Washington State Labor Education and Research Center

06/10/2026

Have you registered yet for the July 25 session? 🗓 Hurry! ‼️ We've got limited seats still available! 📣 👇

06/09/2026

📘 A Richer Harvest is an eclectic collection of fiction and nonfiction literature detailing the stories of workers and industry in the Pacific Northwest. It's one of the many books housed at the LERC's Will Parry Library, where we have immense selections on international, US, and PNW specific labor history.

Come visit our collection by appointment, or head to the link in our comments to explore our library digitally!

06/02/2026

Available by appointment and accessible online, The Will Parry Library at the LERC houses books, periodicals, movies, documentaries, pamphlets and zines on labor. Here are two books LERC staff recently featured during trainings at South Sound Labor School.

📘 Using examples from organizing movements that worked, Practical Radicals lays out realistic strategies to build power for today's organizers.

📙 A classic, Rules to Win By is a guide for organizers that focuses on the participation of ordinary people, and of every member in a union throughout the bargaining campaign.

05/27/2026

Our friends at the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies are co-sponsoring a day-long training for high school educators about incorporating workers' issues into curriculum!

The training will take place on Saturday, August 22nd in partnership with Seattle University and include simulations of a union election and contract negotiations that teachers can use in their classrooms. There is an $150 stipend for participants and participants can also receive clock hours. The link for registration is in the comments section of this post!

05/09/2026

Huge shoutout to the 75 union and community members who spent their day learning how to build power on the shop floor during South Sound Labor School! Thank you to Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council and our sponsors for helping us build the program of four day schools. Join us for the next classes in the series on July 25 and October 31 at this link: https://georgetown.southseattle.edu/ssls-2026

04/24/2026

Have you signed up?!

Keep the May Day, International Workers Day energy rolling and join the spring session of the South Sound Labor School on May 2

04/07/2026

03/20/2026

Save the dates for all 5 days of the Spokane Rank & File School, organized by the Spokane Regional Labor Council, in partnership with the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center.

When:
Wednesday April 22, 6pm - 8pm.
Thursday - Saturday April 23 - 25, 9am - 5pm
Sunday April 26, 9AM - 12pm

Where: UA Local 44 Plumbers & Steamfitters Hall - 3915 E Main, Spokane, WA 99202

Come build on and sharpen your skills around…
Internal Organizing
Membership Mobilization
Workplace Activism
Public Speaking: Telling Your Story
And More!
For event information go to https://unionhall.aflcio.org/spokanelabor/events/srlc-rank-file-school

$250 registration for first student per group, $200 for each additional student. Scholarships available. Contact [email protected] for information. To register for the 5-day school, go to tinyurl.com/Spokane-Rank-N-File

We provide education, training, events, and applied research to working people in Washington State.

03/11/2026

Thank you to CREW - Caucus of Rank and File Electrical Workers, and all the labor siblings that came out to last weekend’s Secrets of a Successful Organizer training!

Highly recommended that all CREW members take a Secrets of a Successful Organizer training. If you are trying to build a CREW chapter, or working on addressing an issue in your local/jobsite this training can help you! Labor Notes hosts these trainings virtually and in-person at their Troublemaker's Schools and Conference. Unions and Labor Councils sometimes host this or a similar training. Once again shout-out to Austin CREW! Thank you to the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center for their Train the Trainer course, it was incredibly helpful!

03/03/2026

April Workshop: Winning a Strong Contract Parts I & II. Sign up today: https://mailchi.mp/labornotes/july2023sso-10302514