There is plenty of enthusiasm for labor unions in this country—the only problem is that only one in six organizing campaigns results in a contract and many cost the organizers their jobs. How are labor activists to negotiate organization when there are so many practical risks, and often so few tangible rewards associated with the process?

In this conversation with Kevin Gosztola at this year’s Socialism Conference in Chicago, labor activist and In These Times contributing editor Mike Elk comments on the need to invest confidence in the labor organizing movement. According to Elk, organizers need to acknowledge that there are many working solutions rather than one ultimate solution to strengthening the union movement. 

—Anna Lekas Miller