Union Strategies for Hard Times: Helping Your Members and Building Your Union in the Great Recession, offers how-to counsel for unions as the continuing economic crisis ravages workers and threatens to destroy decades of collective bargaining gains. Urging leaders to avoid falling into a strictly defensive posture, it outlines how unions can seize the time and turn crisis into opportunity.

The author is Bill Barry, director of labor studies at the Community College of Baltimore County and a 40-year veteran of the movement. Barry calls on his long history of activism and years of "what works, what doesn’t" discussions with other leaders to come up with strategies to survive these terrible times and even use the crisis to build a better future.

Union Strategies for Hard Times outlines a frank and systematic program for union leaders, stewards and activists who want to respond aggressively to those employers and financial interests that would have working people and their institutions just shut up, be nice and accept what’s given them.

Topics in the book include:

* Hanging Tough at the Table

* New Tactics on Grievances

* Aiding and Mobilizing Members on Layoff

* Confronting Financial Strains

* Effective Communications for a New Day

* Where We are and How We Got Here

The book describes today’s challenges to unions representing workers in every sector of the economy and offers concrete, Organizing Model tactics to deal with them. No union activists who want to help their members -- working or laid off -- while defending and even growing their unions should be without this important book.

Barry is the author of I Just Got Elected – Now What: A New Union Officer’s Handbook. Both books are offered by Union Communication Services, Inc., publishers of The Union Steward’s Complete Guide, Steward Update newsletter and other tools for union activists. Union Strategies for Hard Times is available for $15 plus $3 shipping and handling from <http://www.unionist.com>  800-321-2545, or UCS Inc., 165 Conduit St., Annapolis MD 21401.

David Prosten
Union Communication Services Inc.
165 Conduit St.
Annapolis MD 21401
410-626-1400
<http://www.unionist.com/>