by Daniel Gross
Haymarket Books
4/28/2026, paperback
SKU: 9798888905937
An actionable, inviting, and confidence-boosting philosophy on how to tackle problems in your workplace and win.
Our workplaces urgently need to get better, but change can feel murky, daunting, or even impossible. We imagine a different world, too, but billionaires are doing their best to make things worse.
In Unions of Our Own, veteran labor organizer and cofounder of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union Daniel Gross provides a radically new, step-by-step framework for workers who want to dramatically improve their jobs--and dream of bigger changes too. It reveals and puts into your hands the eight fundamental building blocks of a union that meets your needs and values.
Through proven tools, Gross's personal stories from campaigns, vivid history, and real-world examples, Unions of Our Own offers a practical, accessible, and empowering philosophy on how to design your own union and win.
Reviews:
"I have known Daniel Gross for over twenty years, and I have never met a more indefatigable and stubbornly optimistic organizer. Finally, Daniel has brought us Unions of Our Own, an immensely practical and accessible guide for building workers' power. Daniel's vast experience organizing with workers comes through in every page of a book that is sure to become an instant classic in an era of increasingly chaotic politics and economics. If your workplace lacks a union, this is the book to read with your fellow workers. If you are already a union member: read this book to expand your ranks and build more power from the bottom up." -- Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
"Daniel Gross shares with us what he has learned through decades of experience as a worker and labor organizer. Thought provoking, in-depth, based on values." -- Alice Lynd, coauthor of Moral Injury and Nonviolent Resistance: Breaking the Cycle of Violence in the Military and Behind Bars
"Unions of Our Own is the book I wish we had when we were starting our union campaign. It'll be right there with us as we train new organizers and beat back our Nestlé-owned employer. Internationalist, committed to workplace democracy, and unlike anything available to workers today, this book wrests back the full scope of unionism where it belongs: to those of us on the shop floor. Daniel Gross has written a practical guide for union organizing which is committed to a radical vision of how unions can transform society. Essential reading for anyone fed up with work and considering a member-controlled union to do something about it." -- Alex "Gonzo" Pyne, barista and president of Blue Bottle Independent Union
About the Author:
Daniel Gross has been doing worker-led organizing and union-building for more than two decades, accompanying thousands of workers creating unions in their workplaces. Together with his co-workers, Gross helped found the groundbreaking IWW Starbucks Workers Union, which held power for over a decade at the coffee giant and helped revitalize a more inclusive labor movement. Gross has practiced labor law from a rank & file perspective and served on the board of the National Lawyers Guild and the Food Chain Workers Alliance. He is also the founding director of Brandworkers, the first worker center of immigrant workers in the metro New York local food manufacturing industry.
With Staughton Lynd, he is the co-author of the classic Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law as well as the graphic pamphlet, Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks, with illustrator Tom Keough. He is based in New York City.