Independent Organizing Network: It Just Got Easier for Workers to Form their Own Unions
Written by SP Editor
The Independent Organizing Network (ION) started off as a one-off idea to support a local union effort, but it has become part of something much bigger. Since forming ION, we’ve watched independent unionism turn into something other than just a one-off success story. We are now witnessing the profound rise of an independent union movement and, alongside it, inspiring levels of worker participation, empowerment, and democracy. The organizing work happening in the independent union movement proves what many have felt and known all along: that workers are done relying on overly legalistic and bureaucratic “business” unionism; and they are, in fact, willing and able to take matters into their own hands as rank-and-file worker-organizers and fully operate their own unions. ION exists to help workers fully realize their potential without having to endure the Faustian bargain of paying legal fees or sacrificing their autonomy for access to vital resources.
Although ION officially formed in October of 2023, its true origins began in late 2021, when I first experienced being part of a rank-and-file movement. That year, my coworkers and I decided to unionize our Starbucks store in Boston. We joined the Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) movement early into the campaign and, since there were no Workers United staff organizers in the state at that time, we took on much of the day-to-day organizing. We weren’t technically an independent union, but we operated like one: For the first six months of the Boston SBWU campaign, workers led store and regional level meetings, held frequent inoculation trainings, and prepared for pre-election hearing proceedings. The rank-and-file took the lead.
However, as time went on and the campaign increased exponentially in size and scope, the union’s external leadership started interjecting themselves into our worker-led region and limiting workers’ voices. Tensions grew while workers at a Brookline location held down a 24/7 picket line for 64 days straight (and were later joined by several other locations for a week-long solidarity strike). I watched in disappointment as our bureaucratic union leaders pleaded with workers to end the strike and return to their toxic working conditions. Then I watched those same bureaucrats aggressively push passionate and dedicated worker-organizers out of the campaign, eventually leaving us with just the memory of our once flourishing rank-and-file campaign. This is when thoughts of independent unions first began to dance around in my head.
One night, I ended up working the picket line graveyard shift alongside Gonzo Pyne, a Muppet-loving academic and Blue Bottle Coffee barista who was passionate about organizing (among many other fascinatingly-niche things). After a long night bonding over corny jokes and a shared late-night delirium, we decided to exchange contact information, and a few months later, I ended up reaching out to Gonzo to hear how their organizing efforts had been going. They said that they had put together an organizing committee, but that no one on the committee felt like any of the established unions that were courting them were a good fit. This is when my dancing thoughts of independent unions returned, and luckily, Gonzo was thinking the same thing. But there were a few problems: How would workers win a union against a major corporation without access to lawyers? Where would they get money for filing fees and strike relief? How would they navigate unfair labor practices and negotiate a decent contract?
Fortunately, during my time organizing with SBWU, myself and other rank-and-file organizers teamed-up with several law students and lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) to train workers on Massachusetts employment law and reporting unfair labor practices. On the picket line, I met dozens of long-time union activists with invaluable organizing advice and connections to meeting spaces. With this in mind, I reckoned we might just be able to scrape together enough resources to help make an independent union at Blue Bottle Coffee (which is owned by international food conglomerate Nestle) possible.
Countless virtual meetings and long days at the local Workers World office ultimately culminated in the launch of Blue Bottle Independent Union (BBIU). Despite the difficulties of navigating the NLRB and state/federal incorporation laws, the BBIU baristas remained ardently committed to maintaining an entirely worker-led union. BBIU launched its campaign in April 2024 with six Boston stores executing a powerful march on the boss and demanding voluntary recognition by the company. Although the company refused to voluntarily recognize the union, the Boston workers eventually won their union following a landslide election. After the BBIU campaign expanded to Northern California, ION took full flight, and now as Blue Bottle workers finalize their first contract, those same battling baristas are showing that they can do it all without a major union backing them.
ION became an official initiative of the NLG Massachusetts chapter in October of 2023. Following the success of BBIU’s Boston campaign, we began receiving more inquiries from budding indie campaigns throughout the country. In the past three years, our network of volunteer lawyers, law students, and organizers have helped over a dozen campaigns build strong, worker-led unions from the ground up. We’ve also developed indie-union specific trainings on unfair labor practices and Weingarten rights, as well as general trainings on common workplace issues like wage theft and discrimination. Currently, our volunteers are busy supporting multiple indie campaigns, finalizing a comprehensive rank-and-file guide to collective bargaining agreements, and researching for Volume II of the Post-NLRA Project (an exploration of organizing without the protections of the NLRA).
ION’s success is largely the result of our relationships with other labor organizations, organizing coalitions, and law school associations. Although we are based in Massachusetts, we receive inquiries from workers throughout the country. Often, we are introduced to indie campaigns, either by word of mouth or through the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), a collaboration between the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) dedicated to organizing unorganized workers in any industry. Once we start working with a new campaign, we immediately invite them to join the Coalition of Independent Unions (CIU), a group that originated in Portland, Oregon and has since expanded to bring together and serve current and new independent campaigns throughout the country. When a campaign needs legal assistance, we reach out to a network of movement-centered attorneys willing to provide free legal support and representation fully at the discretion and need of the workers themselves. When those attorneys need research assistance, help with drafting documents or putting together materials and resources for workers, we connect them with law students from that state or region to assist them and to give the students hands-on legal experience and supervision while minimizing the workload of our otherwise busy attorneys. Beginning first with members of UC Berkeley’s Law and Organizing Collective (BLOC), our law student collaboration has expanded to City University of New York, New York University, Northeastern, and Boston College.
To be clear, the aim is not to reinvent the wheel, or to attempt to subvert or rebuke the hard-fought gains of established unions. Instead, we are seeking to model the type of militant, democratic, rank-and-file led and driven unionism that gave workers of all backgrounds a strong mechanism for change and power, which many established unions once embodied and held as essential and which is especially important now, given the imminent existential threats of fascism, genocide, climate collapse, and unaffordability. It’s clear that “business unionism-as-usual” cannot and will not save us, and as union density continues to decline, our only hope is to build a democratic, antiracist, antiimperialist, and anticapitalist working class revolution from the bottom-up–and that’s precisely what we’re trying to emulate within the independent union struggle, with the goal of developing a replicable model that can be implemented by all unions to scale.
Tyler Daguerre directs the Independent Organizing Network.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to volunteer or are simply interested in learning more reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or check out our website at poweredbyion.com. They are entirely volunteer-run and would appreciate financial support.
