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STUDY QUESTIONS FOR A TROUBLEMAKER'S HANDBOOK 2
by Joe Berry

These questions for selected chapters were used by labor educator Joe Berry in a class at the University of Illinois, Chicago Labor Education Program, in partnership with the National Labor College.

For each chapter, the first questions ask about the content of the reading. For some chapters, the "what do you think?" questions then ask students to go deeper into their own experience and offer opinions.

We encourage others who've written study questions for A Troublemaker's Handbook 2 to send them to jane@labornotes.org, so that we can share them with readers.

Organizing: Why, How, Who, When, Where and for What?
Chapter 2
1. List David Friedman's basic points about organizing attitude and combating fear.
2. Why are respect and personal relationships key to organizing?
3. What are some of the ideas that hide behind what is called apathy?
4. What are our key legal rights to organize?
5. What are the most important of the basic principles Friedman lists?

Chapter 15
1. What does Brenner mean by strategic, comprehensive rank and file organizing?
2. Why is a plan better than "hot shop" organizing? What are the key considerations in targeting?
3. Why is a workplace committee so important?
4. How do member organizers learn to organize in the Laborers and AFSCME examples?
5. What were the key elements in the Iroquois Trucking and Chicago Machinists victories?
6. What is a "salt" and why can they be effective?
7. What is the most important lesson from the Powell's Books organizing experience?
8. How does the Vermont nurses story demonstrate the need for both internal and external organizing?
9. What elements of the CWA-SBC campaign are unique to them and what could apply to other unions? 10. What are the pluses and minuses of card check as a strategy?
11. List the tactics HERE had to use to eventually win at Marriott in San Francisco.
12. How can non-majority unionism win gains for workers in the short run as well as in the long run?

Discrimination: Still a Problem for Labor?
Chapter 5
1. What is Troublemaker's basic argument against discrimination?
2. List the main tactics used to fight discrimination in the various stories.
3. How were effective tactics and strategies different, or similar, if the fight was over sex discrimination, race, or homophobia?

Is the Labor Movement More than Unions? Should It Be?
Chapter 17
1. What are the main functions that the various workers centers perform? How are their goals different from those of unions? How are they the same?
2. What can workers centers do better than unions themselves?
What do you think?
1. Should these non-union efforts by and for workers be considered part of the "labor
movement" or just nice allies sometimes? Why?
2. Compose a couple of questions for José Oliva for when he visits class, based upon
what you have read here.
3. Are workers centers a part of the labor movement, even if not sponsored by unions?
What should be the relationship?
4. What other sorts of workers' or working class organizations exist? Should they be
considered part of the labor movement? What might that mean in practice?

Union Democracy: Essential or Luxury?
Chapter 18
1. According to Troublemaker, what are the two key lessons of this chapter?
2. What are the step-by-steps described to gain democracy when the goal has to be new leadership?
3. What were the most important elements of the TWU Local 100 caucus efforts?
4. How were the New England Carpenters' efforts different? How were they the same?
5. What are the key considerations in running for union office as a reformer interested in democracy?
6. What do the two SEIU examples, Philadelphia and CSEA in California, primarily illustrate?
What do you think?
1. Based upon your own experiences, would you agree that democracy is power? Explain.
2. Give an example where the lack of democracy got in the way of the members getting what they needed. 3. How was this dealt with?
4. What is the best single argument to be made in your own union for democracy? Against it?

International Worker Solidarity: A Mirage or a Necessity?
Chapter 23
1. How might one begin to build relevant international solidarity? What is there to look out for?
2. Based upon the Bayer example, what are the key elements in a successful international corporate campaign?
3. How are these campaigns different if their goal is to support a Mexican workers' struggle?
4. What are the values and difficulties of taking workers across borders for visits and tours?
5. What are the special considerations needed to build unity with the international global justice movement, much of which is non-union?
What do you think?
1. How has your industry, job, and/or union been impacted by the globalizing drive toward free movement of capital across borders?
2. In this period of multiple attacks on U.S. workers and their unions, what points would you make in an argument on why, or why not, priority should be given to the struggle to build international solidarity among workers and union?
3. What demands could we raise, in bargaining and in politics, that might help counter the strength of international capital and might make workers, internationally, stronger?