Strike Back: Rediscovering Militant Tactics to Fight the Attacks on Public Employee Unions, Paperback

During the 1960s and 1970s, teachers, sanitation workers and many other public employees rose up to demand collective bargaining rights in one of the greatest upsurges in labor history. These workers were able to transform the nature of public employment, winning union recognition for millions and ultimately forcing reluctant politicians to pass laws allowing for collective bargaining and even the right to strike.

Strike Back uncovers this history of militancy to provide tactics for a new generation of public employees facing unprecedented attacks on their labor rights. This updated edition will discuss the 2018 recent teacher strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, to demonstrate how they are using many of the tactics discussed in this book.

Joe Burns is a veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer with over 25 years experience negotiating labor agreements. He is currently the Director of Collective Bargaining for the Association of Flight Attendants--CWA. He graduated from the New York University School of Law. Prior to law school he worked in a public sector hospital and was president of his AFSCME Local.