Union Women Union Power: From the Shop Floor to the Streets

The film was produced by the Coalition of Labor Union Women in Philadelphia and highlights 5 rank and file union women from different sectors across Philadelphia introducing us to their lives and their recent fights for democracy in the workplace. 

Members of the Young Women's Committee conducted the interviews and aimed to use the final product as a tool to introduce particularly younger women to the labor movement with women as role models.


Throughout history, story has been used to teach, to entertain, to express, to advocate. and to organize. It is through the sharing of stories that communities build their identities, pass on traditions, and construct meaning.

Story-telling is one of our most powerful tools as organizers and movement builders.

Storytelling is a practice of leadership
Your story is the "why" of organizing—the art of translating values into action through stories.

Each of us has a compelling story to tell
Each of us has a story that can move others. As you learn this skill of story-telling, you will be able to tell a compelling story that includes elements that identify yourself, your audience and your strategy to others.



The key to this story-telling is understanding that values inspire action through emotion.

  Emotions inform us of what we value in ourselves, in others, and in the world, and enable us to express the motivational content of our values to others. In other words, because we experience values emotionally, they are what actually move us to act; it is not just the idea that we ought to act. Because stories allow us to express our values not as abstract principles, but as lived experience, they have the power to move others too.


Some emotions inhibit action, but other emotions facilitate action.


Action is inhibited by inertia, fear, self-doubt, isolation, and apathy. Action is facilitated by urgency, hope, YCMAD (you can make a difference), solidarity, and anger. Stories mobilize emotions that urge us to take action and help us overcome emotions that inhibit us from action.


"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories." - Ursula K. LeGuin

Learn more about storytelling as an organizing tool at

WE WERE NOT BORN TO FOLLOW