Workers Assembly of Rochester
Rochester workers, union members and activists fighting to revitalize the Labor Movement by bringing back a militant and class conscious approach.
Our Statement of Purpose
We are a Rochester,NY-based group of labor leaders, members and activists who have dedicated ourselves to building a fighting and class-conscious Labor Movement. We find ourselves in a challenging and important moment that requires us to reconnect to the historic traditions within our movement that have fought for both economic and social justice for the entire working class.In that tradition, the role of labor unions is not simply to provide a service of defense and negotiation to existing union members. In addition to that incredibly important work, the role of our unions is to be wielded as a powerful tool of struggle to transform our economy and society to become one that provides true fulfillment and prosperity for the entire working class.We find ourselves in a critical moment politically. Billionaires and corporate leaders have brought about a massive wealth divide. To protect that divide, they have actively weakened and threatened the basic notion of democracy. We believe the only path to effectively fighting this tendency is through a massive and militant movement of working class people. This means challenging the transactional and service-oriented approaches that have led to the current state of Labor and inspiring our movement to take on new feats of mass organization, which are made possible through democratically led movements.From our position within the Labor Movement, we understand the value of collective organization. We understand the power that comes from an organized body of people asserting positions together. For this reason, we intend to engage collectively to argue for and organize towards a program within Labor that we believe to be essential at this moment.While we want to avoid creating unnecessary divisions within Labor, we also know that true leadership avoids the easy unity of inaction. Practical debate within the house of Labor can co-exist alongside solidarity on the picket line. Disagreements don’t have to be sectarian, but we can’t pretend they don’t exist. We will advance a vision for Labor. We will put forward a program to re-energize and revitalize our movement locally. We are not afraid to lead.Approved at Summer Conference May 18, 2025
Upcoming Events
We organize events and support worthwhile events of others as often as possible. Here are some events that we're actively supporting or organizing right now!
American Fascism and Its Opposition with Bill Fletcher Jr.
WHERE: NYSUT Hall, 30 North Union Street. Rochester, NY
WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 23rd, 5:30pmBill Fletcher Jr. is a labor activist and scholar. A welder by training, he has worked for several labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, where he was on the senior staff of the national office, and has served as president of TransAfrica Forum. He is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies and a member of the editorial board for BlackCommentator.com. He is a co-author of The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934–1941; a co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice; and author of “They’re Bankrupting Us”—And Twenty Other Myths about Unions. Fletcher writes a syndicated column and comments regularly on TV, radio, and the Internet.Please RSVP for the talk here and use the flyer below to help spread the word!
Our Principles of Unity
These are the positions that guide our work and that we strive to see more fully adopted by the US Labor Movement.
Get Involved
If you've read our statement of purpose and principles of unity and are interested in working with us, let us know by filling out the form below. We have a membership committee that will reach out to you as soon as possible to discuss how this process will go!Please include in your message a phone number and how you're involved in the labor movement.
Donate and Pay Your Dues
We wish that this work could be done entirely without money, but that just isn't the world we live in. Yet. For now, we fund ourselves through membership dues and through the generous donations of non-members that support our work. We use a service called GiveButter to accept both dues and donations. Please give below!
For members paying their dues, use this form!
Solidarity
Every worker’s struggle for a better life is linked to another worker’s struggle for the same. Over the past 50 years, the labor movement has seen a dramatic decline in power due to corporate attacks, anti-union legislation, and a shift toward passive cooperation rather than true solidarity. Employers and politicians have exploited divisions between unions, and labor has favored compromise over confrontation, which has led to weakened bargaining power and declining membership. To reverse this trend, unions must embrace bold, aggressive action centered on organizing—building worker power across industries rather than settling for short-term gains–and unions must stand in solidarity to bolster one another as we take bold, militant action. Only through unwavering solidarity, mass organizing efforts, and militant action can the labor movement reclaim its strength and force systemic change.
Class Struggle Orientation
The central goal of the Labor Movement should be to build the organized power of the diverse working class. Because our aim is to massively redistribute both wealth and power, we will inherently be at odds with the interests of billionaires, their corporations and politicians. To have any hope of building real power for the entire working class, we will need to strengthen our capacity for action all the way from the workplace to the level of coordinated international activity. We encourage militancy and industry-level analysis in rank-and-file leaders not simply to win wage and benefit victories, but to fundamentally alter the power structures of the workplace, economy and society.
Internationalism
We stand in solidarity with the working class in all lands and workers migrating between lands. The struggle to improve working conditions and wages must not be confined within national borders. When this occurs, the rich increase their power and wealth by dividing us and war enriches the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Competition between workers, whether as individuals or as nationalities, degrades wages and working conditions for all. To counter these divisive effects, we need a strong labor movement that protects immigrants, obstructs war efforts, and resists state violence that maintains upward wealth distribution of the value generated by workers.
Community Alliances
We erode the improvements that we fight for in our workplaces if we neglect organized social and economic justice efforts in our communities. We don't fight for increased wages just to see our paychecks redistributed upwards via hikes in energy rates, rent, healthcare costs, and other burdens on cost of living initiated by the rich. Workers' orientation to the institutions that sell us our critical needs is historically one of exploitation. But in organizing and bargaining for the common good, we can reorient these relationships to be ones of leverage and community transformation. Our CBAs help us ensure fair treatment in the workshop regardless of identities such as gender, sexuality, race, or religion. Efforts that reduce harm, fight white supremacy, liberate marginalized people, and embrace diversity in our communities are as integral to the labor movement as job actions and strikes.
New Organizing
The union movement in the United States has been under assault economically, bureaucratically and legally since its inception. In recent years, that battle has resulted in only a fraction of workers being organized into unions of any type. We refuse to sit by and watch the power of organized labor slowly wither away. Without a commitment to massive, and inherently risky, new organizing drives the Labor Movement has little hope of winning any meaningful gains for the working class. The notion of fortress unionism, meant to defend an ever-smaller group of organized members, is futile. Without bolstering the power of all workers through serious, large-scale new organizing efforts, we will see declining standards for all workers, including our members. We will push our unions to dedicate significant resources to the project of perpetual new organizing.
Internal Union Dynamics
Union power does not derive from a top-down system in which a small group of people cut a deal with management. Direct democracy is an ongoing, daily practice and involves much more than electing executive leadership every few years. Without transparent internal decision making processes, ongoing leadership development, and member education, unions risk calcification and a retrenchment of the very power structures we seek to challenge and change.
The Whole Working Class
The labor movement needs to fight for all workers, and must not tolerate discrimination and division based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or other differences. Bigotry and prejudice have only ever weakened our struggle throughout the history of the labor movement. We must recognize that exploiting our differences is a strategy of the bosses to keep the working class divided rather than united against them. We have far more in common with each other than with billionaires. It is only through the unity of the whole working class that we can build a labor movement strong enough to face the challenges of our time.
Internal Education and Class Consciousness
We are for a worker-centered, worker-led process of education through action. We seek to foster labor education that counters the passive, uninformed and falsely-informed consciousness promoted by the ruling capitalist elites and instead builds an alternative set of values, ideas, and common sense that challenges the predominant worldview. This educational model goes beyond giving workers technical skills or political exercises but helps to reorient shift our sense of reality - to develop "critical consciousness" about the world we live in. We believe in transformative labor education that prepares workers to participate in and lead their organizations in long-term struggle.
Electoralism
Electoral politics is currently crucial for the labor movement, but unions cannot afford to function as mere extensions of the Democratic Party. We weaken our power and sell union members short when we blindly support any candidate with a “D” next to their name without demanding real pro-labor commitments. Instead, labor must adopt a strategic, independent approach that focuses resources on electing true pro-labor champions and holding them accountable once in office. The Labor Movement should be the principled voice of the working class in politics. We cannot be afraid to make bold demands for fear of political backlash; politicians should fear betraying us and our members, not the other way around. We also understand the electoral and legislative arena is one where the billionaire class has all the advantages and if we don’t engage where we have the power – in the community, workplace and streets – we will not win substantial victories for the working class.