A Trip to Detroit: Notes on Independent Labor Organizing, Present and Past
Art+Feminism Workers United traveled to Detroit for the National Lawyers Guild Convening. Read our report-back.
Earlier this month, Art+Feminism Workers United traveled to Detroit for #Law4ThePeople, the annual convening of the National Lawyers Guild. We joined the Independent Organizing Network (ION) and Blue Bottle Independent Union (BBIU) for a panel, Building Democratic, Worker-Led Unions in a Changing Labor Landscape. We shared our experiences organizing in this hostile landscape and discussed creative ways lawyers can support worker-led unions. After the convening, we spent a day at the Reuther Library’s Labor Archives.
A few notes from our trip:
Labor without the NLRA
In 2025, ION published The Post-NLRA Project, Vol I. Acknowledging the long history of attacks on the NLRA, the 35-page report provides details on recent events: Donald Trump’s dismissal of NLRB Chair Gwynne Wilcox, his firing of Jennifer Abruzzo, and efforts to challenge to the constitutionality of the NLRA spearheaded by corporations like Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
In addition to explaining these recent attacks, the project gives some history on the ways working class activists were targeted before the NLRA went into effect; most importantly, the project lays some groundwork for thinking beyond the law. For May Day 2026, ION is publishing the second volume of their project featuring testimonies from workers who’ve organized effectively without the protection of the NLRA. Check out their website and Instagram for details.
The status of the Blue Bottle and Art+Feminism campaigns
Blue Bottle Independent Union represents over 100 baristas at a Nestlé-owned coffee chain. BBIU won recognition in May 2024; starting with their stores in Massachusetts, they have now gone on to organize their coworkers in California. From strikes to marches on the boss, BBIU has used a variety of strategies to agitate and accomplish some wins. They are currently prioritizing raising money for their strike fund to enable them to more effectively pressure their employer to meet their demands. If you’re a fundraiser or can recommend a funder who can support this, email BBIU: bluebottleunion [at] gmail [dot] com.
If you’ve been following the Art+Feminism Workers United campaign, then you know that between September and December of 2025, Kira Wisniewski, the executive director of Art+Feminism, fired all staff, and in our November NLRB hearing argued that Art+Feminism doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the NLRB. The NLRB has yet to decide our case. In the meantime, we have been advocating for Art+Feminism to withdraw their challenge in order to maintain federal protections for future A+F employees and to eliminate the risk of creating any new anti-worker case law.
Visiting the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University
Michigan has such a rich culture of organizing. As we were reminded at the #Law4ThePeople keynote: Lansing was once home to Malcolm X, Detroit birthed The League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), Ann Arbor gave us the Students for a Democratic Society, and Flint helped popularize the Sit-down strike. So before we left Detroit, we made a point to visit the Labor Archives at Wayne State. While many of the files for the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and the LRBW are available online, we were able to view some of the photographs and ephemera that are only available onsite. We were also able to view some notes and unpublished writings from auto worker and labor organizer, James Boggs. (We recommend reading Boggs’s published works, including “The Rise and Fall of the Union”).
The history of union reformism and independent labor organizing is long. With the threats to our rights growing all around us, we’re lucky to have these historical reference points and to be supported by a community willing to fight.
This article is cross-posted on the Art+Feminism Workers United Medium account.
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