ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the second phase of the larger organizing process: activation, when workers move from diagnosing collective problems to launching a full-fledged union bid. It explains a collection of galvanizing movements that crystallized workers’ grievances—solidifying the distinction between “us” and “them”—and the broader contextual and structural conditions that enabled journalists to unionize. Black Lives Matter and a re-energized feminist politics empowered journalists to link gender- and race-based grievances to structural problems in the industry and economy. Social movement organizing and discourse gave media workers’ grievances weight, context, and perspective, and fueled a renewal of collective sensibility. Being propelled into organizing by keen and self-motivated journalists has energized and expanded both unions, particularly in New York City, generating a concentrated spark of renewal in a broader labor movement facing decades of attacks from capital and the state.
