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Networked Movements and Bureaucratic Unions: The Structure of the 2018 #RedForEd Teachers’ Strikes

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  • Rebecca Tarlau

Abstract

How do digitally enabled movements of workers reshape, replace, or reinforce the role of unions? Based on a comparative case study of the 2018 #RedForEd teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona, this article argues that despite the hierarchical and bureaucratic character of statewide teachers’ unions, the infrastructure they provided to organize, connect, and legitimize teachers’ actions was critical for statewide strikes. Facebook provided a forum for teachers to express frustrations, scale participation, and in some cases, organize actions. However, the unions’ coordinating capacities were also central. These findings show how combining the mobilizing capacities of social media with existing movement infrastructure can facilitate collective action. In contrast to predictions of digitally enabled activism ushering in an era of “organizing without organizations,†these findings suggest that 21st-century labor movements must meld old and new organizational forms, and not discard the century-and-a-half accumulation of labor infrastructure won by previous generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebecca Tarlau, 2023. "Networked Movements and Bureaucratic Unions: The Structure of the 2018 #RedForEd Teachers’ Strikes," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(5), pages 833-863, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:76:y:2023:i:5:p:833-863
    DOI: 10.1177/00197939231189200
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chunyun Li, 2021. "From Insurgency to Movement: An Embryonic Labor Movement Undermining Hegemony in South China," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(4), pages 843-874, August.
    2. Robert J. Thornton, 1982. "Teacher Unionism and Collective Bargaining in England and Wales," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 35(3), pages 377-391, April.
    3. Michels, Robert, 1915. "Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number michels1915.
    4. Li, Chunyun, 2021. "From insurgency to movement: an embryonic labor movement undermining hegemony in South China," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101456, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Jack Fiorito & Irene Padavic, 2022. "What Do Workers and the Public Want? Unions’ Social Value," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(2), pages 295-320, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Duanyi Yang & Tingting Zhang, 2025. "Voice without Representation: Worker Voice in China’s Networked Public Sphere," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 78(5), pages 754-779, October.

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