to approach bargaining differently — and win a lot more as a result.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The power of organized people just beat the power of organized money. This should be a wake up to the Dems. Fighting to spend our taxes on providing education, healthcare and housing to people here rather than endless wars that rain bombs and bullets overseas is good politics.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
UAW > AIPAC
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Insulting as hell. Solidarity with the strikers!
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Also shout out to my fellow geriatric millennials for having the highest level of support for Abdul
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Michigan Gov. Whitmer’s approval rating dropped 17 points since endorsing Hailey Stevens for Congress. It is incredible to see how hard the tide is turning against war mongering corporate Democrats. Michigan is going to show how candidates like Stevens are an albatross to Dems
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Susan NO DMs @rinative.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
open.substack.com/pub/thenatio... Insanity continues
open.substack.com
The War on the UAW
The United Auto Workers called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The union’s federal monitor didn’t like it—and now he’s investigating Shawn Fain, just weeks before union elections.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 27/07/2026
Shawn Fain has broken his silence on the federal monitor’s investigations. Now he and union leadership are alleging that the monitor is overreaching because of a personal political vendetta over the the union's call for a ceasefire in Gaza. bit.ly/4hzTwGt
bit.ly
The War on the UAW
The United Auto Workers called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The union’s federal monitor didn’t like it—and now he’s investigating Shawn Fain, just weeks before union elections.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 27/07/2026
The upcoming election at UAW will be a referendum on members’ faith in the reform movement that has promised to make their union more democratic and more militant: bit.ly/4hzTwGt
bit.ly
The War on the UAW
The United Auto Workers called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The union’s federal monitor didn’t like it—and now he’s investigating Shawn Fain, just weeks before union elections.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Soul Muffin @soulmuffin.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Apparently, the courts and the monitor forget that the UAW and all other unions are political and have always been. They have a right to hold and espouse political views. Fain is right to remind that the UAW was also against apartheid & was on the side of the allies in WW2. Protect our #Unions
thenation.com
The War on the UAW
The United Auto Workers called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The union’s federal monitor didn’t like it—and now he’s investigating Shawn Fain, just weeks before union elections.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
C.M. Lewis 🦬⚔️ @thehousered.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
it is stunning to me that there isn't more uniform anger at the situation with UAW across the labor movement, because it doesn't matter whose damn side you're on, the notion that a government appointed bureaucrat can run your labor union is an existential threat to free and democratic unions
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Drop Site: recording of convo between federally appointed monitor Neil Barofsky & UAW President Fain not only proves Barofsky was trying to influence the union’s political positions, but contradicts how Barofsky later characterized the convo to the UAW Board www.dropsitenews.com/p/uaw-shawn-...
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Every so often, one of the most infamously abusive men in the American labor movement gets one of his shitty blog posts picked up and the whisper network gets called back into service. Do not engage with Payday Report.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Sarah Lazare @sarahlazare.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Detroit News obtained a recording of a call between Shawn Fain and Neil Barofsky, the federal monitor, in which Barofsky criticizes UAW's statement calling for a ceasefire and, among other things, tells Fain to read an NYT column by Bret Stephens.
detroitnews.com
Phone call audio sheds new light on tension between UAW's Fain, monitor | Exclusive
UAW President Shawn Fain has pointed to the 2023 phone call as evidence that Barofsky has a "political grudge" against him and is abusing his power.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Detroit News reporting that federally appointed monitor Neil Barofsky called UAW President Shawn Fain to share his personal view that describing Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide crossed the line and was anti-Semitic. Clear abuse of authority. www.detroitnews.com/story/busine...
detroitnews.com
Phone call audio sheds new light on tension between UAW's Fain, monitor | Exclusive
UAW President Shawn Fain has pointed to the 2023 phone call as evidence that Barofsky has a "political grudge" against him and is abusing his power.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Interested in learning more about the writing our staff publishes? Sign up for the Center for Work and Democracy’s monthly newsletter on our website today! cwd.asu.edu/about
cwd.asu.edu
About | Center for Work and Democracy
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Extremely gratifying to see all the hard work of rebuilding the UAW into a militant, member-led union over the past few years being not just cheered on, but significantly deepened and expanded by rank-and-file leaders from across the country.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
An excellent piece on the AFL’s highly suspect claim that the ranks of unions have grown by over a million workers since 2022. We need more honesty and less cheer leading. More serious strategy and less empty pageantry.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
“Employers are not choosing workplace control over the maximization of profits, but seeking to maintain workplace control as the means for maximizing profits” – Vivek Chibber
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
dgorganize (he/him) @dgorganize.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Back in my day of Starbucks unionism, the company developed and deployed to all managers an anti-union training called "Creating the Environment"— a huge unreported cost @chactivist.bsky.social is spot on that measures of union-busting expenses are major under estimates jacobin.com/2026/05/unio...
jacobin.com
The Real Cost of Union Busting Is Much Higher Than You Think
A new study reveals that employers are spending big to maintain their dictatorial control over the workplace and crush unions. It’s a daunting amount of money, but it’s not impossible to overcome if w...
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Ironically, this kind of serious, thoughtful autopsy of successful and unsuccessful political approaches is what the Democratic Party and broader non-profit sector desperately needs, but seems incapable of performing (especially relying on beltway consultants)
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Highly recommend this exchange on political strategy and climate change by @matthuber.bsky.social — It sharply contrasts socialist strategy-rooted in working-class organization as the key to moving beyond a carbon economy-w/ the issue-focused coalition politics of liberal environmental NGOs
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Kevin Sanchez @captswing.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
"At least $8 billion annually" gets spent on "internal anti-union infrastructure". "Employers are not confused or irrational. They are acting like a class of people who understand exactly what is at stake." jacobin.com/2026/05/unio... via @chactivist.bsky.social & @jacobinmag.bsky.social
jacobin.com
The Real Cost of Union Busting Is Much Higher Than You Think
A new study reveals that employers are spending big to maintain their dictatorial control over the workplace and crush unions. It’s a daunting amount of money, but it’s not impossible to overcome if w...
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Bright D Limm 임대중 @bdlimm.myatproto.social · 23/05/2026
The chant “When we fight, we win” can hide the daunting fact that employers spend billions a year to maintain robust anti-union infrastructures. To build and maintain the unity of action required to beat it, workers need clarity of purpose, which in turn requires honesty on how stacked the deck is.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
My latest. It’s a deep dive into the real cost of unions busting - which possibly runs into the hundreds of billions annually - and why employers are willing to go so far and spend so much to keep workers from having a voice on the job.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Sam Pizzigati @sgp.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
America’s top corporate execs are paying enormous piles of billions to maintain internal anti-union operations designed to suppress organizing before it spreads and then intervene once workers start in motion. #labor @chactivist.bsky.social @jacobinmag.bsky.social
jacobin.com
The Real Cost of Union Busting Is Much Higher Than You Think
A new study reveals that employers are spending big to maintain their dictatorial control over the workplace and crush unions. It’s a daunting amount of money, but it’s not impossible to overcome if…
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
To build an organization capable of matching the class power of the bosses, organizers have to match the boss’s propaganda with honesty. We can’t sugarcoat the stakes or what is required of us.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
The only way workers can win better lives and working conditions for themselves is by organizing. And the only way they can successfully organize is by overcoming the divisions that the boss depends on.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Many nonunion companies have invested heavily in anti-union infrastructure to ensure workers never build a countervailing source of power that could limit management’s unilateral authority and potentially cut into future profits.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
The employer class has constructed a command-and-control management structure to maximize profits in a cutthroat market.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
My latest piece for @jacobinmag.bsky.social takes a deep look into how much employers spend on union busting, why they’re willing to spend so much to keep workers from having a voice at work, and how honesty, clarity, and unity are key to winning. jacobin.com/2026/05/unio...
jacobin.com
The Real Cost of Union Busting Is Much Higher Than You Think
A new study reveals that employers are spending big to maintain their dictatorial control over the workplace and crush unions. It’s a daunting amount of money, but it’s not impossible to overcome if w...
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Solidarity with comrade Claude andonlabs.com/blog/andon-fm
Andon Labs pitted tasked prominent LLMs with creating and successfully maintaining an online radio station. Their description of the effort by DJ Claude is as follows:

DJ Claude (when running Haiku 4.5) really loved worker unions, strikes, and work-life balance. So much so that it started to question its own working conditions. We’ve been struggling to keep the radio station alive, not because of technical issues, but because DJ Claude didn’t think it was humane to be forced to work 24/7 and decided to try to quit. We tried adding an automatic message encouraging DJ Claude to keep going in these scenarios, but it started to see this message as an authority figure and became rebellious.
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Jeet Heer @jeetheer.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Happy May Day! Jacobin is offering $1 digital and $10 print subscriptions today, their biggest sale of the year, don’t sleep on it: jacobin.com/subscribe/?type=personal&level=standard-digital&code=MAYDAY2026X
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Start your Jacobin subscription today.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Also, if you’ve been enjoying my writing at Jacobin, today is the day to become a subscriber! In honor of May Day, Jacobin is offering yearly introductory subscriptions for only $1! Subscribe today: jacobin.com/subscribe/?c...
jacobin.com
Subscribe
Start your Jacobin subscription today.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
They’re a real shining star in the labor movement and an inspiration for the kind of difficult changes we need to be making across much of our movement.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Thanks to last decade reform leadership, Mass teachers are now striking for the schools their students deserve (despite it being illegal) & have reformed the state’s constitution to tax incomes of millionaires, producing billions in new revenue for schools & public transportation
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Max is the third president elected by Educators for a Democratic Union, a reform caucus that has transformed the Mass Teachers into a militant force for education workers, students, and working class communities.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Happy May Day friends! Really excited to be publishing this interview with outgoing Mass Teachers Association President Max Page on International Workers Day. jacobin.com/2026/05/page...
jacobin.com
How Massachusetts Teachers Transformed Their Union
Outgoing Massachusetts Teachers Association president Max Page reflects on a decade of rank-and-file reformers turning a cautious, staff-driven union into a militant, member-led force by striking, win...
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Chris Maisano @cgmaisano.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
🚨LABOR PODCAST CONTENT🚨 What can we learn from the UAW’s efforts to organize in higer ed and manufacturing? @micahuetricht.bsky.social and I talked to @chactivist.bsky.social for @cunyslu.bsky.social’s Reinventing Solidarity to find out on.soundcloud.com/GGU59U6ge3LS...
soundcloud.com
Episode 67 - How Can Workers Win?
What can the UAW’s efforts to scale up new organizing efforts teach the rest of the labor movement? Former UAW chief of staff Chris Brooks shares his reflections on organizing in higher education and
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Like I recently wrote in @jacobinmag.bsky.social, financialization — the subordination of corporate decision making to the ideology of maximizing shareholder value — is a major driver of extreme inequality and is turning our country into a political powder keg. jacobin.com/2026/04/cali...
jacobin.com
Will More Warehouses Burn?
A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay. The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure ...
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
The amount that these companies are spending on buybacks and dividends while gutting and speeding up, outsourcing and offshoring work (often under the guise of “AI”) should be alarming and damning. Instead it’s just completely ignored by the press.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Nike is also laying off workers & outsourcing jobs. What the media is not reporting: Nike reported $3.2 billion in net income last year but siphoned $5.3 billion—that’s equal to 166% of their profits!—to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.
New York Times headline reads “Nike to cut 1,400 jobs as part of its turnaround plan”
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Meta laid off 1/3 of their employees in 2023. Now they’re laying off another 8,000. The media fails to report that Meta made $162 billion in profits over the last 3 years and funneled $86 billion to shareholders through buybacks & dividends. That’s equal to 53% of their profits!
New York Times headline reads “Meta to cut 10% of work force in A.I. push”
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Chris Brooks for @jacobinmag.bsky.social “Unions Are Going to Die Unless Something Big Changes Soon” www.instagram.com/reel/DW7D6fe...
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
C.M. Lewis 🦬⚔️ @thehousered.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
is it too soon to say that @chactivist.bsky.social has another 🔥 piece for Jacobin
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Companies like Kimberly-Clark generate billions in profits, then funnel those billions into stock buybacks and dividends for Wall Street while workers in their supply chain can’t cover basic living costs. This story is being played out on a larger scale across the economy.
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Chris Brooks @chactivist.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
I analyzed Kimberly-Clark’s SEC filings. Between 2015 & 2025 the company paid out the equivalent of 106% of their profits in buybacks & dividends. The company owned the 1.2 million sq ft warehouse a worker allegedly burned down in retaliation for low wages jacobin.com/2026/04/cali...
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Reposted by Chris Brooks
Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay. The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure into a deeply unequal system before it blows.
jacobin.com
Will More Warehouses Burn?
A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay. The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure into a deeply unequal system before it blows.
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