ESSN’s 2026 New Years Resolution

IN 2026, ESSN JOBS WITH JUSTICE RESOLVES TO

Continue the work of rebuilding the collective power of the working class by strengthening the infrastructure that makes solidarity real.

We will build a stronger labor movement that is intersectional and moves beyond reactive, crisis-driven organizing by investing in long-term relationships between unions, non-union workers, and community organizations.

We will prepare communities to stand with workers before conflicts erupt through Strike Ready organizing, reclaim labor’s public voice, and expand education and leadership development rooted in lived experience and accessible to all workers.

We will challenge divisions that weaken movements, center the working-class perspective as the common thread across all struggles, and push labor institutions to materially invest, through resources, participation, and sustained commitment, in rebuilding a labor movement that is visible, unified, and capable of sustaining intersectional solidarity that builds collective power and wins.

In 2025

ESSN leaned fully into its core mission: bringing together unions, community organizations, student groups, faith communities, non-union workers, and grassroots organizers to fight for the rights and dignity of all workers.

We have expanded on the network model ESSN was founded on more than 35 years ago, a model designed to bring organized labor and the community together. We focused on;

rebuilding trust between labor and community organizations
normalizing solidarity actions beyond election cycles
supporting workers in active struggles, strikes, and boycotts
creating shared space for organizations that don’t always work together, but must

As a result, labor and community organizations in Lane County are closer today than they have been in years.

This work was part of a deliberate strategy to rebuild the infrastructure of a broad, intersectional labor movement, one that recognizes unions as essential anchors of power, while also understanding a simple truth: the labor movement must include the entire working class, not just those currently protected by a contract.

History shows that movements succeed when they have labor’s backing. It also shows that nearly every major issue facing our communities is, at its core, a working-class issue. Whether the struggle is:

Racial justice
Immigration and immigrant defense
Government overreach and surveillance
The erosion of constitutional rights
Environmental justice
LGBTQ+ rights
Women’s rights
Housing and healthcare
Opposition to war, fascism, or authoritarianism

These struggles all intersect with labor. It doesn’t matter whether your worldview is socialist, capitalist, anarchist, libertarian, conservative, liberal, or whether you don’t care about political labels at all and simply want a roof over your family’s head and food on the table. If you sell your labor to survive, these struggles are yours.

This work laid the groundwork for something bigger.

In 2026

ESSN will move from rebuilding relationships to scaling power. Our focus is long-term organizing infrastructure, not one-off campaigns, symbolic actions, or crisis-only responses. This includes:

expanding our network model so more unions, community groups, and worker-led organizations are actively connected and able to mobilize together
being truly Strike Ready by builds community support before strikes and labor disputes erupt, and to translate that readiness into shared power across interconnected movements
Promoting worker education and leadership development within our movement that is rooted in lived experience and accessible to all workers
Strengthening public narratives that frame labor as the backbone of every major social struggle

This strategy is grounded in three simple truths:

Workers are strongest when they are not isolated.
Unions are strongest when they are embedded in their communities.
Movements are strongest when labor is at their center.

ESSN’s is the bridge between unions and the community. Our role is to connect them and help build the shared power necessary to win real, material gains for all working people.

A Necessary Conversation with Labor

Unions and communities are under unprecedented attack and although unions are more needed than ever and workers are more desperate than ever for a strong and organized labor movement, we need to be honest with ourselves: labor is not invested at the level required to build the infrastructure this moment demands.

For decades, unions have faced sustained legal and political attacks that limited their ability to organize broadly in the community. These constraints encouraged a focus on internal organizing, bargaining, and elections. As unions’ public presence shrank, the broader labor movement weakened. Ties to the community frayed, and public support declined, not from indifference, but from the absence of visible, sustained labor engagement.

This was intentional, a strategy designed to weaken the power of unions and workers. As a result, when unions go on strike today, they often do so in isolation, without the broad public support that should surround them.

Meanwhile, non-union workers and communities have been conditioned to focus on performative actions such as rallies and marches, or on political or ideological organizing that often divides movements into silos and fails to build true collective power across the broader working class.

We have forgotten that true collective power comes when workers put aside political and ideological tribalism and focus on attacking the economic systems that are used to control and oppress all workers. Boycotts and strikes are not tools exclusively for unions; they are tools that all workers can use to build power and win.

It is time we recognize the strategic failure within our broader labor movement.

Winning a strike is harder if the public is unprepared or unwilling to support it.
It is harder to defend workers if the community has not been organized in advance.
You cannot rebuild working-class power without sustained investment in shared infrastructure.

ESSN exists to help solve these problems, but we cannot do it without labor’s material support.

In 2026, ESSN will spend a significant portion of our time working with unions to materially invest in rebuilding the labor movement in Lane County. We will push them to look beyond contracts, elections, and short-term fights, and help us to rebuild the infrastructure that makes long-term wins possible.

That means:

money to fund organizing capacity, communications, and coordination
bodies, rank-and-file members actively participating in shared work
commitment beyond crisis moments

This is not charity. It is not symbolic solidarity. It is movement maintenance, and it is long overdue.

The Two Pillars of our 2026 organizing plan.

The Solidarity Communications Committee (SCC) – Building Labor’s Voice – because narrative power is not optional; it is a prerequisite for winning.
The Strike Ready Committee (SRC) – The most powerful tool the working class has is simple and irreplaceable: the ability to withhold labor and to withhold money

Building Labors Voice

One of the most dangerous gaps in labor’s power today is narrative control. Corporate media is owned by the billionaires, and corporations and the boss seem to always control that narrative while labor is left reacting instead of shaping the story.

The Solidarity Communications Committee (SCC) will start off 2026 by launching a Labor–Media Collaboration project which will work to;

center union and worker voices,
provide consistent, public-facing labor coverage in local media
normalize organizing of strikes, boycotts, and collective action
connect individual workplace struggles to broader working-class issues
provide non-union workers with resources about their rights and contacts and support to organize their workplace.

This is a board-level committee and participation require vetting and approval. By building a shared media presence, labor does more than tell its story, it builds legitimacy, influence, and public readiness. When workers take action, the community will already understand why.

Preparing to Win Before the Fight Begins

Over time, the law has constrained how unions can deploy this power, limiting tools such as secondary boycotts and general strikes. But worker-led and community organizations like ESSN are not bound by the same constraints as unions. We can help organize collective action not just in support of a union but around broader working-class issues. But that power only works when it is supported.

The Strike Ready Committee exists to ensure that when workers take the hardest step, (walking out) they are not standing alone. Strike Ready is about:

building public understanding before strikes happen
organizing consumer solidarity and boycott capacity
training community members to show up in disciplined, effective ways
creating rapid-response systems that protect workers from isolation and retaliation
and creating mutual aid and community defense resources that are ready when workers decide it is time to take action

Strikes fail when workers are cut off from their communities. Strikes win when the cost of retaliation becomes higher than the cost of settling. Strike Ready is how we tip that balance.

2026: A Year of Investment, Accountability, and Growth

ESSN is not asking labor to do something new. We are asking labor to return to something it once understood deeply: that the labor movement is bigger than any one union, contract, or election cycle. In 2026, ESSN will push labor to invest, not rhetorically, but materially in Lane County. This will help us to;

build shared infrastructure that outlasts individual campaigns
strengthen labor’s public voice and strike capacity
reconnect unions with the full breadth of the working class

This moment will not wait. The attacks are already here. The question is whether labor will help build the infrastructure needed to meet them or continue fighting uphill, one isolated battle at a time. ESSN intends to build. We are confident that labor will choose to step up and build with us.

How to Stay Engaged

The best way to stay informed and engaged is to keep an eye out for our email alerts. ESSN limits our Alerts to things that are relevant to our community and does not use our email list as a fundraising tool. So, if you get an email, it will be worth reading. Also keep an eye on and use our calendar. It is free for the community to use and doesn’t require an account.

Solidarity Coffee is an opportunity to meet and socialize, learn about what ESSN is working on, and explore ways to participate. Held every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave., Eugene. Most gatherings are small and informal, but certain Saturdays will be set aside for specific committee meetings, for example, the second Saturday of each month, when the Strike Ready Committee will meet.

Our Solidarity Communications Committee will focus on the Labor–Media Collaboration in 2026. This is a board-level committee that will meet weekly. Participation requires vetting and approval.

The ESSN Jobs with Justice Steering Committee which is made up of representatives of network member organizations will continue to meet via zoom every month to provide updates on campaigns, actions, and events. This Network Call/Zoom will generally happen the at 4:30pm the first Thursday of every month but has been pushed back to Thursday the 8th for January. If you represent an organization that would like to participate in our steering committee, you can email essn@solidaritynetwork.org.

SolidarityNetwork.org