Building Power - by Lowell Peterson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Building Power, Lowell Peterson draws on thirty-five years as a union leader and lawyer to argue that collective action is the antidote to a fractious age.
As Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America East, Peterson doubled the union's membership and organized workers in digital media, nonfiction television, and podcasts. Union density sits near a historic low nationally even as public support for organized labor surges. Peterson argues that unions bring people together to build durable power and democracy, countering the inequality and division that define our era.

Moving fluidly between theory and practice, Peterson examines the fundamentals of organizing and negotiating as well as the forms of leverage--bottom-up, top-down, and side-to-side--that make them work. He anchors these lessons in his experiences, including a firsthand account of the 2023 Writers Guild strike, a transformative victory built on transparency, member engagement, and disciplined escalation. Clear-eyed yet inspiring, Building Power offers an insider's guide to the work of building a movement equal to the challenges of our time.

About the Author

Lowell Peterson was the Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America East from 2008 to 2023. For two decades before that he was an attorney representing unions in manufacturing, construction, media, academia, and health care.